Skip to content
DUNNOTTAR · L-1A FIELD GUIDE

Does a first-year staffing budget prove L-1A eligibility?

Sources checked:

THE DIRECT ANSWER

No. Spending plans need to connect to actual role and organizational evidence under the applicable framework.

Separate budget from capacity

Clarify professional review, evidence work and official charges. A projected payroll does not establish that the necessary support or authority already exists.

Separate government filing fees from company document preparation, legal services, and any family-related applications, and treat a new-office business budget as its own category rather than folding it into immigration costs. The Form I-129 filing fee, the fraud-prevention fee, any asylum program fee applicable to the employer’s size, and optional premium processing, all at the amounts on the USCIS fee schedule, plus the cost of preparing the corporate and employment evidence. Ask whether a quote covers the initial eligibility assessment, petition preparation, any expedited-processing request, and responses to later government requests for evidence, or only part of that work. Use a cost sheet that separates filing charges, premium options if available, legal scope, translations, evidence collection and the business expense of operating the proposed role. Separate from those, the business must fund a salary appropriate to an executive, which affects the subsidiary’s cash-flow evidence, and may incur legal fees, translation costs and relocation expenses.