U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has designated Matter of S-P-, Inc., as an Adopted Decision. The adopted decision “establishes policy guidance that applies to and shall be used to guide determinations by all [USCIS] employees. USCIS personnel are directed to follow the reasoning in this decision in similar cases,” the agency said.
Matter of S-P- clarifies that a beneficiary who worked abroad for a qualifying multinational organization for at least one year, but left its employ for a period of more than two years after being admitted to the United States as a nonimmigrant, does not satisfy the “one-in-three” foreign employment requirement for immigrant classification as a multinational manager or executive. “To cure the interruption in employment, such a beneficiary would need an additional year of qualifying employment abroad before he or she could once again qualify,” USCIS said.
In Matter of S-P-, the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) agreed with the petitioner that a period of employment with a different U.S. employer would not automatically disqualify a beneficiary. However, “a break in qualifying employment longer than two years will interrupt a beneficiary’s continuity of employment with the petitioner’s multinational organization. Such breaks may include, but are not limited to, intervening employment with a nonqualifying U.S. employer or periods of stay in a nonimmigrant status without work authorization,” the AAO said.
The memorandum, issued March 19, 2018, includes the decision.