The California Service Center (CSC) will now issue one duplicate approval notice if the request is made within 30 days of the petition’s approval, without additional charge. This can be beneficial where the the applicant did not list a Consulate for the USCIS to notify of the petition’s approval or where the applicant wishes the USCIS to notify a different Consulate than the one listed in the original petition.
California Service Center
Conversion from L-1B Visa to L-1A Visa
The California Service Center (CSC) has indicated a greater willingness to allow conversions from L-1B visa status to L-1A visa status recently. Many L-1B visa holders would benefit greatly by this change because holding an L-1A visa status allows them to apply for permanent residence through the fast track EB-1C program which does not require labor certifcation/PERM. The CSC has indicated that conversions from L-1B to L-1A must take place prior to the 4.5 year point of the 5 year maximum stay and extensions beyond 5 years will not be granted. The policy decision to deny extensions to 7 years as allowed by the L-1A category deviates from prior statements from USCIS and is likely contrary to immigration law is unfortunate and is something we may attack through appeal, if necessary.