Many businesses sponsoring H-1B specialty occupation worker or L-1 intra-company transfer petitions have experienced the frustration of unfair denials.  Now, Information published in the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsmen Annual Report 2014 (“Report”) confirms that appeals from these determinations are almost always an exercise in futility.

Cases that are not approved can be appealed to

A recent decision from the USCIS Administrative Appeals Office (“AAO”) provides some fresh insight for international companies seeking to transfer executives or managers under the L-1A visa from one affiliated foreign office to open new offices in the U.S. and keep their fledgling offices in business after the initial year.

“New office” petitions for L-1A

AUTHOR:  Harry J. Joe.

Despite USCIS’s 251 prior approvals of L-1B Specialized Knowledge Visa Petitions filed by Fogo De Chao for gaucho chefs, a federal District Court in Washington, D.C., upheld the USCIS’s denial of such a petition for Rones Gasparetto  and found the agency’s interpretation of “specialized knowledge” was not arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable.