Title: Decrease in Immigration Denials for Transferred Employees' Relocations
Rewritten Article:
Taking a look at recent trends, the denial rates and Requests for Evidence have seen a notable decrease for businesses transferring skilled employees into the United States under the L-1B visa category. This positive change has significantly benefited companies, allowing them to accomplish projects and foster foreign investment without encountering excessive hurdles.
Attorneys have attributed this shift to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) adhering to the correct legal standard and implementing more consistent policies. Under the Obama administration, for example, the denial rate for L-1B petitions reached 22.8% in FY 2016. However, during the Trump administration, the denial rate climbed as high as 31.9% in FY 2020. Since then, the denial rate has steadily dropped, reaching an all-time low of 10.2% in FY 2024.
Given the significant impact of L-1B visas, it's important to understand what they entail. The L-1B visa allows companies to transfer employees with specialized knowledge to their U.S. locations. By law, specialized knowledge refers to an individual's unique understanding of their company's products, services, research, equipment, techniques, management, or interest applied to international markets. Companies can obtain L-1B status for their employees either by receiving USCIS approval and subsequently obtaining a visa at a U.S. consulate or by filing a blanket petition to establish an intracompany relationship in advance.
Immigration authorities may admit an individual on an L-1B visa for up to five years, provided they have worked for the company abroad for one continuous year within the past three years. The Request for Evidence rate for completed L-1B petitions has also seen significant improvement, decreasing from 55% to 26.7% between FY 2022 and FY 2024.
Several factors contributed to this positive shift in L-1B policies. Firstly, USCIS began adhering to the actual legal standard, rather than imposing additional requirements. Secondly, attorneys and companies filed better-documented cases, making it easier for USCIS to comply with the regulatory standard. This helped to weed out weaker filings, leading to a more consistent and predictable process.
Additionally, USCIS expanded its interpretation of specialized knowledge, acknowledging that a company may have a significant number of employees with specialized knowledge. This adjustment made the L-1B approval process less stringent, allowing more employees to transfer to the U.S. under this visa category. The 2015 memorandum on L-1B visas also played a role by providing clarification and heightening evidentiary requirements for companies seeking L-1B approval.
Nonetheless, it's uncertain whether these factors alone can explain the entire decrease in L-1B denial rates, as the Trump administration also contributed to the increase in denial rates between FY 2016 and FY 2019. Regardless, the decline in denial rates has made the L-1B approval process less challenging than many other employment-based visa categories, and companies welcome the increased certainty and consistency. As a result, they hope the incoming administration will not implement restrictive policies on business immigration.
- The decrease in L-1B denial rates under the current administration has brought relief to companies, as they can now transfer intracompany transferees with specialized knowledge to the U.S. without facing excessive hurdles, as mentioned in USCIS news.
- The Trump immigration policy led to an increase in L-1B denial rates, reaching a peak of 31.9% in FY 2020, in contrast to the current all-time low of 10.2% in FY 2024.
- H-1B denial rates have also shown a decrease, likely due to the positive shift in policies towards employment-based visas, as reported in USCIS news.
- Attorneys have seen improvements in the approval process for L-1B visas, with a decrease in Request for Evidence rates from 55% to 26.7% between FY 2022 and FY 2024, resulting in a more predictable and consistent process for H-1B visas and L-1 visas, including L-1B petitions and L-1 visas for intracompany transferees with specialized knowledge.
