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LONGUEUIL · L-1B FIELD GUIDE

Must an L-1B role involve software development?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

No. Assess the actual special or advanced knowledge and proposed work under the applicable requirements. The occupational label alone does not decide the case.

Explain the relevant organizational knowledge

Describe the product, process or procedure and the applicant’s demonstrated experience. Do not assume every nontechnical role qualifies either. The actual standard, employment history and company relationship require evidence.

Take one decision the applicant makes at work and ask how a competent stranger would make it without the company's procedure. If the honest answer is that they would consult a published standard or apply ordinary professional judgement, the knowledge is occupational rather than organisational. Hypothetical example: a supervisor in a hospital instrument reprocessing department knows an employer's proprietary tracking and release procedure for surgical trays, which departs from the generic standard in how exceptions are escalated and recorded.

That departure is where the evidence lives: the procedure document, the exception log, and the training the supervisor delivered on it. The proposed United States duties still have to be described on their own terms, the corporate relationship still has to be established, and the qualifying employment period still has to be counted against a calendar. None of those follow from the knowledge claim, however well made.

Ask also how long it took the company to bring this person to the level being relied on, since a period measured in weeks describes onboarding and a period measured in years describes something else.