Our client is a leading organization specializing in complete engineering, construction, maintenance, and fabrication solutions for energy and manufacturing industries. With a solid market presence, they’ve established a strong reputation for delivering critical infrastructure projects while maintaining the highest safety standards.
Key Challenges - Why did the client enlist our support?
The client won its first engineering scope for one of the largest LNG projects worldwide - a high-profile initiative to enhance the region's LNG export capabilities. To support the project, the client intended to transfer employees from its Japanese operation to the United States of America. However, this process was complicated by the diverse nationalities of the workforce, which included contractors from Malaysia, Britain, the Philippines, and South Africa.
As a result, the client required assistance in recruiting specialized talent and sought a partner that had in-depth knowledge of U.S. immigration laws - specifically regarding the L-1 Blanket Visa – and who could compliantly mobilize talent globally.
With our expertise and established global talent base, NES Fircroft emerged as the top and only partner the client could choose for completing the blanket transfer.
The L-1 Blanket Visa permits multinational companies to transfer multiple employees under a single petition from a foreign subsidiary office to the U.S., providing a cost-effective, streamlined solution that accelerates the transfer process. However, due to stringent eligibility criteria, only a few companies possess the legal capacity to facilitate these transfers.
Our Solution
NES Fircroft’s extensive experience in managing global mobility and visa compliance made us the ideal partner to address the client's challenges.
Understanding the project's isolated nature, our team conducted regular 1-1 onsite check-ins with hiring managers to gather feedback and provide ongoing support—an advantage of our fully operational offices in the U.S. This hands-on approach allowed us to address concerns promptly and ensure a smooth transition for the workforce.
Our pro-active approach to managing the client’s L-1 blanket visa process included:
- Engaging engineering contractors with specialized LNG skills to fill engineering, procurement, and leadership positions and placing them in Japan for 18 months before transferring them to the U.S. to ensure they met the visa’s eligibility criteria.
- Managing the entire logistical process for the employees and their families against staggered move dates, such as assisting with lease move-outs and relocation services, helping them to obtain social security numbers.
- Eliminating overhead costs associated with attorney fees and minimizing administrational burdens through leveraging our in-house services.
- Ensuring that all necessary documentation, such as resumés, degrees, and family details, was gathered promptly once the appropriate U.S. embassy was identified.
- Working closely with the U.S. embassy to expedite visa approvals and coordinating embassy visits to align with contractor rotation schedules, minimizing disruptions to work.
- Our compliance and legal team diligently working to all regulations, no matter how complex. Filipino workers needed extra documentation and government clearance, such as POEA and OEC approvals, which we handled.
The Results
By managing every aspect in-house, we minimised costs, reduced administrative burdens, and ensured that the client’s workforce was fully compliant and ready to support the LNG project.
We successfully facilitated the transfer of 10 senior-level engineering and procurement personnel to the project, utilising our expertise in L1 visa issuance and compliance management. Positions managed included:
- Contracts Manager
- Control Systems Engineer
- Cost Manager
- Estimating Lead
- Instrumentation Engineering Lead
- Information Management Lead
- Supply Chain Director
- Supply Chain Manager
Without our support, the client would have needed to rehire these positions in the U.S., which would have led to additional expenses and potential delays. Our support also contributed to employee retention by enabling skilled professionals to remain with the company while working on critical projects.
The client was thrilled with the quality of candidates we provided and the short time it took to mobilize the personnel with minimal disruption to their project schedule.