L-1A Case Study: Director of Operations Approved After a Tax Form Checkbox Triggered an RFE

Fast facts

• Matter Type: L-1A intracompany transferee, executive or manager
• Client profile: Director of operations at a U.S. government contracting firm, transferring from the company's Colombian branch to its Houston office
• Industry: U.S. federal government contracting, with work concentrated in the defense and security sectors
• Country of birth: Colombia
• Location: Consular processing from Colombia
• Core obstacle: A checkbox on the company's 2024 U.S. tax return appeared to say the business did not own 20% or more of a foreign entity, which called the qualifying corporate relationship into question.
• Strategy focus: Documented the managerial role with a duty table broken out by percentage of time, then answered the RFE by proving the Colombian operation is a registered branch of the U.S. company rather than a separate corporation.
• L-1A requirements satisfied:
  • Qualifying relationship between the U.S. and foreign entities
  • One continuous year of employment abroad within the preceding three years
  • Managerial or executive capacity abroad and in the United States
  • Ability of the U.S. employer to pay the beneficiary
• Premium processing: Yes
• RFE: Issued February 12, 2026. Response filed March 2, 2026.
• Filed date: January 2026
• Approved date: March 19, 2026

Who was the client?

The client, a Colombian national, works as a director of operations for a government contracting company based in the U.S. Their employer provides advanced operational services, strategic consulting, and technical solutions to federal agencies and private-sector clients—primarily in the defense and security space.

Before seeking legal services, the client had already navigated the immigration system outside the U.S. and had lived outside their home country as a diplomat in Europe.

They came to Carmiann Cespedes, an immigration attorney with over 11 years of experience and more than 5,000 cases filed, at the request of their employer, a Texas-based company that wanted its director of operations physically in the country. The reason was that it was harder to build trust with an agency when key team members lived abroad. Without the client’s in-person presence, the company had a harder time creating rapport with key stakeholders.

What challenges did this L-1A case have?

• A checkbox on the corporate tax return contradicted the petition. The company’s 2024 U.S. tax return, indicated that the company did not hold 20% or more ownership of a foreign entity. On its face, that undercut the single most important L-1 requirement: A qualifying relationship between the U.S. and foreign operations.
• Speed was not the goal. Because the client’s spouse was pregnant, they were not interested in traveling to the U.S. as soon as possible. Instead, they needed the application process to take a few months, so that their family could complete consular interviews and travel together after the birth.

Inside Carmiann Cespedes's L-1A strategy

Unlike O-1, EB-1A, or EB-2 NIW cases, Carmiann says L-1A petitions are adjudicated on objective facts, rather than an officer’s judgment about how accomplished someone is. “If we have everything that the law requires, [an L-1A application] is quite easy to get approved,” she says. “I would rarely see pushback from USCIS if we have all the evidence.”

For this client, that meant Carmiann had to build a petition that made it clear the client was a manager and that the company needed him in the U.S. Below is a breakdown of her case strategy.

Broke the managerial role into a duty table

The employer support letter included a table comparing what the client did in Colombia against what he would do in Houston, with each task assigned a percentage of his time. Because the L-1A requires applicants to prove managerial duties, the percentage breakdown helped describe the full scope of the client's job in seconds, instead of forcing an immigration officer to read a job description.

Filed everything the client provided

An extraordinary ability petition is an argument, assembled from the evidence that makes the strongest case. An L-1A is closer to a checklist, so Carmiann had less reason to narrow what went in front of the officer. “I'd rather the officer have absolutely everything, as opposed to them giving me something that I just left out, and then we receive a request for evidence for it,” she explains.

Worked the filing timeline backward from the birth

Premium processing puts USCIS on a 15-business-day clock, and consular interviews after approval typically take about a month to complete. Once a visa is issued, the client generally has up to six months to enter.

For this case, Carmiann used that window deliberately: file early enough to avoid a problem with the client’s work start date, then schedule the consular interview after the baby arrived. This way, both the client and their family could travel to the U.S. together.

Why did this case receive an RFE?

USCIS questioned whether the U.S. company and the Colombian operation had the qualifying relationship an L-1A requires. Under federal law, a sponsoring employer must prove that the U.S. business and the foreign business are either the same organization or that one is a parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate of the other. The immigration officer reviewing the client's petition believed a single checkbox in the company's 2024 tax return contradicted that, as it indicated that the business did not hold 20% or more ownership of a foreign entity.

Instead of disputing the tax return, which could draw more scrutiny to the client's application, Carmiann showed the officer why the checkbox and the ownership claim were both correct. Here's how she did it:

Clarified the business structure to prove eligibility

At the time of filing, the U.S. company's Colombian operation was registered as a sucursal de sociedad extranjera, or branch of a foreign company. Under Colombian commercial law, a branch is not its own company. It has no separate equity, no shareholders, and no ownership interests apart from its parent, and it operates under the parent's legal identity.

That is what made the tax filing's checkbox accurate. A branch would have to be a separate entity to issue stock, and this one was not, which left no separate foreign company for anyone to own 20% of.

This also made the employer-employee relationship qualify for the L-1A. One person owns 100% of the U.S. company, and the U.S. company wholly owns and controls the Colombian branch. That unbroken chain of ownership and control is what USCIS asks a petitioner to prove in order to sponsor an L-1A worker.

Carmiann supported that with the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce certificate identifying the entity as a branch, the public deed recording the branch's creation, and a sworn affidavit from the owner confirming that the U.S. company established the branch, assigned its initial capital, and retains authority to appoint its legal representatives and direct its operations.

Documented the U.S. employer's control over both operations

The person who owns 100% of the U.S. company is the same person whose authority reaches the Colombian branch. To show that, the response included representative email correspondence of him directing operational matters, approving company decisions, supervising personnel, and allocating resources across both the U.S. company and the branch. Ownership on paper is one thing. An officer looking for a qualifying relationship also wants to see control in practice.

Key evidence that supported this case

Outcome

The petition was filed in January 2026 with premium processing. USCIS issued the RFE on February 12, and Carmiann filed the response on March 2. USCIS approved the case on March 19.

Once the client received their L-1A approval, their spouse and children could apply for L-2 visas as dependents. Carmiann gave the entire family instructions for requesting their consular appointments. The family interviewed at their respective U.S. embassy a month after approval, then entered the U.S. in the summer of 2026.

Why did this case approval matter for the client and their company?

By obtaining an L-1A approval, the client could begin working in the U.S. for their company. In addition, this outcome allowed them to bring their spouse and children as dependents, keeping the entire family together in the process.

The approval also unlocked something important for the employer: the ability to finally have a senior operator on the ground in Houston, who could sit across the table from federal agencies instead of appearing on a video call from another hemisphere.

In Carmiann's experience, many companies with ties in Latin America underutilize the L-1A, primarily because they are not aware of this immigration pathway. Employers assume only conglomerates like Amazon or Meta can sponsor workers through the L-1, but federal law doesn’t require that.

The L-1A category also opens a door many applicants aren't aware of. Further down the line, a manager who spends a year working in the U.S. on an L-1A can apply for the EB-1C Green Card, which the employer files and sponsors. The EB-1C requires similar evidence to the L-1A and offers one of the fastest pathways to permanent residence.

Related FAQs

Does a company need to be large to sponsor an L-1?

No. The most common misconception Carmiann encounters is that only a Walmart or an Amazon can transfer an employee to the United States. A small business abroad can send an owner or a manager to open its first U.S. office. What matters is the corporate relationship, the employee's qualifying year abroad, the nature of the role, and the company's ability to pay.

What is the difference between an L-1A and an L-1B?

The L-1A is for managers and executives, while the L-1B is for employees with specialized knowledge who may be individual contributors rather than managers.

Can a tax document derail an otherwise clean L-1 petition?

A tax document can trigger an RFE if it’s not internally consistent with the L-1 petition. This can happen for a variety of reasons, and does not necessarily mean either the company or the petitioner made a mistake in their application.

How long does an L-1A take?

With premium processing, USCIS adjudicates within 15 business days. Consular processing after approval depends on the post, but roughly a month is typical. This case ran longer than that baseline only because of the RFE.

How does an L-1A lead to a Green Card?

Many L-1A holders eventually apply for the EB-1C, an employment-based Green Card for multinational managers and executives. Carmiann generally advises clients to spend a year working in a managerial role in the United States first, and to gather evidence of eligibility while they do it.

About immigration attorney Carmiann Cespedes

Carmiann Cespedes is an immigration attorney handling both employment-based and family-based matters. She is fluent in English and Spanish, and her practice is shaped by her own understanding of the immigrant journey. Her approach to a petition is to remove the officer's work: state the requirement, then hand over the document that satisfies it.