Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Describe the decision structure
Identify the organization or major component directed, the goals and policies the applicant establishes and the discretion exercised. Explain the board’s actual oversight and reserved decisions. Broad discretion is not the same as unlimited authority; conversely, routine implementation under detailed instructions is not established as executive work by a title. Prepare a decision map covering an ordinary operating choice, a policy decision and a transaction reserved to the board. For each, identify who proposes, decides and implements it. Use the effective delegation and actual practice together; neither a broad written power that is never exercised nor an informal claim inconsistent with the governing record should be treated as self-explanatory. Describe what oversight the applicant receives and how often operational instructions are imposed. The point is to make the level of discretion visible, not to remove all oversight from the narrative. If powers change before transfer, compare the revised map with the duties supporting the requested U.S. role.
Establish the qualifying transfer
Establish a qualifying parent, subsidiary, affiliate or branch relationship, continuing regular business in the United States and at least one other country, and one continuous full-time qualifying foreign year within the relevant preceding three years. Ordinary foreign work may be managerial, executive or specialized knowledge; the U.S. role must meet the requested classification. U.S. visit days do not count toward the foreign year, although brief visits do not automatically break continuity.
Apply L-1A and the relevant office stage
For L-1A, the U.S. duties must be primarily managerial or executive. A new office means less than one year of qualifying U.S. business activity: the foreign year must specifically be managerial or executive, sufficient premises are needed and the U.S. operation must support that role within one year of approval. Initial new-office approval is at most one year. Owner or major-stockholder cases also need temporary U.S. services and subsequent foreign-assignment evidence.
Describe managerial or executive capacity by function
L-1A requires that the transferee will be employed in a primarily managerial or executive capacity, which is a description of what someone does rather than of what they are called. A manager directs the organization, a department or a function, supervises professional or supervisory staff or manages an essential function, and holds discretion over day-to-day operations. A petition listing strategic responsibilities while the same person quotes jobs, supervises no one and personally performs the service invites the conclusion that the proposed role is not primarily managerial or executive. The L definition of doing business concerns regular, systematic and continuous provision of goods or services, not simply having an agent or office. Exclude time spent in the US, while recognizing that qualifying brief trips do not themselves interrupt continuity. The U.S. position must be primarily managerial or executive: setting plant policy, directing supervisors, controlling hiring and budget. 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. A function-management case needs senior authority over an essential function, with someone performing its operating work; first-line supervision of nonprofessionals alone is insufficient.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-08. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.