Start with the L-1B eligibility and application overview
Describe the practical knowledge
The category can involve special knowledge of company products or interests and international application, or advanced knowledge of processes and procedures. It need not be unique or proprietary. Explain relevant experience, judgment and proposed US tasks through accurate examples.
Review the whole transfer
Establish the qualifying relationship, continuous qualifying foreign employment year within the relevant three years and continuing US and foreign business. Identify actual supervision and any primary offsite work with an unaffiliated employer, where control and labour-for-hire restrictions matter. New offices need sufficient premises and financial ability to pay and commence business; initial approval is limited to one year. The maximum period of stay in L-1B status is five years.
Employment days and actual business activity
Build the foreign-employment timeline from days actually worked abroad; U.S. visits do not add to the required year, although a trip need not interrupt continuity. Verify ongoing provision of goods or services by the related organizations in the United States and another country. For the exception-handling assignment, date the U.S. operation by actual business activity, not the day the entity was incorporated.
Hypothetical example: a lead fitter and a subsidiary formed the month before filing
Hypothetical example: an Esquimalt marine-fabrication company wins a contract to refit passenger ferries at a US yard and incorporates a US subsidiary the month before it files. It wants to transfer its lead fitter, who has spent six years applying the company’s own jig-and-fixture method for aligning replacement hull sections, and who handles the exceptions the written method does not cover. The knowledge argument is reasonable if it is proved by comparison: which colleagues can do the same, how long it took him, and where the method departs from ordinary shipyard practice. What goes wrong is the new-office side. The subsidiary has no premises beyond a promise of bay space from the customer, and the business plan funds his wages from progress payments under that contract. The petition needs evidence that sufficient workspace has been secured, that the petitioner has the financial ability to pay him and commence business, and that the Canadian yard will keep operating while he is away. On these facts, an executed lease or licence and a funded parent contribution would be strong evidence, but a particular capital transfer is not a categorical L-1B requirement. Initial approval would be limited to one year.
Which documents decide the new-office question
The lease or licence agreement for the workspace, the bank record of capital moved into the subsidiary, the parent’s financial statements and the ownership register linking the two companies are relevant; the customer contract may support demand and projected revenue, but the complete record must establish the ability to pay and commence business. Keep the fitter under the petitioner’s control and supervision even while working inside the customer’s yard, so the arrangement does not read as supplying labour to the yard. The source of his payroll is not what resolves the offsite-placement issue. Count the time: L-1B status is capped at five years, and a year spent establishing the office is part of it. An L-2 spouse may work incident to status; L-2 children may not. If the subsidiary later grows, an L-1A for a manager is judged on duties, not seniority.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.