IN THIS GUIDE · Distinguish authority over separate functions from doing all their work
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Identify the primary role across the functions
L-1A requires primarily managerial or executive duties. A function manager acts at a senior level over an essential function and manages rather than principally performs it. First-line supervision of nonprofessional workers alone is insufficient. Explain how time and authority are used without assuming that responsibility for many subjects proves qualifying management.
Show the real qualifying organization
Actual ownership and control must establish a parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate relationship. The group must regularly, systematically and continuously do business in the United States and at least one other country throughout the stay. Separate operating evidence from a chart of entities that have no genuine current business.
Establish the individual’s qualifying foreign work
Generally the person needs a continuous full-time foreign year within the relevant preceding three years. The ordinary L rule accepts managerial, executive or specialized-knowledge foreign work, with the U.S. role assessed independently. U.S. days do not count toward the year although brief visits need not break continuity. Several colleagues’ combined employment cannot establish this individual requirement.
Apply the new-office conditions to the actual launch
A U.S. organization doing business for less than one year is a new office. L-1A requires the foreign year specifically managerial or executive, sufficient premises and support for the qualifying U.S. role within one year of approval; initial approval is capped at one year. An owner or major stockholder also needs temporary U.S. service and subsequent foreign-assignment evidence. Multiple planned functions do not remove the need for real operational support.
Describe managerial or executive capacity by function
L-1A status is subject to a seven-year maximum, and a new office is normally approved initially for one year with evidence of secured premises and the capacity to support the role, after which continuation depends on what the branch has actually become. If the U.S. operation would be newly established, address secured premises and a credible plan for supporting a managerial or executive role within one year, and keep the actual results for the later extension filing. Managing people means directing subordinate supervisors or professional staff, with authority over hiring, firing and their day-to-day direction. Managerial capacity can rest on directing an essential function rather than on supervising a headcount, and in a matrixed structure that is frequently the more accurate description of what the position actually does. If the transferee is the only layer, describe instead the essential function managed and the professional or supervisory staff relieved of routine duties. The activity must be regular, systematic and continuous provision of goods or services, not merely registration. Executive capacity is a further alternative again, resting on direction of the organization or a major component with wide latitude in discretionary decision-making. The Canadian company and the U.S. subsidiary must be parent and subsidiary, branch, or affiliates under common ownership, shown by share registers and incorporation documents, and both must continue active operations for the whole period.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-08. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.