This Land Is Your Land: Foreign Debtors in Chapter 11

In the past few years, foreign debtors such as the Singer Company N.V. (a Netherlands Antilles corporation), Global Telesystems Europe B.V. (a Dutch corporation), Cenargo Inter- national Plc. (a British corporation), Versatel Telecom International N.V., and United Pan-Europe Communications N.V. (both Dutch corporations) have filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions in the United States. Some of these debtors were large multinationals with assets in many jurisdictions, including the U.S., but other foreign debtors in Chapter 11 have had only minimal assets in the U.S. What special considerations arise when a non-U.S. debtor with only limited assets in the U.S. files a Chapter 11 petition?