Read the general business expansion overview
The evidence should show sufficient premises for the proposed operation, not simply an impressive address or a lease total. Describe access, facilities and the actual business activities they support.
Connect premises to the operation
Describe the space in terms of what the business will do in it. Hypothetical example: the group has a desk allocation in a shared workspace, but the plan is to calibrate and repair instruments, which needs a bench, controlled power, secured storage for customer equipment and a loading point. Say what exists today, on what terms and for how long, and say what still has to be arranged, with the quotations or draft leases that support it. There is no fixed square-footage rule, and premises adequate for a design studio may be plainly inadequate for a workshop, so the comparison that matters is between the space and the intended activity. A registered mailing address, on its own, describes correspondence rather than operations.
Apply the relevant new-office category
The new-office provisions apply where the United States entity has been doing business for less than a year. For a manager or executive, the petition has to show the qualifying employment abroad in that capacity, premises sufficient for the proposed operation, and that the business will within one year of approval be far enough along to support a role that is genuinely managerial or executive rather than one absorbed in setting the office up. For a specialized-knowledge worker the elements differ: qualifying knowledge of the company’s own product, process or procedures, the qualifying employment abroad, sufficient premises, and evidence that the petitioner has the financial ability to pay the employee and to begin doing business. Approval of a new office is granted for one year at the outset.
Keep other qualifying evidence visible
The rest of the file does not become easier because the premises are settled. The two entities must stand in a qualifying parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate relationship, and the group must continue doing business in the United States and in at least one other country throughout. A lease establishes occupancy; it cannot establish the employee’s year abroad or the duties actually performed. Where the beneficiary is an owner or major stockholder, the petition must also address the temporary nature of the United States service and the assignment abroad to follow. An extension at the end of the first year turns on what the business has actually done — staff engaged, revenue earned, operations under way — rather than on the term of the lease. The underlying employment requirement remains a single continuous full-time year with the qualifying group abroad, completed within the three years before the petition. The capacity of that year may be managerial, executive or specialized-knowledge, while the position proposed in the United States is tested against the category claimed for it. Short visits to the United States during the year do not necessarily break its continuity, although days spent there are not credited toward it. And for a new-office specialized-knowledge case, sufficient premises and the financial ability to pay the employee and to begin doing business are required alongside the qualifying knowledge itself.
What else is on your mind?
Does being a business owner or director qualify me for L-1A?What employment history should an L-1 transfer review cover?What makes a new-office L-1A case different?Why does an L-2 spouse’s admission record matter for work?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.