The L-1 Intracompany Transferee Visa Facing Attack from All Branches of the Federal Government: Angelo A. Paparelli

Part I: "The L-1 — a veritable Clydesdale of work visas — allows executives, managers and employees with specialized knowledge, gained at an overseas affiliate, subsidiary or parent, to enter the U.S. and work in a comparable capacity for a related company.  This two-part blog post will show why employers hoping to import L-1 workers must now be prepared to submit more thoroughly documented cases in the face stiff of opposition from government adjudicators, Congress and the federal courts, as this formerly flexible and useful visa category is assailed from all quarters.  New constraints on the L-1 visa category, as will be shown, stem primarily from two Senators (Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin), a coterie of federal bureaucrats, immigration adjudicators, consular officers, and some federal judges who pay undue deference to the presumed expertise of the primary immigration agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)."

Part II: "Even if a U.S. company can’t tell an L-1 from an elbow, concern over this visa category is important if the business engages the services of third-party vendors and service providers whose personnel to be stationed at the customer’s worksite must rely — as is often the case — for employment authorization under the L-1 visa category." - Angelo A. Paparelli, Sept. 2013.