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DIEPPE · L-1B FIELD GUIDE

Does knowledge of an older platform automatically qualify for the current assignment?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

No. Explain how the knowledge remains relevant and what the employee actually knows about the proposed work.

Distinguish transferable knowledge from gaps

Identify features or processes that remain and areas requiring further training. Do not claim mastery of a new system simply because the employee worked on an earlier version.

The regulation defines specialized knowledge as special knowledge of the petitioning organization's product, service, research, equipment, techniques, management or other interests and its application in international markets, or an advanced level of knowledge or expertise in the organization's processes and procedures. Start from the product: a hosted platform with a migration engine, a set of conversion rules for legacy appointment data, an internal escalation protocol, and a body of decisions about why the system behaves as it does in edge cases. L-1B concerns special knowledge of the company's products and international application, or advanced knowledge of its processes and procedures; ordinary software familiarity is not enough, although the information need not be secret or unique. Spending can corroborate how knowledge was acquired, but L-1B eligibility depends on special product knowledge or advanced process knowledge, a qualifying related organization, and one continuous foreign year during the relevant preceding three years. The practical choice is whether the assignment uses the particular organizational knowledge or instead describes routine production, customer support or skills available in the general labour market.