IN THIS GUIDE · Explain full-time work divided between related foreign companies
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Identify the work arrangement in each company
Hypothetical example: an employee divides a full working week between two related entities. Identify the actual employers, responsibilities and relationship evidence. Do not assume any two part-time positions can be combined merely because the applicant worked many hours. Ask each entity to name the person who can speak to the arrangement: whoever approved the split, whoever kept the schedule, and whoever signed the payroll. A general statement from a head office rarely settles what a supervisor at one company can confirm directly. Where responsibility for the applicant's time was assumed informally rather than assigned in writing, say so plainly and identify what evidence exists in place of a written allocation.
Keep the relevant period continuous and factual
Prepare dates, any breaks and the actual foreign work performed. Have the generally required continuous year within the relevant preceding period assessed using the applicable rules. Do not average unrelated employment across several years or count overlapping periods twice. The continuous year is a finding about the past, so nobody in the present can grant it. Have the record custodian at each employer produce dated employment evidence rather than a letter written from memory now, and note that the qualifying year must generally fall within the three years preceding the petition. If a break appears, the applicant's task is to explain it accurately rather than leave the petitioner to guess at its cause.
Explain capacity as well as hours
Describe the relevant foreign duties and the proposed U.S. managerial or executive responsibilities. Full-time work alone does not establish the required capacity. Identify actual authority, operational support and routine work retained by the applicant. Capacity is a question about authority, so it is answered by describing decisions and the people affected by them. Name who reported to the applicant abroad, who set their objectives, what they could commit the company to without further approval, and which of those responsibilities carries over to the proposed U.S. role. Hypothetical example: a landscape architecture practice transfers a principal who directed design staff at one affiliate while personally drafting at another, and the petition must state which of those two roles the U.S. position continues.
Connect the entity evidence to the transfer
Identify the legal companies involved abroad and in the United States and the qualifying relationship relied on. Common clients or similar names are not substitutes for that evidence. If a new office is proposed, assess its additional requirements separately from the employment-hours account. The corporate relationship is proved by whoever holds the ownership records: a corporate secretary, registry filings, share registers, and the agreements behind them. An operations manager cannot supply that evidence, and neither can the applicant. Decide at the outset which officer will assemble it, because when nobody is assigned, the entity evidence is usually the last item to arrive and the one that delays the filing.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.