Speech #910173463

This provision will eliminate problems now faced by American companies having offices abroad and transferring company personnel. American companies with branches in Canada and other countries of the Western Hemisphere and Canadian companies with affiliates in the United States have been particularly hampered in transferring personnel because delays of a year or more have resulted due to long waiting lists. This is so because they have been forced to seek admission as immigrants. The French citizen president of IBM had to obtain an immigrant visa to come to the United States in order to assume his new position. The official of a union with headquarters in northwest United States had to wait a year before a visa number became available for him to come to fill his job at the union headquarters in the United States. Such international transfers are not properly immigrant movements. since these executives and managers of international companies are coming to the United States to fill temporary tours of duty. after which they will be subject to transfer elsewhere throughout the world. S. 2593 will allow such personnel. providing they have been employed for at least 1 year by the organizations concerned. to come to the United States as nonimmigrants. This change will not only recognize a problem that has handicapped the growth of American enterprises throughout the world and has crippled international trade of the United States. but it will also relieve some of the pressure upon immigrant visas which have been improperly used for such intercompany transfers in the past. The proposal has the complete support of all the executive departments and was favored by testimony before the committee. Testimony before the committee established that the number of temporary admissions under the "L" category will not be large. The class of persons eligible for such nonimmigrant visas is narrowly drawn and will be carefully regulated and monitored by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Provision has been made in section 3 of the bill for the filing of a petition with the Attorney General by the employer company. Consideration of the petition will initially involve verification of the prior employment of the Individual for a continuous period of at least 1 year by the same firm or a company affiliated With the firm located in the United States as a parent. subsidiary. branch or affiliate. The investigation will also verify the qualifications of the applicant as of managerial. executive or specialized knowledge caliber and bona fides of the employee. The committee is convinced that no international company would jeopardize or endanger its future need for intercompany executive rotation by attempting to misuse or abuse the petition procedure to make it a back door avenue for immigration. As other nonimmigrants. international company visa holders will be eligible to apply for adjustment of status. However. those who apply for "L" visas are expected to be those whose employers contemplate a limited and temporary detail. not normally exceeding perhaps 1 to 3 years. This is not to say that bona fide requests for a renewal or extension should not be considered. nor should the "L" visa holder be barred from due consideration of an application for adjustment of status if he should subsequently decide to seek immigrant status. The committee anticipates that the petition procedure will be administered speedily and efficiently. so that while review will be thorough. it will not handicap the international companies with undue delays. Creation of this new category will correct an unanticipated consequence of the 1965 amendments and also meet a new and growing need for recognition of the worldwide nature of the responsibilities and problems faced by American businessmen.