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The Blanket L program is designed to allow large multinational corporations to transfer their executives, managers, and specialized knowledge professionals to the U.S. without undergoing the often lengthy processing periods for regular L petitions. This simplifies the process of approving and admitting additional individual L-1A and L-1B workers and can result in significant savings of both filing fees and time. Persons transferring from one qualifying organization to another can bypass the USCIS Regional Service Center and proceed directly to the appropriate U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad to apply for an L-1 visa. International Organizations that qualify for Blanket Petition To qualify for approval of a Blanket Petition, the petitioner must meet the following criteria: • Each entity included in the petition must be engaged in commercial trade or services; • The petitioner must have a U.S. office that has been doing business for at least one year; and • The petitioner must have three or more domestic and foreign branches, subsidiaries, or affiliates and, combined, they must meet one of the following requirements: o Obtained approvals for at least 10 L visa managers, executives, or specialized knowledge professionals in the previous 12 months; or o Achieved combined annual sales of at least $25 million; or o Employ a U.S. workforce of at least 1,000 employees. Blanket L Petition versus Regular L-Petition: Strategic Considerations Processing times: A Blanket L petition takes a long time to prepare and submit to the USCIS and requires extensive documentation. But once it is approved, it provides the multinational organization with a potent tool to quickly transfer executives, managers and specialized knowledge professionals to the U.S. A regular individual L-1 petition may take 6-8 weeks or more for processing at the Service Center, however, under an approved Blanket Petition, an intending L intra-company transferee may enter the U.S. within about one week after submitting the visa application and Form I-129S at the consulate. Substantive differences: A regular individual Blanket requires every petition to establish both that the individual transferee is eligible for transfer and that the necessary corporate relationship exists. However, the Blanket L program assumes that the qualifying organization criterion has been proven and requires only proof of the transferee’s individual eligibility for L status. Transfers within the U.S.: A Blanket L-1 beneficiary may transfer to any other U.S. organization listed on the approved Blanket Petition during his or her authorized L-1 stay “without referral” to the Service if the alien’s duties will remain “virtually the same” at the new organization. Reduced Filing Fee Expenses: The USCIS filing fee for ‘premium processing’ and regular processing for every individual petition is $1185 and $185 respectively. However, after the initial Blanket Petition is approved, there is no USCIS filing fee for L Blanket application before the consulate, until the petitioner elects to file the L Blanket extension. Blanket L Process Procedures: The initial L Blanket Petition is filed with the USCIS Regional Service Center that has jurisdiction over the petitioner’s main U.S. office. No specific individual transferee need be named in the petition. The USCIS restricts its decision only to verifying the basic criteria concerning the qualifying relationships of the named entities, the commercial nature of their business activities, and their qualifications. The decision whether a specific alien qualifies for L classification is made by a consular officer who reviews the alien’s visa application, or by the USCIS Service Center if the alien beneficiary is visa exempt or applying for a change of status in the U.S. Documentation: The basic petition forms are the same as those used for individual L-1 petitions; however, the manner of completing the forms is somewhat different. A supplemental list of all domestic and foreign parent, branch, subsidiary and affiliate entities must be included. Broadly, the documentation must support the following: • Proof of each domestic or foreign branch or office (articles of incorporation, LLC or registration as branch office) • Proof of relationship between the companies • Proof that each office is doing business • Proof that the US office has been doing business for over one year (tax returns, financial statements, sales brochures, product orders, etc.) • Proof of 10 transfers (approval notices for 10 Ls approved in the past 12 months); or combined annual sales of at least $25 million; or employment of a U.S. workforce of at least 1,000 employees The types of evidence that suffice to establish corporate relationships for individual L-1 petitions also generally suffice for L Blanket Petitions. Annual U.S. sales and/or total number of U.S. employees may be demonstrated through an annual report, federal securities filing, audited financial statements, payroll tax records or a recognized independent authority. The number of individual L-1 visa holders approved during the previous year may be established through copies of the individual USCIS Form I -797 approval notices. Duration: The initial validity of an approved Blanket Petition is three years. The petitioner is then required to file for an indefinite extension of the Blanket Petition. If the petitioner fails to apply for an extension of the Blanket Petition, or the Service denies the extension, the petitioner may not file a new Blanket Petition for three years. Adding a new company to the Blanket Petition Additional organizations may be added to the Blanket Petition by the filing of an amended Blanket Petition. Admission under Blanket Petition: Visa application at consulates Once the Service approves the Blanket Petition, the organizations listed on the petition can begin to use the petition to move personnel to the U.S. This is accomplished by the submission of Form I-129S, Certificate of Eligibility for Intra-company Transferee, under a Blanket Petition along with the supporting documentation. L-1 nonimmigrants are required to have been employed continuously by a parent, subsidiary or other affiliate of the petitioning company for one year in the three years preceding admission to the U.S. For a brief period this requirement was reduced to six months by a legislation enacted in 2002, however, L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2004 reintroduced the requirement of one year employment abroad requirement for L-1s coming in under Blanket Petitions. Documents supporting the visa application at the consulate In essence, the employee must provide evidence that he/she has been employed abroad in a managerial or executive capacity or as a specialized knowledge professional (beneficiaries who have specialized knowledge but are not professionals are not eligible for the Blanket program) and that his/her employment in the U.S. will be in a managerial or executive capacity or as a professional with specialized knowledge. Generally, Blanket L visa applications at U.S. Consulates and embassies are accompanied by the following supporting documentation: • Corporate documentation of the transferring and receiving listed Blanket entity • Letter of support from U.S. petitioner detailing the prospective transferee’s qualifications and proposed job description in the U.S. • Required copies of degrees and transcripts for specialized knowledge professionals; • Organization charts for executives, managers, or functional managers; • Résumé; • Letter of employment from the overseas entity, detailing the proposed transferees employment in specialized knowledge professional, managerial, or executive status for a period of more than one year; • Foreign income tax form or wage statements showing the proposed Blanket transferee’s employment at a foreign entity for a period of at least one year; • Passport valid six months longer than the proposed stay in the U.S. Period of Initial Admission An L-1 nonimmigrant initially seeking admission under a Blanket Petition may be admitted for a period of three years even though the initial validity of the Blanket Petition may expire before the end of the 3-year period. Subsequent Applications for Admission An L-1 alien may not be admitted for a period of time that exceeds the statutory limitations on L-1 stay in the U.S. An L-1 alien who has spent either seven years in the U.S. in a managerial or executive capacity or five years in a specialized knowledge capacity may not be readmitted to the U.S. as an L-1 unless the alien has resided and been physically present outside the U.S. for the immediate previous year, except for brief visits for business or pleasure. Change of Employer Situations/Petitions There are two types of change of employer situations that a Blanket L alien may incur; (a) those that require no notification to the Service; and (b) those that require referral to the Service. The Service’s regulations state that a Blanket L alien ‘may be reassigned to any organization listed in the approved Blanket Petition without referral to the Service during his or her authorized stay if the alien will be performing virtually the same job duties.’ However, if the alien will be performing different job duties, or the alien will be transferred to a related company not included in the Blanket L approval, then the filing of a new Form I-129S may be required. Reviewability of Denials The Blanket L program has at least one strategic disadvantage compared to the regular L program: it exposes its participants to the peril of non-reviewable consular discretionary authority. Unlike participants in the regular/individual L transferee program, whose individual petitions must be filed at USCIS service centers, the vast majority of transferees under the Blanket L program file visa applications at consulates and embassies abroad. While a denial of a regular L petition at an USCIS service center may be appealed, consular denials of Blanket L visa applications are not reviewable. Alternatives An L-1 Blanket does not require that all transferees to the U.S. use this mechanism. Individual L-1 petitions or other types of work visa petitions may still be submitted by members of the family of organizations. Conclusion The L-1 Blanket approval is not just for mega multinational operations. The essential legal requirements to qualify for a Blanket approval are actually relatively modest. A Blanket approval can ultimately expedite transfer of managers, executives, and specialized knowledge professionals by avoiding the need to file separate individual petitions and establish the ‘qualifying relationship’ between the U.S. and foreign entities each time the corporation seeks to transfer an employee to the U.S. VisaPro attorneys have in-depth knowledge and experience to advise and help companies with the L-1 Blanket petition. We have successfully assisted our clients in achieving and optimally utilizing L-1 Blanket petitions. Click here to learn more about our L-1 Blanket services. Contact VisaPro if you have any questions regarding any type of employment based and family based petitions. VisaPro covers the latest happenings on work visas in Immigration Monitor, monthly newsletter. Click here to subscribe to Immigration Monitor.
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