A Welcome AAO Decision On The L-1A Manager Visa Category

Those who closely follow the world of U.S. immigration adjudication trends are painfully aware of the hostile attitude exhibited both by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) adjudicators and consular officials at U.S. consulates abroad towards L-1B "intracompany transferee" visa petitions.  Much ink has been spilled about the improper standards applied by U.S. government officials to L-1B "specialized knowledge" petitions, resulting in large numbers of unjustified denials of these petitions over the last five years.

But it is also true that USCIS has overstepped its authority and applied an unduly restrictive standard in adjudicating L-1A manager cases.  The government decision-makers in many of these "manager" cases evidence a complete lack of understanding of global business operations and almost always question whether someone will truly function as a manager in the U.S. if they don't have a large number of U.S. direct reports.  To be clear, the