Update the team record and review how the departure affects the applicant’s actual duties and support.
Describe the interim allocation
Identify who performs the departed worker’s tasks. Do not continue using a chart that implies the role remains filled if the applicant now performs that operational work.
Record petition validity and the actual admission or change/extension-of-status documents as applicable; an approval notice without a granted change or extension of status does not itself establish admission or work status. File once the year abroad, the current organizational chart and the interim Canadian management are documented, and allow for adjudication time or premium processing before the intended start date. Start by checking whether the twelve-month employee year is complete; if it finishes in two months, the petition cannot be filed until then, and the retiring manager should be asked to stay on part-time or a US employee should act in the interim. Use the foreign employment record as the anchor, then map corporate approvals, premises, staffing plans, petition preparation, and the employee’s notice period around it. The transferee must retain qualifying L-1A duties, and the underlying record must show one continuous foreign year within the pertinent three-year period. 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.