Read the general business expansion overview
A View Royal company should explain formation and operating activity as distinct events when assessing the proposed US office. The decision that follows is whether to file honestly as a new office, accepting a one-year initial approval with evidence of secured premises and the capacity to support the role, or to present an old registration as an established operation and invite a finding that the office never did business at all.
Use the real chronology
Registration, premises, setup spending and actual business activity can occur at different times. Apply the doing-business rules to the facts instead of deciding solely from the incorporation certificate.
Meet the role and first-year requirements
L-1A needs primarily managerial or executive duties; first-line nonprofessional supervision does not qualify by title alone. New-office L-1A needs sufficient premises and support for that role within one year. L-1B needs qualifying knowledge, sufficient premises and financial ability to pay and commence business. Initial approval is limited to one year.
Complete the group evidence
Document the qualifying relationship and continuous qualifying foreign employment year within the relevant three-year period, with continuing US and foreign business. Do not backdate operations to obtain a preferred treatment.
Hypothetical example: a US entity incorporated years ago that never traded
Hypothetical example: a View Royal dental-laboratory manufacturer that fabricates crowns and bridgework registered a corporation in a US state three years ago to exhibit at a trade show, opened no bank account, sold nothing and filed only annual maintenance returns. It now wants to send its production manager to run a US finishing lab. The owner assumes the old certificate means the office is established. Under the L-1 rules a new office is one whose organization has been doing business in the United States for less than one year, and doing business means the regular, systematic and continuous provision of goods or services, not the existence of a registered agent or a filing cabinet of returns. This entity has never done business, so the petition is a new-office case: initial approval limited to one year, evidence of physical premises actually secured, proof that the manager completed one continuous year with the Canadian company in the last three, and a showing that within a year the US lab will support a position that is primarily managerial rather than one where she polishes the crowns herself.
Which records fix the chronology
The certificate of incorporation fixes only the date of formation. The date on which regular provision of goods or services began should be shown with contracts, invoices, delivery records and evidence of completed work. A payroll register, lease, sales-tax registration and bank-account opening record can corroborate an operating chronology, but none alone establishes doing business. Assemble the records in date order before drafting, and let the petition state plainly that the entity existed on paper but did not trade. At the one-year extension, the same categories of record must show a functioning lab with staff for the manager to direct. Total L-1A time is capped at seven years, and an L-1B technician sent later would be capped at five years.
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.