Read the general business expansion overview
Hypothetical example: a Champlain grain-handling and feed equipment company has signed a lease for a U.S. sales and service office and wants to send its sales director to open it. Because the U.S. entity has not been doing business for a year, the L-1A petition is a new-office petition: approved for one year, on evidence that premises are secured and that the operation will support a managerial position within twelve months. This guide is written as a month-by-month plan, because the extension at the end of the year is decided by what the office actually did.
Before filing: entity, lease, ownership and the director's own year
The U.S. entity must exist, with formation documents, a bank account and an employer identification number, and it must be owned or controlled by the Champlain company, which must remain actively doing business throughout the transfer. The lease must be signed in the U.S. entity's name for premises sufficient to house the office, with the term and permitted use stated; a co-working desk by the month is weak evidence. The sales director must have one continuous year of full-time employment with the Champlain company within the three years before filing in a managerial or executive capacity, proved by payroll. The business plan should set out the twelve-month hiring schedule, the customers to be served, the financing available and the point at which the director will be managing staff and function rather than selling alone.
Months one to six: hire, invoice, and record the shift from doing to managing
The extension will ask whether the office has been doing business and whether the director's duties have become primarily managerial. From the first month, keep U.S. payroll for each hire, invoices to U.S. customers, service contracts signed, and the organisational chart as it develops. The director will sell and service personally at first; record it, and record the date each hire took over a task. A quarterly memo from the director to the Champlain board describing staff, revenue and his own allocation of time is inexpensive and becomes the backbone of the extension. Do not let the U.S. office run on the Canadian company's payroll or invoices; the U.S. entity must be the one doing business.
Months seven to twelve: prepare the extension while the year is still running
The extension petition must be filed before the one-year approval expires and must show a staffed, operating office with the director in a managerial role. Begin assembling the evidence in month nine: U.S. payroll and customer invoices available to date, the current chart with names, the director's updated duties with percentages of time, and financial statements showing the office's activity; add the remaining records through filing. If hiring lagged the plan, explain why and show the revised schedule rather than hoping the gap goes unnoticed. The director's spouse, employment-authorized incident to L-2 status, and his children, who may study but not work, keep their status only while his continues, so a late extension affects the whole household. The L-1A total remains seven 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.