Law Commons^™

It’S Time To Open Up The L-1b: How The Emergence Of Open Source Technology Will Impact The L-1b Visa Program, Elizabeth K. Ottman

Catholic University Law Review

The L-1 visa program allows multinational companies to transfer both managerial/executive employees and employees who hold “specialized knowledge” to work in the United States. In the Information Technology (IT) industry, it has become increasingly difficult to get workers approved for intra-company transfer due to the way United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) narrowly interprets the definition of specialized knowledge. Although USCIS has issued memoranda that indicate knowledge “need not be proprietary or unique,” in practice, knowledge of proprietary software is the most effective way to prove an employee in the IT industry has specialized knowledge. However, in the last …