IN THIS GUIDE · Prove the entity relationship before relying on group management titles
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Identify the organizations using legal records
Hypothetical example: a manager oversees work branded under one group name, but the U.S. and foreign businesses have separate ownership arrangements. Trace actual ownership and control to assess parent, subsidiary, branch or affiliate status. Do not assume a commercial partnership is the required immigration relationship.
Show the person’s actual authority
Describe decisions, reporting lines and who performs operational work. A function manager must primarily manage rather than perform the function. The group title and number of entities supervised do not alone establish the substantive role or replace evidence of support.
Connect foreign employment to the real employer
Provide dates, duties and physical work locations for the actual employing entity. Explain relevant corporate changes accurately. An organizational diagram does not establish the applicant’s qualifying employment period or show that regular business activity occurred.
Assess any new U.S. operation separately
If the U.S. organization has been doing business for less than one year, L-1A new-office evidence includes sufficient premises, required foreign managerial or executive employment and ability to support the intended managerial or executive role within one year of approval. Initial new-office approval is limited to at most one year.
Establish the qualifying foreign year and active organizations
The foreign employment generally must include one continuous full-time qualifying year within the relevant preceding three-year period, assessed on the individual facts. U.S. days do not count toward that foreign year; a trip should not automatically be treated as breaking continuity. The qualifying organization must do business in the United States and at least one other country during the relevant period, through regular, systematic and continuous provision of goods or services rather than registration alone. For an ordinary L petition, the qualifying foreign work may be managerial, executive or specialized knowledge; the U.S. duties must meet the requested classification. New-office L-1A specifically requires managerial or executive foreign employment.
Connect service to the proposed managerial assignment
Identify the organization or major component directed, policies established and discretion exercised. A manager may qualify by supervising and controlling the work of other supervisory, professional or managerial employees, or by managing an essential function of the organization at a senior level without direct supervision of staff. The US subsidiary must be a parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate of the Canadian employer, shown by share certificates, articles and, if there are holding companies in between, a chart with percentages at each level. Continuing involvement with the foreign entity is common and is not by itself a problem, but the proposed position still has to be primarily managerial or executive and actually performed. A new operation abroad is normally approved initially for one year with evidence of secured premises and the capacity to support the role, and the managerial classification carries a seven-year outer limit. Owner or major-stockholder cases also require the applicable temporary-service and subsequent foreign-assignment evidence. The practical decision is whether the proposed role is primarily managerial or executive, or whether it remains hands-on despite senior-sounding language. Brief U.S. visits need not interrupt continuity, but their days are excluded from the foreign year.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.