Skip to content
USAvisaU.S. VISA SUPPORTLarouche
Let’s talk
FOR BUSINESS LEADERS · LAROUCHELarouche

Built in Canada.Ready for more.

Suppose a Saguenay professional worked with a company under several arrangements before becoming its manager. A proposed L-1A transfer requires a careful review of the qualifying employment abroad, not just the date the business relationship began. Invoices, employment records and actual duties may establish different facts. The first decision is whether the history proves qualifying foreign employment and whether the U.S. position is genuinely managerial or executive. Build a dated record of employer, payroll, duties, reporting lines, and related-entity ownership before describing the transfer. The person must have completed one continuous year with the related foreign organization during the preceding three years, and L-1A stay is generally limited to seven years.

Talk about L-1A
PurposeExecutive or managerial transfer
Company linkQualifying related businesses
New officeA distinct evidence requirement
01

Reconstruct the employment relationship

Identify the actual employer, terms and duties during each period. Do not assume every consulting engagement equals qualifying employment or that a commercial label answers the whole question. Apply the relevant rules to the real arrangement. A title is not the decision point. Identify who performs the operational work, which staff or essential function the transferee manages, and what authority is exercised. Payroll, reporting records, and contemporaneous role materials are stronger than a chart designed only for the petition.

02

Establish the transfer and role

Establish the qualifying corporate relationship and generally one continuous full-time year of qualifying foreign employment within the relevant preceding three years. Under the ordinary L rule, that foreign role may be managerial, executive or specialized knowledge; the proposed US L-1A role must itself be primarily managerial or executive. Brief US trips need not break continuity, but their days do not count toward the foreign year. Show who performs the underlying operational work. Keep the relationship evidence separate from the employment evidence. Ownership records may prove that organizations are related, but they do not by themselves prove a qualifying managerial or executive position. The analysis should identify both links and every change in the organization’s structure.

03

Check the US office framework

An organization doing business in the United States for less than one year falls within the new-office definition. L-1A requires sufficient premises, the required foreign managerial or executive employment, and evidence that the operation will support a qualifying managerial or executive role within one year of petition approval. Initial new-office approval is limited to one year. Registration alone does not establish regular business activity. For a new office, use a one-year operating plan tied to actual premises, funding, staffing, and management needs. The initial approval has a one-year limit. The next review will examine what the business actually became, so unsupported promises should be identified before filing.

SOURCES FOR THIS GUIDE

Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.

PUT THE DETAILS TO WORK

Guides for your next decision.

Applicant planning

Keep an L-1A new-office record from approval to extension

Read & prepare
L-1A · LAROUCHE

YOUR QUESTIONS.
A CLEARER START.

KEEP EXPLORING

A LITTLE MORE CLARITY.

BUSINESS EXPANSION

Support the manager’s role when customer work is escalated

Read the guide PATHWAY COMPARISON

Compare the actual employee role with the acquisition’s current stage

Read the guide LIFE ACROSS THE BORDER

Budget family needs using actual status and instructed expenses

Read the guide