Nonimmigrant VISA Processing

The following information is intended to help individuals understand the visa petition process for some of the most common nonimmigrant visa categories used by employers in the United States to hire foreign-national employees:

H-1Bs: Generally, there are several major steps in processing H-1B cases.

• Getting a labor condition application ("LCA") approved by the Department of Labor ("DOL") (takes anywhere from two days to six weeks)
• Filing at the INS the H-1B petition with the LCA and supporting documentation (preparation of the forms takes three to five days and will take place while waiting for LCA to be approved)
• If the person is in the US and changes or extends status, he/she can start work as soon as the petition is approved
• The procedures and the timelines for these cases vary depending upon a number of factors including whether the person is a new hire, whether he/she is already in the US in H-1B status, whether the person is currently working in the US for another employer in a different status, whether the person has a US or foreign university degree or the equivalent, and whether the DOL's labor condition application fax back system is working, etc.
• Once the H-1B petition is filed, it generally will take 8 to 10 weeks to be approved
• As a result of recent legislation, if the person is currently working for another employer in the US in H-1B status, the person can start working for a new company as soon as the new company’s H-1B petition is received by the INS. This could be a matter of days.

L-1 Cases

• It takes several days to draft the documentation for the L-1 transfer process once we have the file and all the information from the individual and the company.
• For L visas, it is critical that the petitioning company provide us with clear documentation of its relationship with the employee’s related foreign-entity employer.
• It takes about 3 to 6 weeks to process individual L-1 petitions. One of the advantages of the L visa category is that there is no need to obtain a certified LCA from the DOL prior to filing the L petition at the INS.

Trade NAFTA (TN)

• TNs who are citizens of Mexico have to go through the same process for H-Bs described above, including the labor condition application and petition filed with the INS Nebraska Service Center. Their cases take several days for us to process at each stage.
• For Canadian citizens, TN petitions can be filed at the Nebraska Service Center. The documentation takes about 2 to 3 days to pull together. If an applicant needs to travel outside the US, he/she can process his/her new TN when he/she enters the US; Canadians have the privilege of processing at the border.