Hey, this is my first post. I am currently based in the UK and am hoping to move to FL on the L1A visa. My understanding is that BOTH businesses have to exits in order to maintain my L1A.

Question.:Once having been appoved for the L1A, can I downsize the business, and if so, what is the exact criteria, i.e. in terms of how many employees and turnover should the business have. If the downsized business has only 1 employee (currently 5), whould that affect my application for the GC say in two years. Also say it was not making a profit, would that have any bearing on my application of the GC

Thanks

It sounds as though you will be opening a new office in the US as the basis for your L-1A visa. If that is the case, your initial visa will be valid for only one year, after which you will have to submit a an application to extend it (for another two years, for a maximum of 7 years).

There are no hard and fast rules about the extent of your business operations in the UK, but if it appears that the UK operations exists as a shell, the BCIS could deny an extension application at any stage.

One way to avoid this situation would be to consider an E visa, which generally requires an investment of $100,000.