Read the general business expansion overview
Hypothetical example: a timber-frame home manufacturer based in L'Ange-Gardien has enough U.S. orders to justify a permanent sales-and-installation office and wants to send its sales director to open it. No U.S. entity exists yet. A new-office L-1A petition is approved for one year, and the extension at the end of that year is decided on what the office has actually become. This guide explains what must exist before the petition can be filed, what the one-year plan has to show and how to run the first year so the extension is a formality rather than a second contest.
Before filing: an entity, a lease and a chart
A new-office petition cannot be filed on intentions. The U.S. company must be formed and owned or controlled by the Canadian manufacturer so that the qualifying relationship exists on the filing date. Sufficient physical premises appropriate to the proposed office must be secured and documented; adequacy depends on the nature and scope of the planned operation. The petition must show the financial ability of the Canadian company to pay the director and to start operations, ordinarily through its financial statements and a capitalization plan for the U.S. entity. The sales director must have one continuous year of managerial or executive employment with the Canadian company within the three years before filing, and the U.S. position must become managerial or executive within a year.
The plan must explain how the director stops selling houses himself
In the first months of a new office the director will inevitably meet customers, quote projects and supervise installations personally. USCIS accepts that, which is why the initial period is one year rather than three. What the plan must show is the path from that hands-on start to a role that is primarily managerial: hiring a sales representative and an installation coordinator by a stated month, contracting or employing crews, engaging a bookkeeper and setting up the reporting lines so that by the end of the year the director manages people and a function rather than performing the work. Financial projections should tie to the hiring plan, and the plan should be one the company will actually follow, because the extension petition will be measured against it.
Run the year as if the extension file is being written every month
The extension will ask for evidence that the office is doing business, that it has the staff the plan promised, that the director is performing managerial duties and that the Canadian company remains active. Collect that evidence continuously: signed contracts, invoices, payroll records for each hire, the director's calendar showing management activity, board minutes, updated organization charts and financial statements for both entities. If the plan slips — a hire delayed, a market slower than forecast — document why and what was done instead, because a candid explanation is stronger than silence. The director's spouse, in L-2 status, is employment-authorized incident to status and may work for the office or elsewhere; L-2 children may study but not work. The L-1A ceiling of seven years runs from the first admission.
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.