IN THIS GUIDE · An agreement about shares is not the same record as the share register
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Establish the relationship from the records that create it
The petitioner and the foreign employer must stand in a qualifying relationship — parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate — and both must be doing business rather than existing on paper. That is proved by incorporation documents, the share register or membership schedule, subscription and transfer records, financial statements and tax filings for both entities. An agreement among shareholders may support the picture, but if it contemplates a transfer that never completed, or a subscription that was never paid, the register will say so. Where the two disagree, obtain the corrective record from the corporation itself rather than presenting the more convenient version. A corporate chart is only a starting point; dated ownership records settle whether the claimed relationship existed when it mattered.
Count the qualifying year against payroll, not memory
The employee must have been employed abroad for one continuous year within the three years immediately before the petition, in a managerial, executive or specialized-knowledge capacity, and with a qualifying entity. Each of those elements is checkable against records. Payroll registers, T4 slips and employment contracts establish the period and the employer. Job descriptions and organisation charts contemporary with the period establish the capacity. Interruptions matter: an unpaid leave, a change of employing entity within a group, or a period as a contractor rather than an employee can each break the continuity, and it is better to discover that from the records than from a request for evidence. Describe who performs routine work and who controls professional, managerial, or operational decisions in the proposed U.S. position.
Match the duties to the standard the category applies
L-1A requires duties that are primarily managerial or executive. 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. Executive duties involve directing management, establishing goals and policies and exercising wide latitude in decision-making. Write the proposed U.S. role as an hours-by-task description and test it against that language. L-1A is available for a maximum of seven years, a new-office petition is normally approved for one year initially, and an L-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status. For a young operation, test the staffing plan against the role after the initial period rather than assuming growth from a title alone.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.