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BOUCHERVILLE · L-1B FIELD GUIDE

Does a customer’s insistence on one employee establish L-1B eligibility?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

No. Explain the actual specialized knowledge and the other transfer requirements. A commercial preference is not an immigration decision.

Identify the basis beyond familiarity

Describe the organizational product or process knowledge used in the proposed work and evidence of the applicant’s experience. Do not assume a strong relationship or difficult replacement establishes the applicable standard.

The statutory definition concerns special knowledge of the petitioning organization's product, service, research, equipment, techniques, management or other interests and its application in international markets, or an advanced level of knowledge of the organization's processes and procedures. An L-1B claim requires proof of what an employee knows and how the organisation came to hold that knowledge, and small employers frequently have none of it in usable form. Document how the company configures that platform, which internal procedures depend on it, how the employee learned those methods and why the proposed US assignment needs that understanding. Prove an uninterrupted qualifying foreign-employment year from the applicable three-year lookback, the required parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate link, and ongoing business abroad plus either U.S. business or compliance with the initial new-office requirements. Specialized knowledge concerns company products, processes, or procedures rather than general skill; a new office starts with one-year approval, while the classification ordinarily ends after five total years.