we are currently incorporated in the state of Nevada and are looking----------------------
at moving 10 of our Canadian employees and their spouses to our US division.
Could you tell me what type of Visa we should apply for that will allow
their spouse to work and for them to eventually become a permanent US Resident?
david ingram replies:
The only visa that would allow the spouses to work is an L1 Via.
It is unlikely that you can transfer 10 employees at a time under an L1 because the transferee must be a supervisor, manager, or a person of very specialized knowledge.
Computer programmers can NOT move to the US on a TN visa.
They 'can' go to the USA with an H1 visa but the quota fills quickly which is the reason for MICROSOFT opening in Vancouver. AND, spouses can not work with an H1 or TN visa unless they qualify for their own visas.
However, an L1 would serve your purposes 'IF' your employees truly have unique or very very rare specialized knowledge or are management or senior supervisors. If in a supervisory role, a rough rule of thumb would be eight to ten others working under their supervision.
Remember that even Microsoft has given up on getting programmers into the US and is opening up in Greater Vancouver as shown in the following which was taken from http://chinesecanadians.blogspot.com/2007/07/microsoft-to-open-development-center-in.html
