American company buying our little uk company- visas?

[landwhale]

Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone knows what the process with visas is if an American company buys a British company with the intention of moving the staff over, as this is the situation I am in at the moment. We are a small (4) team with very specialised skills and knowledge (but not so specialised that they couldn't find them in usa- just maybe not a compact team like we are- normally an individual trade iyswim- if this makes a diff at all)

Their side are sorting the visas for us- I was just wondering if anyone knew which visa category we would fall in to as I would like a rough estimation of when this would all happen just for my own planning purposes. (Both my and usa offices are shut until next week so no one to ask until then).

Obviously you have to discuss with your company's immigration lawyer but it sounds like L. If not then H1B.

Thanks for response- I think it will be the o-1b..? Possibly?! This is all new to me! Looks like that one has a quick turn around time, though from reading on here- it's never simple!
Will be speaking with the lawyer in the week hopefully.

My guess is you'd get L1-As. If you will be going over with family, make sure they get L2-As not L2-Bs as with the L2-A they could get permission to work.

How exciting!

With the L visa, don't we need to have been working for the company for a year? We have been contracted by them for two years (as a company, not individually) but not worked for them as an employee. Or would it be my current company I need to work for for more than a year?

My boss fits the 'O' visa and we all for the supporting roles (ie, contributing to an extraordinary persons performance). They want him ASAP so will probably turn his around in fifteen days. They said they would like the rest of us by June ideally.

No not yet, my employer is there at the moment so he will hopefully speak to the lawyer this week on our behalf. If not I should be able to arrange a Skype next week. I will research further into visas so I know what they're talking about! The whole thing is so confusing! I could do with a 'quiz' as in 'which is the perfect visa for you?!' Ha