IN THIS GUIDE · Explain a claimed branch relationship using the actual organization
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Identify what the employer means by branch
Hypothetical example: an internal plan calls a U.S. location a branch, while the available documents identify another company. Clarify the actual entity arrangement and applicable relationship. Do not assume internal terminology accurately describes the legal structure. Hypothetical example: a wholesale plant nursery group in Canada tells its staff it is opening a branch across the border, while the lease, the tax registration and the insurance certificate are all in the name of a newly formed company with its own members. Those three documents answer the question the internal plan does not. Ask for them by name, and ask who signed each one, because the signing party is often the first indication of which entity is really the employer.
Use the relevant entity and business records
Identify the foreign employer, proposed U.S. operation and records explaining their relationship. Have the actual branch or other qualifying relationship assessed. An address, shared name or local registration alone does not explain all the company and ongoing-business requirements. As the L framework uses the term, a branch is an operating division or office of the same organization in a different location, so the evidence supporting it is evidence about one organization operating in two places: a single set of accounts covering both, one employer registration where that is how payroll is run, and contracts signed in the name of the Canadian company. Where each side keeps its own books, files its own returns and signs in its own name, that pattern points away from a branch and towards separate entities whose relationship has to be documented on its own terms.
Explain the applicant’s actual management authority
Describe the decisions, responsibilities and organizational support at the proposed operation. Being called a branch manager does not establish L-1A capacity by itself. Identify personal execution duties and who performs the remaining operational work. Set out the authority in the form it actually takes: a spending limit expressed as a figure, the positions reporting to the applicant by title, whether the applicant can hire and dismiss without a further approval, and which decisions still return to Canada. Where the United States operation will begin with few employees, say so plainly and describe how the work below the applicant's level is to be performed, whether by contractors, by shared services from Canada, or by hires planned on a stated schedule.
Review operating history and the applicable process
Identify when the relevant U.S. organization began doing business and whether new-office provisions apply. The branch label does not decide that question. Qualifying foreign employment, actual duties and the correct petition or admission process still require assessment. Fix the date the United States operation actually began doing business and hold a document that shows it: the first invoice issued, the first payroll run, the commencement of a commercial lease, or a bank statement showing operating activity. Regular business activity, rather than the incorporation date, is what the question turns on. Where that date falls less than a year before the request, the new-office provisions come into view and change what must be shown, so establish it before choosing how the request is framed.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.