Query on L1 limit

[tceark]

I initially came to US on Nov 11, 2007 with L1B individual visa and left to India on Feb 20, 2010 after staying for 2 years and 3 months as my visa was going to expire.After 10 months break, I came back to US on Dec 25, 2010 with a new L1B Blanket visa. The visa expiry date is 10-July-2013. I went for a vacation to India during last year March and when I came back, the immigration officer gave me a new I-94 with expiry date of Mar-2015. I was planning to stay till my I-94 date. But my company is saying that since I stayed in India for less than 1 year between my 2 trips to US, I have to include my first trip time as well to the 5 years limit for L1 visa and leave US before Oct this year even though my I 94 had a expiry date of Mar 2015. Can you please let me know whether this is true? I thought that we can stay 5 years in each L1 visa and since I returned back to US on a fresh L1 blanket visa after 10 month stay in India, my L1 limit would have got reset and I can stay for 5 more years.

[raghvi]

I initially came to US on Nov 11, 2007 with L1B individual visa and left to India on Feb 20, 2010 after staying for 2 years and 3 months as my visa was going to expire.After 10 months break, I came back to US on Dec 25, 2010 with a new L1B Blanket visa. The visa expiry date is 10-July-2013. I went for a vacation to India during last year March and when I came back, the immigration officer gave me a new I-94 with expiry date of Mar-2015. I was planning to stay till my I-94 date. But my company is saying that since I stayed in India for less than 1 year between my 2 trips to US, I have to include my first trip time as well to the 5 years limit for L1 visa and leave US before Oct this year even though my I 94 had a expiry date of Mar 2015. Can you please let me know whether this is true? I thought that we can stay 5 years in each L1 visa and since I returned back to US on a fresh L1 blanket visa after 10 month stay in India, my L1 limit would have got reset and I can stay for 5 more years.

Your company is right. Since you didnt have the 1 Year gap between the two L1 stays, both the duration will be clubbed.

This is my opinion not legal advice.