A previous case’s duration does not guarantee your timeline.
Use current case milestones
Assess your actual evidence and process. Do not treat another approval date as permission to begin your own US assignment before the required authorization is established.
Build the calendar from present facts: the worker’s qualifying foreign-employment dates, evidence-completion milestones, chosen petition procedure, requested assignment start and existing periods in L status. One colleague’s adjudication cannot predict another’s. The applicant must complete one continuous year abroad within the applicable three-year lookback, work for a qualifying related organization and demonstrate special or advanced company knowledge for the proposed duties. Do not begin the US assignment merely because a coworker was approved. If the petitioner is opening its first US operation, initial L-1B approval is limited to one year and the office needs premises plus financial ability to commence business and pay the employee. Count prior L-1B periods toward the five-year ceiling.
Hypothetical example: an optics-calibration specialist at a Canton of Hatley timber-moisture-scanner maker hopes to follow a teammate’s six-week experience. Her travel log reveals that her continuous foreign year finishes later than assumed, and the US launch lease is not yet effective. The company sequences those factual prerequisites, collects her calibration training and sets a start date only after authorization. Her teammate’s old timeline becomes background, not a promise. A status-expiry chart also prevents the business from planning work beyond her remaining L-1B time.