IN THIS GUIDE · Explain what the people reporting to the applicant actually do
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Read past the team titles
Hypothetical example: an organizational chart lists several leads, but their actual jobs differ substantially. Identify the duties, responsibilities and relevant qualifications of the people supporting the applicant. Do not assume every lead is a manager or that a renamed position changes the work performed. Hypothetical example: a maker of ceramic-kiln controls proposes to transfer its operations director. The reviewer should identify which technicians execute calibration, purchasing, and customer repairs, then decide whether the director primarily manages those functions or performs them personally.
Explain the applicant’s own primary duties
Show what the applicant decides, directs or manages and which work is delegated. Include routine tasks that remain with the applicant. A team list should help explain the actual managerial or executive capacity rather than substitute for the role analysis. A useful first review produces a weekly allocation of the applicant’s own work, not merely an org chart. Delegations, approval limits, performance records and meeting responsibilities can settle whether strategic direction is primary or whether operational delivery remains the central job.
Distinguish current staff from planned support
Identify effective roles, vacancies and any external support accurately. No universal staff count establishes eligibility. For a new office, explain how the operation would support the qualifying role within one year without presenting projected hires as already working. For a new office, separate a present fact from a forecast. Lease records, opening budgets, hiring authorizations and vendor contracts explain the resources available during the initial period, while the plan must show that the U.S. operation can support the qualifying position within one year.
Connect the organization to the qualifying history
Prepare the legal entity relationship and the applicant’s dated foreign-employment responsibilities. Have the relevant continuous-year requirement and period assessed individually. The size of the proposed U.S. team cannot compensate for missing company or employment evidence. The record that normally resolves the relationship question is the ownership trail: formation documents, share registers, purchase records and control agreements. Pair it with payroll and role evidence for the foreign employment period, because neither a title nor a proposed U.S. team proves that history.
Prove the qualifying relationship and one continuous year abroad
A provider contract is not itself the qualifying parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate relationship required for L classification. Managing a function or an essential part of the organisation counts; so does directing personnel with authority over hiring, firing and promotion. The qualifying organization must do business in the United States and at least one other country during the relevant period, through regular, systematic and continuous provision of goods or services rather than registration alone. A first-line supervisor of non-professional staff is not a manager under the regulation unless the role is genuinely managing a function through others. Executive capacity means directing the management of the organization and exercising wide latitude in discretionary decision-making.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.