IN THIS GUIDE · Explain actual executive duties behind a board appointment
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Identify the duties actually performed
Hypothetical example: an applicant is appointed to a senior position while retaining substantial service delivery. Explain real decisions, authority and operating work. A board title alone does not establish primarily managerial or executive duties. Compare the appointment resolution with a realistic working week after the transfer. Identify decisions the officer can make without further approval and the people who will continue handling customer delivery. If the appointment changes only the title, say so. If authority or staffing will actually change, identify the effective date and supporting arrangements. The board can establish corporate powers, but a broad authorization to act for the company does not show how the applicant will primarily spend the working day.
Show support and responsibility
Identify the organization’s resources and who performs routine work. For a function manager, explain the essential function, senior-level role and operational support. There is no universal headcount or fixed task-percentage shortcut. 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 qualifying employment and corporate relationships
Generally document one continuous qualifying foreign year within the relevant preceding three years and a qualifying parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate relationship. The organizations must continue qualifying business in the United States and abroad. An appointment does not create historical employment.
Apply the actual operating-stage requirements
New-office L-1A needs sufficient premises, qualifying foreign managerial or executive employment and support for the U.S. role within one year of approval. Initial approval is at most one year. Label future resources and appointments accurately. 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.
Function management needs a function, not a title
A managerial claim looks at whether the person manages an organisation, department, subdivision, function or component; supervises and controls professional or supervisory staff, or manages an essential function; and exercises discretion over day-to-day operations. A general manager who directs installation supervisors, approves bids, hires and disciplines staff, and sets the subsidiary's operating budget meets the definition. For a plant role that means directing supervisors or managing an essential function, setting production policy, controlling hiring and budgets, rather than running a saw line. An executive primarily directs management, sets goals and policy, and operates under wide latitude. L-1A status is generally subject to a seven-year maximum, so the review also needs the applicant’s prior L time and any recapture question; a senior title cannot answer either issue. Counting heads is not the test, but a manager with no subordinate professionals or supervisors and a day spent doing installations personally is a technician with a title.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.