IN THIS GUIDE · Explain the applicant’s actual role in personnel decisions
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Follow a staffing decision from proposal to outcome
Hypothetical example: the applicant recommends a team change, human resources checks policy and another officer signs the decision. Explain each person’s role and the weight of the applicant’s recommendation. Do not describe administrative routing as either unrestricted personal authority or an automatic absence of management.
Describe the work being supervised
Identify the actual duties and responsibilities of the supporting personnel and what the applicant primarily does. Include routine delivery and other tasks retained by the applicant. A performance-review signature is useful only in the context of the real role and operational arrangement.
Use evidence proportionate to the question
Identify relevant policies, role records and appropriate decision examples. Avoid collecting unrelated private information about employees. Explain effective authority and actual practice rather than presenting a template appraisal form as proof of every management responsibility. Hypothetical example: a reusable concert-stage decking manufacturer transfers its operations director after opening a U.S. sales company. Minutes show authority and job descriptions show supervisors for fabrication. The decision is whether the director manages a supported function or personally performs the core work because the planned team is absent.
Connect the role to the complete transfer
Prepare the qualifying legal entity relationship and relevant foreign-employment dates and duties. The generally required continuous year within the applicable period needs individual review. If a new office is proposed, assess how it will support the qualifying role within one year; personnel authority alone does not resolve that plan. The review should also compare the proposed budget authority with the reporting structure and the operating tasks still assigned to the applicant. A decision memorandum should identify who will make routine commercial choices after transfer, who will supervise delivery staff, and what record proves that arrangement. That comparison prevents a future hiring intention from being presented as current management support.
Managing people and managing a function are different claims
Explain whether the applicant directs people or a function, sets priorities and exercises relevant discretion, or mainly coordinates work decided by others. The US and foreign entities must have a parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate relationship, and both must remain actively doing business. The qualifying organization must provide goods or services regularly, systematically and continuously in the United States and at least one other country. Managing a function means running an essential activity of the organization at a senior level without necessarily supervising anyone. Executive capacity is a further alternative again, resting on direction of the organization or a major component with wide latitude in discretionary decision-making. The seven-year maximum applies to time in L-1A, and periods spent in L-1B count toward it, so a transferee who already spent time in the United States should locate prior I-94 records before the group commits to a multi-year plan.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.