Define the function and authority
Identify the essential function, the applicant’s senior position in relation to it and the discretion exercised over its daily operations. Explain the role under the applicable managerial definition. Calling a task a function does not make the person performing it a function manager. Minutes, organization charts, job descriptions, approval authorities, and samples of decisions can show where genuine discretion sits. The review should identify the operational task separately from the management of that task. That distinction matters when a small enterprise uses contractors or shared services, because a senior label cannot replace evidence of qualifying managerial or executive duties.
Show the operational support
Identify employees or other resources that perform the underlying work and describe their actual arrangements. Do not invent direct reports. Assess whether the applicant primarily manages rather than personally delivers the function. A staffing review should name the people or vendors who do production, sales administration, and routine service work, then show who supervises or controls them. It should also expose gaps in the plan. Promising future hires without budgets, recruiting steps, or outside-service contracts may leave the proposed manager looking like the principal worker.
Complete the transfer requirements
Document a qualifying parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate relationship, active business operations by both entities and the required continuous year of qualifying employment abroad within the three years before the petition. Assess the actual US office history; new-office rules require separate evidence and a supported plan. L-1A status is subject to a seven-year maximum. Confirm that the transferee completed one continuous qualifying year of employment abroad during the three years immediately before the relevant filing or admission. Payroll, tax, leave, and reporting records usually settle that point better than a conclusion in a letter. The overall L-1A stay is generally capped at seven years, which affects long-term sequencing.
Apply the new-office conditions where relevant
A new-office L-1A case requires the applicable premises and supporting evidence and an operation capable of supporting qualifying managerial or executive duties within one year. Initial approval is limited to a maximum of one year. A forecast is not proof that proposed staff already exist. For a new office, test the business plan against the lease, capitalization, supplier arrangements, and first-year hiring schedule. The question is not whether growth sounds plausible but whether the operation can support the stated role by the end of its first year. Build the record as events occur, because later recollection cannot recreate missing launch evidence.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.