IN THIS GUIDE · Use a representative work period to test the proposed management description
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Choose a period that reflects the role
Hypothetical example: one week includes a board presentation, while most other weeks involve personally delivering customer work. Explain which activities are recurring and which are unusual. Do not use the exceptional week to imply that it describes the applicant’s primary duties throughout the assignment.
Explain the purpose of meetings and tasks
A calendar entry does not reveal whether the applicant makes a management decision, coordinates delivery or performs routine work. Describe the actual responsibility and who implements the decision. Keep relevant authority and limits visible instead of classifying every meeting as managerial. Preserve the job charts, approval records, and staffing materials that show the decision in context. A title, a senior audience, or occasional signature authority does not settle whether management is the applicant’s primary function.
Compare the evidence with the proposed role
Identify which duties would change in the U.S. position and who would take over work no longer assigned to the applicant. Do not invent percentages or delegation to make the description fit. Any allocation used should reflect genuine responsibilities and support the applicable managerial or executive analysis. Hypothetical example: a manager at a pipe-organ restoration company will lead the U.S. scheduling function while senior craftspeople perform the restoration. The file should identify who assigns the work, approves specialist hires, and owns production priorities. The decision is whether the proposed position manages that function or mainly restores instruments personally.
Keep the other transfer requirements separate
Prepare the qualifying legal entity relationship and relevant foreign-employment dates and duties. Have the continuous-year period assessed individually. If a new office is proposed, review its first-year support requirements; a well-organized activity account cannot replace the remaining evidence. A careful sequencing decision is whether the company can document the foreign qualifying year and relationship before relying on a future organization chart. If records show a gap, resolve it from payroll and corporate evidence; a polished account of the U.S. role does not fill it.
Managing people and managing a function are different claims
L-1A asks whether the person will be primarily managing an organization, a department, a subdivision or an essential function, or acting at executive level; L-1B asks a different question about specialized knowledge of the company’s own product, process or procedure. The Canadian employer and the American entity must stand in a qualifying relationship to one another as parent and subsidiary, as branch, or as affiliates, and both must be actively doing business rather than merely existing on a registry. Executive capacity means directing the management of the organization or a major component, setting goals and policies, and operating under only general supervision. Organization charts should identify subordinate supervisors or professionals, while job descriptions, calendars and examples of decisions should show how the applicant allocates resources and directs functions.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.