[pandaman]

There are two requirements for L1: working for a related (subsidiary, parent, etc) company abroad for 1 year and having "specialized" skills. Apart from the 1 year requirement it's weaker than H1-B as it does not put any requirements on education or salary. Furthermore, a big enough company can get a "blanket L1", which does not require DOL certification like H1-B. Did I mention there is no cap on this and you can have as many L1 workers as you wish?

1 year requirement is not a big deal: everyone using these has already offices all over the world so they hire somebody in a foreign office, wait one year and transfer to the US, considering that H1-B is a lottery it's faster than getting an H1-B from abroad on average. And, bonus, unlike H1-B, the L1 workers cannot easily jump to another employer: for a new job with a different employer they need to get some other visa, likely H1B, and, unlike a worker who already has an H1B, go through lottery. And if you fire them they will have much more trouble staying in the country: a new H1B application will take at least 6 months (file on April 1st, get the status on October 1st, if you won the lottery and did not get any RFEs) so they likely will run over 180 days out of status and get banned from the US for 3 years unless they find some other status like F (student), which won't let them work anyways so they will have to live off the savings they've made from their lavish L1 compensation.

Essentially it has all problems of H1 plus its own: less scrutiny, no salary requirements, stronger bond with the employer.

Hope this explanation helps.