How individual contributors secure the L-1 visa.
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You possess advanced, proprietary knowledge of your company’s specific products, services, tools, or methodologies. This is not general industry skill (e.g., knowing Python) but deep expertise in your firm's internal platform, complex codebase, or proprietary ML model. Your knowledge is not easily transferable and would be very difficult to teach a new hire.
You are a subject matter expert (SME) on a system, process, or research area that is unique to your employer. E.g. You are the key engineer for a legacy system's migration, trained on proprietary cybersecurity protocols, or an expert on its unique integrations.
Your specialized knowledge is essential to the US company's operations, projects, or goals. You are needed to deploy the foreign-developed platform in the US, customize a complex product for a key US client, or lead a critical R&D function that relies on your unique expertise.
Your US company and your current foreign entity are parent, subsidiary, or affiliates.
You were employed full-time by the foreign entity in a specialized knowledge capacity for at least one continuous year within the last three years.
The L-1B "Specialized Knowledge" standard is often considered tricky for tech roles, but we have numerous examples of success.
The key is to demonstrate proprietary knowledge that is advanced and not commonly held in the industry. We focus on the metrics of your role: the complexity of the internal systems you know, the uniqueness of your employer's processes, and the significant time it would take to train a new, skilled hire to your level.
You will need highly detailed, credible organisational proof, from training evidence, letters of proof of specialised knowledge and required tasks in the US to support your application.
The L-1B "Specialized Knowledge" standard is often considered tricky for tech roles, but we have numerous examples of success.
The key is to demonstrate proprietary knowledge that is advanced and not commonly held in the industry. We focus on the metrics of your role: the complexity of the internal systems you know, the uniqueness of your employer's processes, and the significant time it would take to train a new, skilled hire to your level.
You will need highly detailed, credible organisational proof, from training evidence, letters of proof of specialised knowledge and required tasks in the US to support your application.
Proving Knowledge is Specialized
Your primary challenge is proving your expertise is proprietary to your company, not just a high-level version of skills available on the open market.
You will need hard evidence and expert letters to prove that your knowledge of your firm's internal platform, proprietary codebase, or unique processes is indispensable and would be nearly impossible to find in a new hire.
With guidance, we help applicants get the proper internal documentation, such as training matrices showing a long ramp-up time, documents on internal-only projects, or proof of your unique role on a critical R&D initiative, to illustrate this specialized knowledge to USCIS.
We pre-vetted our attorneys with strong track records, so you don’t have waste months finding a good one.
Engineers, Marketers, and Staff Data Scientists trust us to bring specialist skills to the US.
Work with 15+ years of combined extraordinary talent visa knowledge. Your succeess is gauranteed
We guarantee to complete the petition drafting and submission within 1 month of receiving all supporting documents required to file your long term visa or green card petition. Beyond Border is amongst the fastest legal service provider in the industry, thanks to our tech-enabled approach to petition filing and focus on technologists.
The fee will vary depending on the visa or green card type that best suits your need, but you should budget between US$8,000-10,000, excluding government fees and depending on your long term visa or green card category.
You can visit USCIS's free fee calculator to get an estimate for the associated government fees to process your visa.
Beyond Border is a modern immigration platform founded by immigrants from the technology industry for immigrants. We leverage technology to speed up the end-to-end U.S. immigration petition process, and work with a carefully curated network of attorneys who specialize in U.S. immigration cases for technologists.
Our attorneys maintain a 98% success rate throughout their careers with more than 4,000 approvals. We work exclusively with venture backed tech operators and researchers, which allow us maintain a high approval rate and provide profile building advice given sector expertise.
If your application is rejected, we will review the reasons for denial and help you reapply by addressing any issues or missing documentation.
