Is it possible to import an object directly into a specific layer?

I am using the multiprocessing package in Python to do renderings in parallel. Meanwhile the rendering is being done I want to import an object into layer X to start rendering it right after the previous renderings are done. However, it seems that I need to switch the scene’s active layer to layer X (as also suggested here) and import the object there in the just-actived layer so rendering will not be done properly (or at all). It seems that the obj import function also does not provide anything for this.
Using Blender’s Python API, does anyone know if it is possible to import an object directly into a specific layer so that the rendering pipeline will continue doing its job?