Clarification on Blanket L-1s Filed Before June 6, 2005
Posted Apr 21, 2006
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The U.S. Department of State (DOS) issued a clarification regarding employees entering the U.S. under blanket L-1 (intracompany transferee) petitions. The L-1 is appropriate for a multinational company with at least one office in the U.S. and one abroad, for which the U.S. operation temporarily needs to bring employees from the foreign office. The blanket L-1 is, essentially, for larger multinational companies. The DOS clarified that it remains possible to bring in L-1 employees who have worked for the foreign company for only six months, if they are entering under a blanket L-1 that was initially filed prior to June 6, 2005.
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This clarification was needed because of changes in the law, under the L-1 Visa Reform Act that applies to cases filed after June 6, 2005. These changes were reported in our July 1, 2005 MurthyBulletin article, L-1 Reform Act Implemented, available on MurthyDotCom. Under the Reform Act, all L-1 employees must have worked for at least one year out of the previous three years for the company abroad before entering the U.S. for the foreign-affiliated company. Before this change, the one-year requirement applied to all L-1s except for those entering under a blanket L-1. For blanket L-1s, the requirement was reduced to six months. The June 2005 law expanded this one-full-year requirement to all L-1s, including those entering under blanket L-1s. Thus, all L-1 petitions are now subject to the one-full-year requirement, except those who enter on a blanket L-1 filed prior to June 6, 2005.
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The DOS indicated that the USCIS is in agreement with this policy. The interpretation, therefore, should be uniform so that one entering the United States on an L-1 visa should be issued the visa stamp abroad and should not be delayed by the CBP Inspector at the airport.