Read the general business expansion overview
The person proposed as manager of a new U.S. office still handles day-to-day work for Canadian clients. Describe that work accurately so its effect on the proposed role can be assessed. The file should show a realistic split of duties across both companies, who absorbs the Canadian work, and what the U.S. operation is expected to support during its first year.
Write the working week down honestly
List the tasks currently performed for Canadian clients, with a sense of the hours each takes, then list the tasks the U.S. role would add. Give the split as a proportion, but keep the underlying task names beside it so the number can be checked against something. Resist relabelling delivery work as oversight: the duty description will be read alongside the business description, and an inflated account is harder to correct afterwards than an accurate one written the first time.
Show who absorbs the Canadian work
Delegation is evidenced by people and documents: named staff or contractors, the scope of their work, handover dates, client notifications and any change to service agreements. Hypothetical example: the proposed manager intends to keep two long-standing Canadian accounts that take roughly one day a week, with the remaining accounts moving to two colleagues on a dated schedule. Document that arrangement as it actually is. If no one absorbs a portion of the work, that is a finding to discuss with the person reviewing the plan, not a gap to leave unexplained.
Tie the split to the first year and the foreign entity
Initial new-office approval is limited to a maximum of one year; the L-1A operation must support a managerial or executive role within one year. No fixed employee number resolves that test. Explain sufficient physical premises, resources, the hiring sequence and expected revenue with support for the actual business plan. Identify how qualifying operations will continue abroad within the real corporate structure, rather than assuming that the original foreign employer must always be the continuing entity. Keep the original plan and date later changes, including delayed hires and altered services.
What the calendar shows that a duty description does not
The claim that fails first is a percentage with nothing behind it. A file says thirty percent Canadian work and seventy percent U.S. management, and the reader has no way to test either number. The record that grounds it is the manager’s own calendar for a representative recent month, exported with meeting titles and durations and compared against the proposed U.S. duties. It is unglamorous evidence, and it is checkable, which is the point. Set the legal frame plainly: initial new-office approval is limited to a maximum of one year, the operation must support a managerial or executive role within that year, and the qualifying organization must continue doing business abroad. Hypothetical example: a benefits administration consultancy exports the proposed manager’s March calendar, showing two Canadian client days a week and a standing pricing committee that a named colleague is scheduled to chair from May.
What else is on your mind?
Does being a business owner or director qualify me for L-1A?What employment history should an L-1 transfer review cover?What makes a new-office L-1A case different?Why does an L-2 spouse’s admission record matter for work?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.