Your expertise.Across borders.

Hypothetical example: a fleet-telematics software company with a development team in Oromocto wants to place its field-integration specialist at a U.S. customer's depot for a year to connect the company's proprietary vehicle-data pipeline to the customer's maintenance system. L-1B requires one continuous year of qualifying employment abroad within the preceding three years, a qualifying corporate relationship with both entities doing business, and specialized knowledge of the company's own product, process or procedures rather than general skill. Placement at a client site must not amount to labour for hire, and the petitioner must keep control of the work. L-2 spouses are employment-authorized incident to status. L-1B status is limited to five years. The deciding evidence is the record of what the specialist knows that others do not, and this page explains how to assemble it. L-1B analysis is evidence-heavy because specialized knowledge concerns knowledge of the petitioning organization's products, services, research, equipment, techniques, management, or other interests, and how that knowledge differs from ordinary industry familiarity. The employee needs twelve uninterrupted qualifying months abroad in the preceding three years. L-1B status is generally limited to five years, which makes the expected project duration relevant from the outset. A first review should identify the proprietary subject, the employee's unusually advanced familiarity with it, and the U.S. tasks that require that familiarity.