Hi All,
I previously obtained a Blanket L1-B visa from my employer after working for 3 years for one of their foreign branches, and worked in the US on L-1B status from September 2018 through May 2021, I have since returned to the foreign branch and have been working there for the past 5 months.
My employer wants to bring me back to the US on another L-1B visa. I provided all my documents to the law firm they employ to handle L-1s (the same company that handled my L-1 Visa in 2018).
My reading of the law is that you have to have worked for the foreign branch for one continuous year within the past 3, therefore rendering me ineligible until June 2022.
I have brought this point up specifically to the law firm on 2 separate occasions and on both occasions they have replied
"The time spent inside the U.S. in L-1B status does not interrupt your L-1 eligibility based on your employment abroad prior to your employment to the U.S."
Within the Blanket petition where you show the employee's 1 year they have simply used my September 2017 - September 2018 year as well as my time from May 2021. To me this seems entirely incorrect.
This is a huge multinational company that processes thousands of these visas annually (regularly appearing in the top 5 companies to do so nationally) and the law firm is also huge and highly respected.
I have zero legal knowledge and feel like I'm one of those people who google symptoms on webMD and then fight with their doctors. My petition has been approved both my employer and by the signing attorney.
My only thinking is that I did not max out my previous L-1 (2.5 years, max is 5). Surely I can't be right and the lawyers wrong, but I am nervous to get rejected as then I will forever be ineligible for an ESTA.
TL:DR Law firm giving me advice that would seem to result in an automatically invalid visa application
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/immigration/comments/qn7tgb/l1b_question_incompetent_law_firm/