Read the general business expansion overview
A Varennes company may have signed initial U.S. contracts before assigning the delivery team. The L-1 analysis needs the intended transferee’s real responsibilities and the people or resources supporting them. A first review should match every contracted deliverable to a person, a hiring date, and the transferee’s actual decision-making authority. It should also confirm the qualifying foreign employment year within the preceding three years before projecting a U.S. launch. The company must decide whether its staffing plan supports a managerial or specialized-knowledge role, rather than a personally delivered service role.
Break a contract into actual responsibilities
Identify who sells, approves terms, schedules delivery, performs the service and resolves problems. Mark an unfilled role openly. This chart should expose the proposed work rather than make every task appear managerial; a business plan cannot transform the transferee’s personal delivery work into management by changing its heading. Mark tasks that the transferee will perform temporarily and tasks that staff will assume by the first-year review. Hypothetical example: a subsea cable inspection company has one signed survey contract and no U.S. field crew. The review tests who will schedule, supervise, and complete the survey. The decision is whether the transfer describes a supported new-office role or an unsupported hands-on launch.
Connect the chart to the appropriate new-office category
For U.S. doing business of less than one year, L-1A requires the continuous qualifying foreign managerial or executive year in the relevant three years, sufficient premises and support for the U.S. managerial or executive position within one year. L-1B instead needs the qualifying continuous foreign year and specialized knowledge, sufficient premises and financial ability to pay the employee and begin business. State which responsibilities support the category actually proposed.
Retain the chart’s assumptions for later comparison
Preserve the hiring assumptions and actual changes so the extension record can explain how delivery developed. Initial new-office approval is limited to one year. The qualifying relationship and required U.S. and foreign business remain necessary; an owner or major stockholder also needs temporary-services and subsequent foreign-assignment evidence. A completed chart is a planning aid, not proof that these conditions are satisfied.
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.