Describe the actual proposed duties and remaining knowledge use for assessment. Do not assume the earlier role’s evidence automatically establishes a materially different assignment.
Keep the evidence tied to the work being proposed
Identify what changes and why the relevant organizational knowledge is needed in the new role. Have the complete assignment reviewed before relying on the previous duty description or timeline.
Review the actual work, location and available status before the employee begins. The one continuous year of qualifying employment with the related foreign company must be complete before the petition is filed, and it must fall within the three years preceding the filing. Extensions then depend on what the affiliate actually did with that year, so the first twelve months should be planned as evidence rather than as a grace period. The five-year maximum and the qualifying-year test answer different questions; a technically strong assignment may still need a different timing decision when either calendar is short. Fewer escalations does not necessarily mean less specialized knowledge, since the applicant may still be the person relied on when those situations arise. The same expertise can also apply through training, system maintenance or oversight duties rather than through escalation volume alone. Describe what the current duties require in practice and let that description, not a comparison of frequency between the roles, determine the classification.