IN THIS GUIDE · Identify which adult has the qualifying management transfer
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Assign the qualifying history to the actual transferee
Hypothetical example: one adult manages a company abroad while the spouse owns a separate business. Generally one continuous qualifying foreign employment year within the relevant preceding three years must be established for the proposed transferee. A spouse’s employment history does not supply a missing period for the applicant.
Describe the actual managerial or executive role
Explain the transferee’s primary duties, decision authority and who performs operational work. A function manager primarily manages an essential function rather than personally performing it. Do not combine the couple’s responsibilities into one qualifying role or use a fixed headcount as an automatic test.
Prove the relevant organizations and operations
Establish actual parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate relationships, ownership and control, and doing business. A household relationship does not itself establish the corporate relationship between two businesses. Use genuine records of the organizations involved in the transfer.
Support the launch and separate spouse plan
For a U.S. organization doing business for less than one year, L-1A needs sufficient premises, qualifying foreign managerial or executive employment and capacity to support the intended U.S. role within one year of approval. Initial approval is limited to at most one year. Qualifying L spouse work permission should be assessed through actual status evidence, not assumed from a staffing projection.
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.
Explain authority and organizational support
Identify the essential function or personnel managed, the applicant’s actual discretion and the people or resources delivering routine tasks. Access to the managerial maximum involves applicable requirements; a promotion label does not automatically grant additional time. Managerial capacity ordinarily means managing the organization, a department, or a function, with authority over supervisory or professional staff, or managing an essential function at a senior level. Where personnel management is claimed, document authority over managerial, supervisory or professional employees rather than relying on a generic right to recommend hiring. An owner or major stockholder also needs the applicable evidence of temporary U.S. services and a subsequent foreign assignment. A job description copied from the Canadian post is a warning sign if the U.S. operation is much smaller; explain the actual U.S. staff, the organizational chart and the reason the role remains managerial there. For a new office, the one-year approval is a planning checkpoint: the later extension record must show that the U.S. operation has developed enough to support a managerial or executive position. The category is capped at seven years, and the review should say early whether the intended role is truly managerial or is a hands-on position wearing a management title.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.