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SAINTE-THÉRÈSE · L-1B FIELD GUIDE

Does a confidentiality agreement prove specialized knowledge?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

No. Explain the actual special or advanced knowledge and its proposed use. Secrecy is not a universal requirement, and a confidentiality obligation alone does not establish eligibility.

Show what the applicant knows and does

Connect genuine experience to concrete U.S. duties. The evidence should explain the organizational knowledge rather than rely on the sensitivity of a document as a substitute for substance. Other L requirements need separate support.

Years at the company and advanced knowledge of its processes tend to travel together, but they are not the same claim, and only the second is the one being advanced. The distinction that decides this case is between what any experienced trail builder knows and what only someone trained inside this firm knows. The standard includes special knowledge of the organization’s interests and their international application, or advanced knowledge of its processes and procedures.

L-1B exists for a transferee whose knowledge is special to the petitioning organization — its own product, its own process, its own equipment or techniques, or an advanced level of knowledge of how that particular company does things.