Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Establish who the legal employer was, month by month
The qualifying year must be with the foreign entity or with a qualifying organization related to the U.S. company. Where an operating business and an administrative company sit side by side, the tax slips will name one of them while the day-to-day work belongs to the other. Obtain the intercompany services agreement, the payroll registers and the tax filings, then establish whether the paying entity is itself a parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate of the petitioner. If it is not, the qualifying year may have to be evidenced differently, or dated from a different period entirely.
Prove the relationship in both directions
Document ownership from the top down: who owns the management company, who owns the packing business, who owns the new U.S. subsidiary, and in what proportions. Share registers, articles, resolutions and, where a family trust or holding company sits above them, the instruments governing it. Common ownership can create a qualifying affiliate relationship, but only where the ownership and control genuinely are the same and can be shown to be. A family's shared understanding of who owns what is not evidence, and in practice it is frequently inaccurate.
Describe management of a function, not a title
Managerial capacity includes managing an essential function of the organization even without direct reports, provided the function is genuinely essential and the manager operates at a senior level with real discretion. Hypothetical example: the general manager will own procurement, co-packing scheduling and customer accounts while a small U.S. team is recruited. Name the function, show why it is essential, describe the discretion he holds, and identify who performs the routine work within it. A function manager who in practice performs that routine work himself does not meet the standard.
Show that both entities are doing business
Doing business means the regular, systematic and continuous provision of goods or services, not merely the existence of an agent or an office. For a new subsidiary that is proved forward: signed customer agreements, purchase orders, a lease, insurance, a funded bank account and a hiring schedule. For the Canadian company it is proved backward, with financial statements, tax filings and trading records. A dormant company on either side of the relationship will fail this condition regardless of how strong the manager's own employment history happens to look.
Distinguish supervising professionals from supervising a function
Directing an operation, setting its goals, controlling its budget and supervising other supervisors or professionals points one way; personally routing trucks, loading, and covering shifts points another, however senior the title. Where an employee primarily supervises staff who are neither professional nor themselves supervisory, the statute treats that person as a first-line supervisor rather than a manager, unless the employees supervised are professionals.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.