The petitioning employer files and pays the fees set out in the USCIS fee schedule, Form G-1055. A customer hosting the work is not the petitioner and should not be paying for the petition, because arrangements that look like the customer funding the worker undermine the argument that this is a service rather than labour supply.
Who pays is also evidence about who employs
Cost allocation in a group is usually treated as an accounting question, and in an offsite placement it becomes an evidentiary one. If the American affiliate recharges the customer for Devraj's time as a straightforward hourly rate, and the customer directs his day, the arrangement resembles labour for hire regardless of how the invoices are titled.
If the customer is buying a defined commissioning or upgrade package at a fixed price, delivered by the affiliate using its own personnel and its own supervision, the commercial documents support the petition instead of contradicting it. Beyond the government fees, budget for counsel's time in assembling the offsite evidence, for certified translations where a document is not in English, and for premium processing where an installation window cannot move.
- USCIS: L-1B Intracompany Transferee Specialized Knowledge
- USCIS Policy Manual: L-1 nonimmigrant classification
- 8 U.S.C. 1184(c)(2): L-1B placement at a third-party worksite
- eCFR: 8 CFR 214.2(l), Intracompany transferees
- USCIS Policy Manual: employment authorization for certain spouses
- USCIS: Form G-1055, Fee Schedule