Describe genuine support arrangements where relevant and assess their significance under the applicable rules. Contracts and work records may explain who performs operational tasks, but do not present providers as employees or invent a reporting relationship. The applicant’s actual managerial role still needs proof.
Connect the contract with the work performed
Identify the services, responsible entity and oversight arrangement. Explain how decisions are made and implemented. A supplier list alone does not establish that the applicant is relieved of routine work or meets the function-manager definition.
Pair each provider contract with evidence of what the provider actually delivered, who at the US company set objectives, and how the transferee exercised senior oversight. Statements of work, invoices, meeting records, organizational charts, and representative decisions may together show that routine production is handled elsewhere; accurately label independent firms and their personnel. The petition must also prove one continuous qualifying year abroad within the prior three, a parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate relationship between the U.S. and foreign entities, with the foreign organization doing business and the U.S. entity either doing business or meeting the initial new-office requirements, and proposed duties that are primarily managerial or executive. For a new office, include premises and a first-year plan capable of supporting that role because initial approval is only one year. Treating a vendor directory as a reporting chart is the usual evidentiary mistake.
Hypothetical example: A Sherbrooke packaging manufacturer transfers its compliance director to an American affiliate that outsources laboratory testing. The record may include the laboratory agreement, completed test reports, escalation protocol, and examples of the director approving corrective strategy. It should not rename laboratory technicians as her subordinates. Her foreign employment history, corporate ownership records, and division between regulatory management and hands-on testing must still carry the L-1A analysis.