IN THIS GUIDE · Explain how the foreign operation continues when a key manager transfers
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Describe the operation after the transfer
Hypothetical example: a manager currently handles several foreign business responsibilities. Identify who will perform the remaining work and how actual goods or services continue. A registered company and unused address alone do not establish ongoing business.
Show the real qualifying relationship
Establish the actual parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate relationship and qualifying operations in the United States and abroad. Explain ownership and control rather than relying on common branding or the applicant’s involvement in both businesses. A function manager must act at a senior level over an essential function and primarily manage it. First-line supervision of nonprofessional workers alone is insufficient.
Preserve the individual role and employment evidence
Generally document one continuous qualifying foreign year within the relevant preceding three years and actual managerial or executive duties. Explain the proposed U.S. authority and who performs operational work. A senior title or staffing total is not a universal shortcut.
Apply new-office conditions where relevant
New-office L-1A needs sufficient premises, a qualifying foreign managerial or executive year and support for the U.S. role within one year of approval. Initial approval cannot exceed one year. Planned continuity arrangements should be identified as plans. A new office means less than one year of U.S. doing business. An owner or major stockholder must also show temporary U.S. services and a subsequent foreign assignment.
Establish the qualifying foreign year and active organizations
The qualifying foreign employment generally must be one continuous full-time year within the relevant preceding three years. Its capacity may be managerial, executive or specialized knowledge under the ordinary L rule; the proposed U.S. role has its own category test. Brief U.S. trips do not necessarily interrupt continuity, but U.S. days do not count toward the foreign year. The qualifying group must provide goods or services regularly, systematically and continuously in the United States and at least one other country throughout the relevant stay; registration alone is insufficient.
Prepare the foreign managerial or executive history
An executive directs the management of the organization, sets goals and policies, exercises wide discretion and receives only general supervision from a board or shareholders. Managing an essential function without staff reporting to you is recognized in principle, but the evidence must distinguish managing the function from personally performing its underlying work. An L-1A transferee to an established US operation may be granted up to three years initially, with extensions to a maximum of seven years in that classification. The U.S. company must be a parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate of the Canadian one, evidenced by registry extracts, articles, share registers and the resolutions that issued the shares. The regulation treats a manager as someone who manages the organization, a department or an essential function, supervises other supervisory, professional or managerial employees or manages a function, and has authority over hiring, firing and day-to-day operations. A service-delivery director who sets staffing levels, approves client contracts, hires and disciplines engineers and controls the operating budget is managing an organization or function at a senior level. Sequence the review from the foreign payroll and leave history to corporate ownership records, then to US premises, budgets, and the organizational chart. Where the subsidiary is small, an essential-function theory may fit better than a personnel-management one, but it has to be described honestly and supported by what the operation actually looks like.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.