Assess the person’s actual location and immigration circumstances for that period. Do not assume the future L-1A plan supplies present U.S. work permission.
Sequence commitments according to the real situation
Clarify whether work will occur abroad or in the United States and whether it continues after the move. Review any change before relying on an earlier assessment or accepting a deadline that requires unauthorized activity.
The count is of time physically present in the United States in those statuses; days spent outside the United States, documented by passport stamps, boarding passes and travel logs, can be recaptured and added back at the extension stage.
Identify which duties would begin at each stage and which require the appropriate immigration step first. Provide the actual current status, proposed duties and effective date. Update the real support plan and reassess the applicant’s actual duties. Work performed for an outside client still has to occur through the petitioning organization, since the qualifying employment relationship depends on that organization remaining the actual employer of record rather than the client itself. A placement that lets an unaffiliated client direct and supervise the work day to day can undermine the underlying employment relationship the classification depends on, regardless of how briefly the arrangement lasts. Confirm who controls the assignment, who evaluates performance, and who can end the engagement before treating any outside work as compatible with the underlying petition. Keep that control question separate from the physical-presence question, since both must be resolved before relying on the plan.