Only work authorized under the actual circumstances may be performed. Have the intended activity and existing permission assessed before beginning the proposed U.S. response.
Align the response with the reviewed process
Provide the real start request, duties and current status. Do not assume a short assignment, unpaid description or urgent customer need makes otherwise unauthorized work permissible. The actual activity requires review.
Record the L-1B start date, since the five-year total begins to run from it. Consider remote alternatives before assuming a physical presence is required, such as guiding an authorized person at the site through the response or providing documentation that lets existing personnel resolve the issue without the employee traveling. Identify who else within the organization is already authorized to work at that location and could reasonably handle an urgent matter in the interim, so the case does not turn on one specific person's availability. Ask whether the response can reasonably wait until the authorization clears, and document the operational impact of that wait honestly rather than describing it as more urgent than it actually is. Keep a written record of whatever interim arrangement is used, since a documented alternative supports the account of what work was and was not performed before authorization was in place. Treat the interim solution as a separate question from the underlying case, so pressure to solve an immediate problem does not shape how the case itself is prepared.