Visa Compliant Leases
Business owners with no experience applying for L visas don’t understand why we are so picky when we review the lease agreements for their L business plans. After 12+ years of experience, one thing we have learned is: what may be highly irrelevant for a business owner is actually extremely relevant for the U.S. government when reviewing an L-1A visa petition.
While your attorney will likely review the content and structure of the lease as part of their service, you can save time by ensuring this document includes the following 3 key pieces of information:
- Square Footage
- 1-Year Duration
- Nature of Premises
Key information #1 - Square footage
Make sure the lease agreement for your L visa petition shows the square footage of the space to lease. As many agreements don’t show it, you will be saving time and headaches by asking your landlord to add this information.
Key information #2 - 1-year duration
For L visa petitions, the U.S. government wants to make sure that the U.S. company will have a commercial space to operate from. Make sure the duration of the lease agreement is clearly specified and avoid renting a space for less than 1 year (unless your legal counsel says otherwise).
Key information #3- Nature of premises
After having completed 6000+ visa business plans, we can assure you that the U.S. government is not keen on virtual spaces for L visa petitions. Therefore, avoid rushing to lease a virtual space thinking that by doing so you are fulfilling the lease agreement requirement for the L visa. While COVID19 may have changed the adjudicators’ views on this topic, we suggest you discuss what your legal counsel wants to see in a lease agreement before committing to any commercial space.
For guidance, contact Visa Business Plans online or call (888) 657-3515 to schedule a consultation.
More About Visa Business Plans
Visa Business Plans is led by Marco Scanu, a certified coach from the University of Miami with a globally-based practice coaching Fortune 1000 company executives, entrepreneurs, as well as professionals in 4 different continents. Mr. Scanu advises clients on turnaround strategies and crisis management.
Mr. Scanu received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (Cum Laude) from the University of Florida and an MBA in Management from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. Mr. Scanu was also a Visiting Scholar at Michigan State University under the prestigious H. Humphrey Fellowship (Fulbright program) with a focus on Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital and high-growth enterprises.
At present, Mr. Scanu is the managing partner and CEO at Visa Business Plans, a Miami-based boutique consulting firm providing attorneys and investors with business planning services in the areas of US and Canadian immigration and SBA loans.
