Read the general business expansion overview
A Colwood company opening a US operation should explain what people will do, not simply insert several management titles into its first-year chart. The decision that shapes a trades company’s chart is whether the transferee will supervise tradespeople or manage a function through professionals or subordinate managers. A person who directs apprentices and journeymen on site is a first-line supervisor of nonprofessional staff, whatever the box on the chart says, so the company must either build real management layers or choose a different classification.
Describe the applicant’s primary role
L-1A requires primarily managerial or executive duties. Explain the support for operational delivery; first-line supervision of nonprofessional staff does not qualify by title alone.
Address the specific new-office conditions
Sufficient premises and support for the qualifying L-1A role within one year are required. L-1B needs qualifying knowledge plus sufficient premises and financial ability to pay and commence business. Initial new-office approval is limited to one year.
Establish a real qualifying transfer
Document the relationship between entities, the continuous qualifying foreign employment year within the relevant three-year period and continuing US and foreign business. A proposed hierarchy cannot replace these organizational and employment facts.
Hypothetical example: an electrical contractor’s chart with three managers and two apprentices
Hypothetical example: a Colwood electrical contractor with sixteen employees wins commercial fit-out work in a US state and forms a subsidiary there. Its proposed first-year chart shows a general manager (the transferee), a projects manager and a service manager, with two electricians to be hired. On the record, the two manager boxes are the Canadian foremen who will keep working in Colwood; nobody fills them in the US. In practice the transferee would run estimating, pull permits and direct two apprentices on site. That is first-line supervision of nonprofessional workers, and L-1A is not available on that basis. The choices are: hire a licensed US project manager and an office administrator before filing so that the transferee directs managers and a function; file L-1B instead if the transferee’s real value is knowledge of the company’s own installation and commissioning methods; or delay until the subsidiary can show the support structure. Either classification requires the one continuous year of employment abroad within the last three years and an active Canadian company, and a new-office approval is limited to one year.
Which records make the chart credible
A chart is evidence only when each box connects to something on file. For US positions, that is an executed offer letter, a payroll registration or a signed staffing contract; for premises, an executed lease for a yard or office adequate to the work; for funding, a bank statement showing capital already transferred to the subsidiary. State licensing for electrical work in the destination state belongs in the plan, since the transferee cannot lawfully perform the trade there in any case and should not be described as doing so. Keep the Canadian organization chart alongside the US one so that the same foreman is not shown in both. L-1A time counts toward a seven-year maximum and L-1B toward five, and both entities must continue doing business throughout.
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.