In another effort to tighten legal immigration, CBP and USCIS announced in a conference call that they are rolling out a pilot program to eliminate “on-the-spot” L-1s and TNs NAFTA adjudications at the border.

The program will first be implemented at the Blaine Washington State port of entry starting April 30, 2018. The current in-person border application will be replaced with a mail-in application, which might take 3-5 days of adjudication through the California Service Center, with no premium processing surcharge. For filing, the applicant must file all the previously required documentation and a special cover letter that will be available online.

For now, only the Blaine port of entry will be part of this rollout. Other ports will continue to adjudicate L-1s and TNs as previously. Nevertheless, the new process is expected to be available for any qualifying Canadian wanting to use the in-mail method.

This process will eliminate some of the uncertainty with border applications, but it also eliminates some of the advantages of processing at the border, including one-day processing and the ability to speak to a person and have some control over the adjudication.