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APPLICATION ANSWERS · L-1A FIELD GUIDE

Can shareholder agreements replace employment records?

Sources checked:

THE DIRECT ANSWER

They may establish governance facts but not necessarily the required foreign employment or actual duties.

Use separate evidence for separate requirements

Provide genuine employment dates, locations and role records alongside the entity relationship documents.

Primary corporate records rather than descriptions: share registers or certificates for both entities, the executed purchase agreement with its closing documents, director resolutions, and financial statements or contracts showing each company actively trading. Any management services agreement or engagement contract, the invoices and payment records, corporate minutes describing the role, tax filings for both the individual and the personal corporation, and whatever payroll records exist for any period of direct employment. The records that prove rather than describe are payroll statements, employment contracts and amendments, transfer and secondment letters, leave approvals, resignation and rehire letters, pension or social insurance records, and passport pages showing entries and exits. For trading, the American side needs to look like a working business rather than an acquisition on a balance sheet: recent payroll registers, current service agreements with turbine owners, issued invoices, lease or premises documents and a filed federal return.