IN THIS GUIDE · Connect a new-office management plan to the assumptions behind its forecast
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Identify confirmed and prospective business separately
Hypothetical example: hiring in the plan depends on a prospective customer that has not committed. Identify the status of the opportunity and the effect on support for the applicant’s role. Do not present a sales conversation as a signed contract or invent certainty to strengthen the forecast. Put the signed customer document, if one exists, beside the forecast and identify the start condition it actually contains. The business decision is whether to staff for a committed workload or retain a contingency plan for an opportunity that may not close.
Explain the duties if assumptions change
Identify who would perform operational work if revenue or hiring develops differently. Describe the applicant’s actual authority and personal duties. A management title does not establish that the operation will support the qualifying role, and a contingency should remain consistent with the real business plan. An organization chart, job descriptions, and current hiring authority help settle whether the applicant will manage rather than perform the core service. Do not defer that distinction until an extension review, when actual duties will matter.
Connect the forecast to the full new-office requirements
Prepare evidence of sufficient secured premises, the qualifying company relationship and the relevant foreign managerial or executive employment. Assess the applicable continuous-year period. A favourable forecast does not replace these separate conditions or establish that every proposed resource is already available. Sequence the review by proving the foreign employment and company relationship before spending on a polished forecast. Those threshold facts do not become stronger because a later staffing plan is detailed.
Keep actual results available for later review
Initial new-office approval is generally limited to one year. Retain records showing what the operation actually does and how the role develops. Review material differences from the plan rather than assuming an initial approval guarantees an extension or turns every projection into an established fact. Retain bank, payroll, contracts, and role-allocation records in the ordinary course. They let a later review distinguish a reasoned adjustment from a file that simply repeats an unfulfilled forecast.
Identify the actual managerial or executive work
An L-1A transfer moves an executive or manager from a Canadian company to a U.S. parent, subsidiary, branch or affiliate. For a function-manager case, identify an essential function and show how the applicant operates at a senior level concerning it, exercises discretion over its day-to-day operation and primarily manages rather than performs its ordinary tasks. A qualifying relationship exists where the two entities stand as parent and subsidiary, as branches of one employer, or as affiliates under common ownership and control. L-1A requires primarily managerial or executive work; first-line supervision of nonprofessional workers is insufficient by title alone. In a four-person subsidiary, a chief executive who also drives the delivery van and leads trips is not primarily executive.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.