The L-1B petitions for transfer of workers related to specialized knowledge persist to get augmented scrutiny from the Citizenship and Immigration Services of the United States (USCIS). The current years had marked a notable increase in the Requests for Evidence and the ultimate petition rejections for this visa category.
The statistics from the USCIS shows that in the first quarter of the FY 2015, the agency had processed around 3,278 petitions. Out of the processed petitions, an overwhelming 1,020 petitions were rejected which makes around 31%.
One should assume that the rejection rates are consistent regardless of the nationality, however, the information from the National Foundation for American Policy indicates that the rejection rate of the L-1B differs widely depending on the nationality of beneficiary.
It can be frequently noted that the rejection rate for the petitions filed on behalf of the citizens from India is drastically on top than that for the employees of other countries. While the rejection rate of the L-1B for the FY 2012-14 is 13% and the citizens from India experienced the rejection rates of 56%.
These figures also showed the extreme rise in the rejections over the many previous years. The rates of rejections were consistently under 10% before the year 2008 and attained an all-time high of 35% in the FY 2014.
Citizens from India are not only the employees with the rejection percentage falling outside the rule. The rates of rejection for the citizens from Canada historically trend in opposite direction. It was seen that the rejection rate was only 4% for the FY 2012-14. Citizens of Canada, who does not require visa stamps for entering into the US, process the L-1B petitions at the US ports of entry or facilities like pre-flight inspections. This might explain the low rate of rejections the people of Canada experience.
