Read the general business expansion overview
Hypothetical example: a Cantley custom-cabinetry manufacturer with thirty employees ships to U.S. designers and wants a showroom and sales office in a U.S. market, run by its sales director of five years. A new-office L-1A is approved for at most one year, and by the end of that year the office must support her as a manager or executive. The petition succeeds or fails on three exhibits: a lease for real premises, a financed plan with hiring dates, and proof that her Canadian year was itself managerial. Hypothetical example: a specialty-lighting importer has a lease but plans to postpone all hiring until sales arrive. The concrete decision is whether the first-year forecast can support a manager at the extension stage, not merely whether the office can open. The budget, hiring dates, and payroll assumptions are the records that settle it. If the founder will still perform every sale and delivery after a year, the business plan needs revision before filing.
Prove the premises and the corporate link at filing
The regulation requires evidence that sufficient physical premises for the new office have been secured, and a showroom is well suited to that because it needs real space. Attach the signed lease with floor plan, the certificate of formation of the U.S. subsidiary, the resolution of the Canadian company authorizing the investment, the funded U.S. bank account and the manufacturer’s own financial statements showing it can support the office. The subsidiary must be owned and controlled by the Canadian company so that the qualifying relationship exists on the filing date. A mailbox or a shared desk will not satisfy the premises requirement for a showroom business.
Write the plan around the position the office must support
USCIS asks whether the U.S. operation will, within a year, be able to support a managerial or executive position. The business plan should set out the showroom investment, the products and pricing, the target designers, a hiring schedule with a showroom assistant in the first quarter and a sales representative by mid-year, and a description of the director’s duties evolving from setup to managing staff, budgets and dealer relationships. If she will be the only person in the showroom after twelve months, personally selling and coordinating deliveries, the extension petition will fail. The plan is a commitment the extension will be measured against.
Confirm her own qualifying year and plan the family
She must have one continuous year in the last three with the Canadian manufacturer in a managerial, executive or specialized-knowledge capacity; five years as sales director supervising representatives satisfies it, and the organizational chart, her job description and payroll prove it. The Canadian company must keep trading throughout. Her spouse in L-2 status is employment-authorized incident to status; children may study only. Total L-1A time is capped at seven years. Diary the extension filing for month ten so that payroll records, sales figures and the updated chart are gathered while the year’s evidence is still easy to collect.
Treat the first year as an evidence-building period. Keep payroll, client contracts, revenue reports, and an updated chart showing who performs operational work. The decision at extension is whether the office supports a manager or executive rather than whether the transferred person worked hard. If staffing falls behind the plan, revise the business facts early; a last-minute chart without payroll support will not cure the problem.
What else is on your mind?
Does being a business owner or director qualify me for L-1A?What employment history should an L-1 transfer review cover?What makes a new-office L-1A case different?Why does an L-2 spouse’s admission record matter for work?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.