Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Map purchasing and service delivery without counting duties twice
Take one purchasing decision and one service-delivery issue and identify who decides, implements and performs the routine work. L-1A requires a primarily managerial or executive US role. Combining two hands-on functions does not create management, and a first-line supervisor of nonprofessional staff does not qualify through the title alone. Shared responsibilities should appear once in the account, with their actual scope explained.
Reconstruct the qualifying foreign year by role
Use employment dates and duties to establish a continuous full-time qualifying year abroad within the relevant three years. US days do not count, although qualifying brief visits need not break continuity. An ordinary L-1A case can use foreign managerial, executive or specialized-knowledge capacity; the US role is assessed separately. New-office L-1A specifically requires the foreign year in management or executive capacity, so identify what the person actually did during that period.
Connect both functions to real operating organizations
Prove the qualifying relationship to the receiving company and regular, systematic and continuous business in the US and another country. A department name or common brand does not establish the legal entities or their activity. Keep contracts and responsibilities aligned with the actual company providing each good or service.
Test the combined role against first-year resources
Determine whether US doing business is less than one year. A new-office L-1A proposal needs sufficient premises and evidence supporting the qualifying role within one year; its initial approval is capped at one year. Explain staffing for both functions and distinguish planned hires from existing support. If one function is removed, reassess the duties that remain instead of keeping the broader old role description.
Describe managerial or executive capacity by function
The relationship must be one of parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate, and the petition has to demonstrate it with corporate documents rather than describe it in a covering letter. Describe the proposed role the same way: which functions it directs, which decisions it makes without approval, which budgets and personnel it controls, and how it sits within the organization. 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. Business trips to the United States to set up the affiliate do not break the continuity of that year, but the days physically spent in the United States are not counted toward it. 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. The definition also reaches someone who manages an essential function of the organisation, operates at a senior level within it, and has authority over that function rather than merely performing it. An executive directs the management of the organisation or a major component, sets goals and policies, and works under only general supervision. Owner or major-stockholder cases also need temporary U.S. services and subsequent foreign-assignment evidence.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.