Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Describe the post-transaction group
Establish the qualifying relationship and continuing US and foreign business on the actual facts. Identify what activity remains, where it is conducted and which entities perform it. Do not assume either that every asset sale ends eligibility or that an old registration proves continuing business.
Support the qualifying employment and role
A continuous qualifying foreign employment year within the relevant three-year period is required. L-1A needs primarily managerial or executive duties with real support; first-line nonprofessional supervision is insufficient by title alone. A new office needs sufficient premises and support for the qualifying role within one year, with initial approval limited to one year. The qualifying relationship must be a parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate, both entities must remain active, and L-1A status is capped at seven years.
Employment days and actual business activity
US days do not count toward the qualifying foreign employment year; a trip does not automatically break continuity. The qualifying organization must provide goods or services regularly, systematically and continuously in the United States and at least one other country. New-office treatment concerns actual US doing business for less than one year, rather than incorporation alone.
Hypothetical example: an arborist company sells the division where the manager earned her year
Hypothetical example: a Highlands tree-care and wildfire-mitigation company has two arms: a services division and a nursery that grows replacement stock. The nursery is being sold to an unrelated buyer. The operations director proposed for a US subsidiary spent the last eighteen months employed by the nursery corporation, which is a separate legal entity within the group, and only recently moved onto the services company’s payroll. What goes wrong is a petition that counts the nursery months as the qualifying year. The one continuous year abroad must be with an entity that is a parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate of the US petitioner at the time of filing; once the nursery belongs to a stranger, employment there no longer describes service with a qualifying organization. The reviewer will ask for the employment records of each entity separately, the sale agreement and its closing date, and the post-sale ownership chart. If the qualifying months fall short, the answer is to wait, not to blur the two payrolls.
What the pre-sale chart cannot prove
A corporate chart drawn before the transaction shows a group that will not exist when the petition is decided. Prepare two charts, dated, and explain what the services company will still do in Canada after closing: crews, contracts, revenue and staff. Both the Canadian and US entities must be doing business for the whole L-1 period; a company that sold its operating arm and kept a name is not enough. Her US duties must be primarily managerial or executive, with an org chart of the people or the function she will direct, and a new US subsidiary is approved for one year with premises and staffing evidence.
Sequence the sale, the chart and the filing
Close the sale first, update the share registers and corporate filings, confirm the director has twelve continuous months with the surviving company, and only then file. Earlier L or H time in the United States counts toward the seven-year L-1A maximum. An L-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status; children may study but not work. If the closing date is months away and the US opportunity cannot wait, the alternative is to assess whether the nursery corporation will remain within the group in some form, for instance through a retained minority holding, and to describe that honestly rather than as full affiliation. Whether a minority interest preserves a qualifying relationship turns on the governing documents and actual control; it is neither automatically qualifying nor automatically disqualifying, so the relationship must be resolved before relying on the nursery employment.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.