Built in Canada.Ready for more.

Read the year-abroad rule with its capacity requirement

L-1 requires that within the three years before filing the applicant was employed abroad continuously for one year by the qualifying organization, and the petition must show that the prior year of employment was in a position that was managerial, executive or involved specialized knowledge. The capacity abroad and the capacity in the United States need not be the same: a specialized-knowledge employee abroad may be transferred into a managerial role. So the question for the Cantley manager is whether her senior-analyst work involved advanced knowledge of the firm’s proprietary evaluation methodology, not whether she managed people then.

What to ask the employer before choosing a filing date

Ask the partners to describe, with dates, what the senior-analyst role actually involved: did she apply the firm’s own frameworks, train colleagues on them, or lead workstreams that depended on them? Ask for the promotion letter, both job descriptions and the organizational charts before and after. Ask whether the firm would prefer to wait eight months so that a full year in the managerial role is on the record, which removes the argument entirely. Ask who will run the Cantley practice when she leaves, because the foreign entity must keep doing business throughout.

Prove the U.S. role is primarily managerial from the start

For an established affiliate, the U.S. position must be primarily managerial or executive on day one. Managing a practice means supervising professional staff or managing an essential function with discretion over its daily operations, setting budgets and having hiring authority. A practice manager who will personally write most of the client deliverables is performing, not managing. The petition should include the U.S. organizational chart, the engagement contract, the staff she will supervise and their qualifications, and a time-allocation statement. The maximum stay in L-1A is seven years; L-2 spouses are employment-authorized incident to status.

Document the affiliate relationship on the filing date

Affiliates qualify when the same individuals own and control both entities in approximately the same proportions, or when one entity owns and controls both. Provide the partnership or shareholder agreements for both firms, the capitalization tables, and financial statements showing both are trading. If a partner has recently sold down her interest in one firm and not the other, the proportions may no longer match, so check the ownership as it stands on the filing date rather than as it was when the affiliate was formed.

The decision record should identify who makes hiring, budget, and work-allocation decisions after the transfer. A chart without names, qualifications, and reporting lines does not show that the U.S. role is managerial. If the affiliate needs her to deliver most client work personally for the first months, the employer should say how that temporary work gives way to supervision and function management before filing.