Review the actual dates and applicable rules with the updated case plan.
Reassess instead of reusing a stale calculation
Do not promise that a past assessment remains correct for every later filing. Preserve the real chronology and avoid inventing service dates to fit the new schedule.
Confirm the exact approval and status dates from the actual approval notice, and keep the originally submitted plan alongside a record of how staffing and operations actually developed. L-1A timing depends on the qualifying employment record and the proposed petition, while a new office must show sufficient physical premises and a credible development plan for the executive or managerial role. Identify which foreign tasks reverted to the transferee, who can assume them, whether operations continue, and whether the proposed American role remains supported. Qualifying employment abroad is generally measured as one continuous year within the relevant preceding three-year period, and how that is counted in an individual history is a question for counsel. Test the dates in this order: qualifying foreign employment, corporate relationship, U.S. role readiness, filing or admission step and intended start. The general L-1A maximum is seven years, subject to regulatory exceptions and recapture rules, so prior L periods belong on the chronology too. Where the new-office rules do apply, their one-year initial limit and specific evidence remain necessary; a branch-opening schedule does not change those rules.