Do not invent a general recruitment requirement. The actual knowledge and other category conditions must be established.
Distinguish business hiring from eligibility
Recruiting difficulty or expense is not automatically proof of specialized knowledge.
Government filing fees per the USCIS fee schedule, Form G-1055, depending on the forms and employer size, with optional faster processing at extra cost, plus professional fees and the internal hours needed to document the specialized knowledge and prepare the American position description. Evidencing specialized knowledge means someone senior spends days pulling together internal documentation, development history, training materials and a candid assessment of what the rest of the team can and cannot do. An offsite placement adds a separate evidentiary issue, so the company should budget for a licensed U.S. immigration attorney to document both the specialized knowledge and the petitioner's continuing control rather than relying on a thin initial filing. When the beneficiary will be stationed primarily at an unaffiliated client site, the client must not principally control and supervise the beneficiary, and the placement must relate to a product or service requiring petitioner-specific specialized knowledge rather than labour for hire.
- USCIS — L classification documentation and evidence
- Department of State — 9 FAM 402.12
- 8 USC 1184 — specialized knowledge definition
- USCIS — employment authorization for certain spouses
- ICE — nonimmigrant classes that may study
- USCIS — fee schedule
- Official regulatory L foreign-capacity and new-office standards