sustained L-1A Case: Specialty Eyewear

MATTER OF P-A- INC. 
Non-Precedent Decision of the 
Administrative Appeals Office 
DATE: SEPT. 17, 2018 
APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA SERVICE CENTER DECISION 
PETITION: FORM 1-129, PETITION FOR A NONIMMIGRANT WORKER 
The Petitioner, an importer and distributor of specialty eyewear, seeks to temporarily employ the 
Beneficiary as its chief executive officer (CEO) under the L-1 A nonimmigrant classification for 
intracompany transferees. Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act) section I0I(a)(IS)(L), 8 U.S.C. 
§ I 101(a)(15)(L). The L-IA 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 Petitioner did not 
establish, as required that it would employ the Beneficiary in a managerial or executive capacity. The 
matter is now before us on appeal. 
Upon de nova review of the record, we will sustain the appeal. 
The Petitioner has established by a preponderance of the evidence that the Beneficiary would be 
employed in the United States in an executive capacity as defined at section 10l(a)(44)(B) of the 
Act. The record does not support the Director's finding that the Beneficiary would "primarily assist 
with the day-to-day non-supervisory duties of the business." The Petitioner described the 
Beneficiary's role as one in which he is primarily responsible for directing the management of an 
essential function of its international organization - the sales operations for the parent company's 
successful brand of specialty eyewear in multiple markets worldwide. With respect to the U.S. 
operations, the Petitioner documented that it has a well-established structure in place for marketing, 
sales, ordering, warehousing, logistics, and fulfillment, and demonstrated that contracted U.S. 
companies perform these activities. Further, the Petition~r established that the foreign parent 
entity's personnel, who report to the Beneficiary, handle routine day-to-day interactions with these 
contractors, while the Beneficiary's services would be needed in the United States intermittently to 
perform higher-level duties associated with the company's expansion plans. As such, the Petitioner 
has established that his services would be primarily executive in nature. 
ORDER: The appeal is sustained. 
Cite as Matter of P-A- Inc .. ID# I 626885 (AAO Sept. 17, 2018)