sustained L-1A Case: Chemical Distribution

U.S. Citizenship 
and Immigration 
Services 
In Re: 10496585 
Appeal of California Service Center Decision 
Form 1-129, Petition for L-lA Manager or Executive 
Non-Precedent Decision of the 
Administrative Appeals Office 
Date: SEPT. 15, 2020 
The Petitioner, which intends to distribute chemicals for use in fertilizer and livestock feed, seeks to 
temporarily employ the Beneficiary in the United States as chief executive officer of its new office1 under 
the L-lA nonimmigrant classification for intracompany transferees. Immigration and Nationality Act 
(the Act) section 101(a)(15)(L), 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(L). The L-lA classification allows a corporation 
or other legal entity (including its affiliate or subsidiary) to transfer a qualifying foreign employee to the 
United States to work temporarily in a managerial or executive capacity. 
The Director of the California Service Center denied the petition, concluding that the record did not 
establish, as required, that the Beneficiary has been employed abroad in a managerial or executive 
capacity. The matter is now before us on appeal. 
In these proceedings, it is the Petitioner's burden to establish eligibility for the requested benefit. See 
Section 291 of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1361. Upon de nova review, we will sustain the appeal. 
The record indicates that the Beneficiary had authority over an intermediate level of managers and 
supervisors who, in turn, oversaw several front-line employees. The information provided by the 
Petitioner indicates that the foreign entity's business activities and its personnel and management 
structure were sufficient to relieve the Beneficiary from performing primarily non-qualifying tasks; 
the Beneficiary was not simply the nominal supervisor of a skeleton staff with inflated job titles. The 
Beneficiary's oversight over subordinate supervisors and managers is consistent with the statutory 
definition of managerial capacity at section 101(a)(44)(A) of the Act. 
The Petitioner has provided sufficient information and evidence to establish, by a preponderance of 
the evidence, the Beneficiary's managerial capacity in his past employment abroad. 
ORDER: The appeal is sustained. 
1 The term "new office" refers to an organization which has been doing business in the United States for less than one year. 
8 C.F.R. § 214.2(1)(1)(ii)(F). The regulation at 8 C.F.R. § 214.2(1)(3)(v)(C) allows a "new office" operation no more than 
one year within the date of approval of the petition to support an executive or managerial position.