In re L-1B Immigration Litigation

Case Updates

The DHS’ Administrative Appeals Office upheld a lower court’s ruling that limited the scope of individuals who would qualify for L-1B “specialized knowledge” visas. As a result, it will be harder for multinational corporations to transfer personnel with specialized skills from foreign offices.

NCLC urged the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Administrative Appeals Office to reverse a prior ruling by the California Service Center (CSC) that erroneously limited the scope of individuals with “specialized knowledge” who would qualify for L-1B visas. In this case, the CSC denied a petition seeking an L-1B visa petition for a foreign information technology professional to work at an IBM subsidiary in the U.S. NCLC argued that in rejecting the petition, the agency departed from longstanding guidelines for determining whether a foreign national has specialized knowledge, and ignored the language and history of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The agency’s narrow ruling, if allowed to stand, would limit the ability of multinational corporations to transfer specialized information technology professionals.