As Capitol Hill debates the country’s financial crisis, California and Vermont Service Centers have increased their denials of Inter Company  managerial transferees of foreign businesses to US on the L-1A visa. The Government narrowly focuses on the fact that their job needs to be managerial, and cannot be performed by Managers in companies that have low number of employees. 

In  recent non precedent decision, the Administration Appeals Office reversed a decision of the California Service Center to deny an L-1A for a  new Company opened 12 months ago which had 2 other employees.  It belonged to a publicly traded foreign Company.  The Manager also supervised foreign Companies’ employees and had a profit of 600,000/- for the first year of operations.  The AAO held that the Manager has to manage “primarily” as in 51% of his time. 

One can completely understand the rationale that a small company can fail, and thus extending a visa might lead to someone staying illegally here. However, if there is a large foreign company backing, if the US Company is making money, what is the rationale behind the denial simply because the company employs 2-3 employees. The nature of many companies have changed. Computerization has reduced and eliminated a large number of low level employees. And the manager manages and procures business. If we deny these companies the right to do business, ultimately we lose the taxes. Even one US job, is one US job, and the Government cannot simply take that job away at a time when unemployment reigns high. 

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney Annie Banerjee, for more information