Read the general business expansion overview
An Oak Bay company establishing a US operation should make clear how strategic leadership and service delivery will be supported during the first year. For a professional-services firm the decisive question is who is named as the person delivering advice in the first engagements. A partner who signs every client deliverable herself in year one is performing the service, not managing it. Decide before filing whether the firm will hire or assign professional staff so that her role is primarily directing their work.
Describe the primary duties accurately
L-1A requires primarily managerial or executive work. Explain the nature of client contact and who delivers the underlying service. A first-line nonprofessional supervisor does not qualify by title alone.
Address new-office resources
Sufficient premises and support for a qualifying L-1A role within one year are needed. L-1B requires qualifying knowledge, sufficient premises and financial ability to pay and commence business. Initial new-office approval is limited to one year.
Keep qualifying business and service evidence
Document the corporate relationship and continuous qualifying foreign employment year within the relevant three-year period. The group must continue US and foreign business. Do not present planned staffing as already available when the applicant actually covers the work.
Hypothetical example: a consulting partner named on every engagement letter
Hypothetical example: an Oak Bay pension-consulting partnership with three partners and nine analysts wants a US office, and the managing partner will move to open it. If payroll and duty records confirm at least one continuous recent year abroad in managerial or executive capacity, the qualifying-year condition is straightforward, and the US entity will be a wholly owned subsidiary. The difficulty appears in the two engagement letters already signed with US plan sponsors: each names her as the consultant responsible for the valuation and the report. On that record, her first year is delivery. The repair is not a new title. The firm should assign two Canadian analysts to the US engagements under her direction, with the letters amended to show the team, and commit funds to hire a US-based analyst within the year. Supervising professional staff, or managing an essential function through them, can support L-1A; supervising nobody while producing the work cannot. Her ownership interest in the partnership is disclosed, not disqualifying, and initial new-office approval is limited to one year with extension judged on what the office actually became.
Sequence the engagements, the hires and the filing
Fix the order before drafting. First, confirm the corporate relationship on paper: the partnership’s ownership of the US subsidiary and the continuing Canadian operation; the new US entity must be ready to commence business and then operate during the authorized stay. Second, amend or write the engagement letters so that delivery is assigned to identified staff and the partner’s role is described as directing scope, pricing and quality. Third, secure premises suited to client meetings and data handling, and document how and when the planned US hire will go onto payroll. Only then file, with a first-year plan that shows the hire dates and the partner’s duties staying primarily managerial or executive as the office grows. Any professional licensing the US work requires is the firm’s problem to solve separately; it is not evidence of managerial capacity. L-1A status is capped at seven years in total.
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.