Employers with overseas offices rely on the L-1 visa to bring their international “executive” and “managerial” leadership, as well as their “specialized knowledge” staff, to work in the United States. The L-1 visa offers a tremendous benefit for multinational employers, allowing them to employ critical members of their organization in the United States without entering their employees in the annual H-1B cap registration (“lottery”). Nevertheless, the standard L-1 visa petition has its own setbacks, with two noteworthy downsides being the time and money it takes to get the employees to the United States. One solution for qualifying employers is the Blanket L Petition.
As with most petition-based work visas, the standard L-1 visa must first be adjudicated and approved by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) before the beneficiary can schedule their visa appointment at a U.S. consulate abroad. USCIS currently estimates it takes about 4 ½ to 5 ½ months to review standard L-1 visa petitions, creating a significant delay for multinational businesses and their staff. While processing times can be reduced by paying an additional premium processing fee ($2,805) to USCIS, even “premium processing” doesn’t guarantee a quick process: USCIS updated its policy in April 2024 to reflect that premium processing adjudication timeframes are now 15 business days, rather than the former 15 calendar days. This effectively means USCIS may take up to three weeks to review a petition, even under its premium processing program.
Moreover, USCIS applies a high adjudication standard to L-1 visa requirements, often requiring employers to either spend significant time gathering an abundance of supporting evidence to satisfy USCIS’ high level of scrutiny in the initial stages of the process, or delaying the petition by the issuance of a lengthy Request for Evidence.
Further, USCIS updated its fee schedule in April 2024, significantly raising the costs of filing a standard L-1 petition. For many multinational businesses, government filing fees for a standard L-1 petition are nearly $2,500, in addition to the optional $2,805 premium processing fee, making the standard L-1 visa petition a costly endeavor for large employers seeking to bring multiple international employees to the United States.
Thankfully, USCIS offers a streamlined process for select employers that helps avoid both of these setbacks: the Blanket L Petition. For businesses with an approved Blanket L petition, international employees can apply for their L-1 visas directly at the consulate (or border, for Canadians), bypassing the need for USCIS to adjudicate each individual case, and thereby avoiding both lengthy processing times, as well as most of the filing fees involved in the “standard” process. Instead, the sponsored employees sit down with an immigration officer at the consulate to review their applications, combining the adjudication process and the visa stamping process into one streamlined interview, allowing multinational companies to transfer employees to the United States quickly and on short notice.
Qualifications for a Blanket L Petition
So, what’s the catch? The Blanket L Petition is only available to select employers that meet stringent criteria established by USCIS. Specifically:
- The petitioner and each of the qualifying organizations must be engaged in commercial trade or services;
- The petitioner must have an established office in the United States that has been doing business for one year or more;
- The petitioner must have three or more domestic and foreign branches, subsidiaries and affiliates; and
- The petitioner, along with the other qualifying organizations, must meet one of the following criteria:
- The organization must have obtained at least 10 standard L-1 visa approvals during the previous 12-month period;
- The organization, including its U.S. subsidiaries and affiliates, must have combined annual sales of at least $25 million; or
- The organization must have a U.S. work force of at least 1,000 employees.
As with the standard L-1 visa petition, sponsored employees must still meet the criteria for an L-1A or L-1B visa to benefit from the Blanket L petition. Specifically, an employee must be an executive, manager, or in a position requiring specialized knowledge, and they must have been employed by an affiliated company for at least one year abroad to qualify. However, after the approval of the Blanket L Petition, the employer no longer needs to document the qualifying relationship between its affiliated companies in subsequent applications.
Additionally, spouses of L-1 visa holders also can apply for L-2 dependent status, granting them immediate employment authorization in the United States.
