L-1 Visas: A Summer 2022 Update

Blanket Ls are slower than usual because of visa appointment backlogs; while the Biden Administration seems as obnoxious as ever on individual L-1 petitions filed at USCIS

Thoughts about L-1B petition filings --

-- L-1s are very popular right now. There is no annual limit (cap), like H-1Bs, and so international companies can try to meet US job openings by transferring people from outside the US.

-- Europeans in particular who couldn't do L-1s during COVID because of the nonsensical travel ban are now pursuing L-1s in high numbers.

-- The biggest way to mitigate problems on L-1 processing is to obtain a corporate blanket L petition. Any company with at least $25 million in US revenues as documented on the top line of a US income tax return should consider getting a corporate blanket L petition approval. The adjudication standards are night and day different between US consulates and USCIS (with perhaps the exception of India). If you work at a company that has $25 million in US sales and you don't have a blanket L, you should ask why.

-- But one thing to know is that nearly every individual, non-blanket L-1B petition filing made to USCIS gets a RFE (Request for Evidence). It is ridiculous and not necessarily a sign of poor efforts by your attorney. It is basically better to just assume a RFE is coming. Given this reality, there is an element of 'chess' involved - perhaps you and your employer's attorney need to think about information you plan to file initially and then other information you plan to submit in response to the inevitable RFE. This is better than giving them literally everything you can imagine and getting the RFE and tearing your hair-out; or drawing 25....

PS - And while it is not a strict element of L-1B, definitely think through the issue of WFH (work-from-home). If you are getting transferred to the US to simply work from your home in the US, it is reasonable for any government official to wonder why you can't do that in your home country.

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