USCIS Director Mayorkas also announced today that a training program for adjudicators of L-1 Multinational Manager petitions was initiated on October 12, 2011. The quality of L-1 adjudications has been a major concern for multinational businesses with operations in the U.S., particularly business with relatively small offices in the U.S. In theory, the L-1 category allows such business to transfer key employees to the U.S. who are serving in managerial, executive and specialized knowledge capacities. This should facilitates foreign investment in the U.S. According to USCIS' own statistics, however, about 40% of L-1 petitions that are filed with the USCIS are ultimately denied. The experience of most business immigration attorneys confirms that most of these denials are for businesses with relatively small offices in the U.S.
The training program announced today has been in the works for several months, and is the result of an ongoing dialogue between the Director and various stakeholders. We are hopeful that the training will result in a more open-minded approach to L-1 a djudications which recognizes the legitimate needs of all sizes of multinational organizations to transfer key managerial, executive and specialized knowledge professionals to operate their U.S. operations.
The Director also announced continued efforts to improve the USCIS' "request for evidence" (RFE) templates. RFEs are used to request additional evidence after an petition has been filed with the USCIS. Although RFEs are intended to assist adjudicators in making a balanced decision, they are frequently poorly worded, and overly broad. RFEs issued in L-1 cases often request inapplicable and unnecessary documentation which creates a tremendous burden on employers. We are hopeful that the changes to the RFE templates will further help to improve the quality of adjudications for the L-1 and other employment-based classifications.
We will provide further information as soon as it becomes available.
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