Immigration Policy for Intracompany Transfers (L Visa): Issues and Legislation

Publication Date: May 2006

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Population and demographics

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Abstract:

Concerns are growing that the visa category that allows executives and managers of multinational corporations to work temporarily in the United States is being misused. This visa category, commonly referred to as the L visa, permits multinational firms to transfer top-level personnel to their locations in the United States for five to seven years. The number of L visas issued has increased by 363.5% over the past 25 years. The U.S. Department of State (DOS) issued only 26,535 L visas in FY1980. L visa issuances began increasing in the mid-1990s and peaked at 122,981 in FY2005.

Some are now charging that firms are using the L visa to transfer "rank and file" professional employees rather than limiting these transfers to top-level personnel, thus circumventing immigration laws aimed at protecting U.S. employees from the potential adverse employment effects associated with an increase in the number of foreign workers. Proponents of current law maintain that any restrictions on L visas would prompt many multinational firms to leave the United States, as well as undermine reciprocal agreements that currently permit U.S. corporations to transfer their employees abroad.

Title IV of P.L. 108-447, the Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY2005, renders ineligible for L visa status those aliens who serve in a capacity involving specialized knowledge at the worksite of an employer other than the petitioning employer or its affiliate if (1) the alien will be controlled principally by the unaffiliated employer; or (2) the placement with the unaffiliated employer is part of an arrangement merely to provide labor rather than to use the alien's specialized knowledge. It also requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to impose a fraud prevention and detection fee of $500 on H-1B (foreign temporary professional workers) and L (intracompany business personnel) petitioners.

In the 109th Congress, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (S. 2611/S. 2612) would add certain requirements for L visa applicants seeking to come to the United States to work in new or unopened facilities and would expand the staffing resources of DHS, DOS, and DOL to investigate abuses and enforce violations of the L visa. Other bills that would reform the L visa include H.R. 3322 and H.R. 3381.

Earlier, the House Committee on the Judiciary reported H.R. 3648, which would impose additional fees with respect to immigration services for L visa intracompany transferees. The bill would require the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to each charge fees of $1,500 to employers filing certain visa applications and nonimmigrant petitions for L visas. These provisions were included in Title V of H.R. 4241, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which the House passed on November 18, 2005. The Senate version (S. 1932) would raise the minimum fee for L-1 visas by $750. The conference report on S. 1932 did not include these L visa provisions. This report tracks legislative activity and will be updated as action warrants.