IN THIS GUIDE · Distinguish procurement leadership from personally carrying out purchasing
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Define the procurement responsibilities being transferred
Hypothetical example: the applicant would set supplier strategy while a purchasing team runs routine requests and orders. Identify the applicant’s decisions and the team’s actual work. If the applicant also performs daily sourcing, describe that work rather than assuming all procurement activity is managerial. Hypothetical example: a commercial-dive equipment manufacturer assigns the applicant to approve regional purchasing priorities while buyers execute the orders. The decision is whether the file shows function management or day-to-day buying.
Explain authority beyond negotiating an agreement
Identify who selects suppliers, sets priorities and approves exceptions, and what decisions the applicant may make. Negotiating a valuable contract does not by itself establish management of the function. Explain the role in the organization and actual limits on discretion. Meeting notes, delegated-authority records and exception approvals can show who made a decision. Choose examples that distinguish accountable direction from recommendations that another officer routinely decides.
Allocate the underlying purchasing work
Show who prepares requests, compares offers, issues orders and follows delivery. Explain how the applicant directs the work and what is performed personally. A proposed function-management role needs evidence of actual management rather than personal execution of the whole purchasing process. A staffing plan should identify incumbents, contractors and vacancies as they actually exist. A future hiring forecast may explain growth, but it cannot convert the applicant’s current transaction work into management.
Connect the role to the qualifying company structure
Identify the actual Canadian and U.S. employers and the relevant company relationship. Purchasing from a U.S. supplier does not itself create a qualifying intracompany transfer. The applicant’s foreign employment and proposed managerial or executive capacity require separate support. Corporate records should show ownership, control or another qualifying relationship independently of customer and supplier contracts. The file then tests the foreign role and proposed U.S. role against the same organizational facts.
Managerial and executive describe duties, and the clock runs
The Canadian subsidiary and the U.S. plant must be linked as parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate, and both must be doing business. Executive duties involve directing management, setting goals and policies, and exercising wide latitude in discretionary decision-making. Doing business means the regular, systematic and continuous provision of goods or services. Managerial duties involve managing the organisation or a department, subdivision, function or component, supervising professional or supervisory staff, or managing an essential function at a senior level. For US doing business under one year, show sufficient premises and a qualifying role supported within one year, with the initial new-office period limited to one year. The duty breakdown should show the percentage of time on setting strategy, approving budgets, hiring and directing supervisors, and acknowledge the operational tasks candidly while showing they are a minority.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.