L1B eligibility and 1 year rule

[babu7024]

Hi

I have completed 1 year in my current Indian company. We were planning for L1B blanket petition and our attorney has said that we cannot file L1B since I have not stayed for 365 days in India.

Though its been 14 months since i have joined this company I was in US for about 6 months totally on B1 visa in these 14 months.

I was generally under the impression that for L1B we just need to be in a company for 1 year and not specifically stay in company's home country.

Can you please clarify and let me know if there are any rule changes recently that says that we have to be with the company in its home location for 365 days to be eligible for L1B petition?

[raghvi]

Employee criteria for L1B

The named employee must:

1. Generally have been working for a qualifying organization abroad for one continuous year within the three years immediately preceding his or her admission to the United States; and
2. Be seeking to enter the United States to render services in a specialized knowledge capacity to a branch of the same employer or one of its qualifying organizations.

As you haven't worked in India for 1 year the attorney might be saying that L1B cant be filed. This is as per my opinion, please do ask immigration and legal experts.

[babu7024]

Thanks much Raghvi..

I did look at website and condition 1 says "working for a qualifying organization abroad for one continuous year"

Here by my interpretation it means a qualifying organization abroad ( is any company outside US) and it does not specifically say where the individual has stayed.

Ironically you work in any part of world as an employee of a qualifying organization irrespective of where you have stayed.

[raghvi]

Employee criteria for L1B

As per my interpretation : Qualifying organization - The organization filing for your L1-B.
Abroad: Outside US (anywhere in the world but outside US) . So, it means that one should have been working for at least 1 year outside US with the organization which is filing L1B. One cannot be working with 3 different companies for 4 Month each and still qualify fro L1-B even if the 3 companies themselves are qualified for L1-B. This is my interpretation please seek expert and legal opinion as well.

[vickysingh]

Hi Babu,It would be great if you can update us on what finally happened to your status. because I am also in similar situation where I have worked for employer for 4 months in india and then for 8 months in US on EAD. Now employer wants to file L1B. So I also want to check if that is the possibility and meets the requirement of L1B.