Assess the duties actually performed, not simply the seniority of the person being covered.
Show the actual allocation during the interval
Some responsibilities may involve direction while others are hands-on delivery. Explain the full work pattern and support rather than assume that a temporary appointment satisfies every L-1A capacity requirement.
Reconstruct the temporary coverage job by allocating time among personnel decisions, budgets, policy, supervision of professional staff, customer delivery, and hands-on production. L-1A requires the proposed US position to be primarily managerial or executive; inheriting a leader’s title or signature authority does not settle that question. Also verify one continuous year of qualifying employment abroad during the relevant prior three years and a qualifying parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate relationship between the foreign organization and US entity. Show who will perform routine operational work while the transferee directs the function or organization. A common mistake is counting every urgent task as management, which can reveal that the employee will principally deliver the service personally. If the US operation is a new office, the beneficiary’s qualifying foreign year must have been in a managerial or executive capacity, the initial approval is limited to no more than one year, and the evidence should show that sufficient physical premises have been secured, the size of the US investment, the foreign entity’s financial ability to remunerate the beneficiary and commence doing business, and capacity to support the qualifying role within that period.
Hypothetical example: A wood-products procurement manager near Ferland-et-Boilleau is asked to cover a US director’s leave. Her schedule shows vendor negotiations she personally conducts, decisions reserved to her, and analysts handling purchase administration; the company then tests whether managerial work remains primary rather than relying on the absent director’s title.