Recent data released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reveals that denial rates on L-1B nonimmigrant visas remain high.  The L-1B visa is an intracompany transferee visa for individuals with “specialized knowledge.”  More specifically the visa requires “special knowledge possessed by an individual 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.”  The recent years have marked a notable increase in Requests for Evidence and ultimate petition denials.  USCIS statistics show that in the first Quarter of the 2015 fiscal year, the agency processed 3,278 applications.  Of the applications processed, 1,020 (or 31%) were denied.  The L-1B visa category is further troubled by the large number of Requests for Evidence that are issued prior to final approval or denial.  In a March blog post on the L-1B draft policy memo, we discussed the increased scrutiny of L-1B visas.  These recent statistics further prove that the L-1B continues to be a challenging visa category.