What is a deemed export?
Showing controlled technology to a foreign person inside the United States counts as exporting it to their country. Nothing has to ship.
Written for: Anyone with a mixed nationality technical team
The short answer
- A release to a foreign person is an export to their country.
- Screen shares, repositories, and vendor administrators are all release paths.
- The two regimes count nationality differently.
- Fix it with real access control, recorded, not with hiring policy.
The idea
If controlled technology is released to a foreign person, the regulations treat it as an export to the country of that person's nationality, whether or not anyone crosses a border. The name is unhelpful. Nothing is deemed in any ordinary sense; a release happened and the rules describe where it went.
How a release actually happens
Verbal explanation in a meeting. A shared screen. Adding someone to a repository. A design review. Access to a file server. A support engineer at a vendor with administrative rights over the system holding the data. Visual inspection can be enough where the item reveals the controlled information by being looked at.
Where the analysis differs between regimes
The two regimes do not count nationality the same way. The ITAR analysis considers every country in which the person holds or has held citizenship and every country of permanent residency. The EAR analysis for a person in the United States generally looks to the most recent citizenship or permanent residency, subject to the exact rule that applies. Recording the decision matters more than recording the person's history: collect only what you lawfully need.
The practical control
Access lists that mean something. Repositories scoped by program rather than by company. A rule that new systems and new vendors get reviewed before data goes into them. Most deemed export problems are access control problems that nobody wrote down.
The rules behind this
- 15 CFR 734.13
- 15 CFR 734.20
- 22 CFR 120.50
This is a plain reading of published rules, not legal advice, and it is not a determination about your item. What decides your case is your exact configuration, your parties, and your destination. The limits, in full.
Next
Related questions
ITAR or EAR, which one applies to me?
Two regimes, two agencies, and the wrong guess is expensive. The test is what the item is and what it was designed for, not what industry you are in.
What does EAR99 actually mean?
It means no Commerce entry describes your item. It does not mean you can ship it anywhere, and it is not a licence.
Can I hire an engineer who is not a U.S. citizen?
Yes. Export control regulates what you show them, not who you employ, and treating it as a hiring rule creates a different legal problem.
Does encryption in my product trigger export controls?
Often yes, and it is a separate question from whatever else the product does. There are workable exceptions, and each has conditions you must actually meet.