Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Date the authority granted by the acting appointment
Keep the appointment, extensions and actual decisions made under it together. Identify powers that were effective and those promised only for a later permanent promotion. The US role must be primarily managerial or executive; an acting title can neither prove nor defeat that requirement. Explain who performs operational work, including why any first-line supervision of nonprofessional workers is not the sole basis of the claim.
Do not apply the newest duties to every earlier month
Trace one continuous full-time foreign year within the relevant three-year period using the capacities actually held. Exclude time spent in the US, while recognizing that qualifying brief trips do not themselves interrupt continuity. Ordinary foreign qualifying capacity may be managerial, executive or specialized knowledge. A new-office L-1A case, however, needs the required year of foreign managerial or executive employment rather than an assumption that a recent acting appointment lasted throughout it.
Show the organizational and operating facts behind the appointment
Establish the qualifying company relationship and ongoing business in the US and at least one other country. The activity must be regular, systematic and continuous provision of goods or services, not merely registration. Record when US operations actually began; less than one year of doing business brings the new-office framework into the assessment.
Compare the US resources with the authority being proposed
For a new office, show sufficient premises and how the operation will support the qualifying managerial or executive position within one year. Initial approval cannot exceed one year. Identify resources and responsibilities available now and update the record if the acting appointment expires. A promised permanent promotion should remain a future event until it actually takes effect.
Identify the ownership and the required assignment evidence
The qualifying relationship for an intracompany transfer may be parent and subsidiary, a branch, or an affiliate, and affiliation includes two entities owned and controlled by the same group of individuals in approximately the same proportion. Identify direction of management of the organization or a major component or function, establishment of goals and policies, wide discretionary authority and the general oversight received. Managerial duties involve managing the organisation or a department, subdivision, function or component, supervising professional or supervisory staff, or managing an essential function at a senior level. Owner or major-stockholder cases also require the applicable temporary-service and subsequent foreign-assignment evidence. Ownership is not a substitute for primarily managerial or executive duties, and total L-1A stay is generally capped at seven years. With three subordinates in the first year, the petition should choose its ground carefully: a function manager who owns quoting, scheduling and supplier qualification, with authority over an outsourced engineering firm and a contract programmer, is a stronger description than an executive who supervises nobody. The seven-year maximum applies to time in L-1A, and periods spent in L-1B count toward it, so a transferee who already spent time in the United States should locate prior I-94 records before the group commits to a multi-year plan. Decision authority, managed staff or function, budgets, and the people who perform routine work are the records that show whether the role is principally managerial or executive.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.