Read the general business expansion overview
A new-office L petition is decided largely on two evidence bundles that head offices tend to assemble last: proof that physical space has been secured, and proof that the U.S. entity can pay the transferred worker while trading begins. Board minutes, a business plan and a certificate of incorporation substitute for neither. This guide sets out what belongs in each bundle, and how the same material is read a second time when the one-year approval runs out.
Secured space, not a planned address
A new-office petitioner has to show that sufficient physical premises have been secured. In practice that means a signed lease or purchase agreement with a stated term and floor area, and a use that matches the operation described on paper — a machine shop with no service bay, or a distribution arm with no warehouse, invites a request for further evidence. A registered-agent address, a mail drop or a single hot desk rarely supports a plan that also promises subordinate hires. Send the lease, the floor plan, photographs once fit-out begins, and utility or connectivity accounts opened in the entity’s name. Separately, the office counts as new only because the U.S. entity has been doing business for under a year, and doing business means the regular, systematic and continuous provision of goods or services, so an entity that has merely been incorporated has not yet started that clock. The petition must still establish the qualifying parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate relationship, and that the group will keep trading in the United States and in at least one other country throughout the stay.
Money: paying the wage while revenue is still theoretical
For L-1B the rule is explicit that a new office must demonstrate the financial ability to compensate the beneficiary and to commence doing business. For L-1A the parallel question is whether the entity will, within a year of approval, support duties that are primarily managerial or executive. Both are answered with figures rather than adjectives: share subscription and capitalisation records, statements for the U.S. bank account, an intercompany funding commitment with a drawdown schedule, signed customer contracts or purchase orders, and a staffing plan carrying dates and salary bands. State plainly which posts are filled and which are forecast. An organisation chart placing a manager above empty boxes is weak, because supervising non-professional staff is not on its own a managerial function, and a function manager must sit at a senior level over an essential function rather than personally performing it. The beneficiary’s own history is proved separately: one continuous year of full-time employment abroad inside the three years before filing, and for a new-office L-1A that year must have been managerial or executive work. Days spent working in the United States are excluded from that count, although brief business visits do not break its continuity.
What the extension asks that the first petition did not
Initial new-office approval runs for a single year, and the extension is where earlier promises meet payroll registers, tax filings, invoices and the lease actually in force. Hypothetical example: a Mackenzie contractor servicing sawmill conveyor drives forms a Washington-state subsidiary, leases a 4,000-square-foot unit with a service bay, and transfers its operations manager on L-1A. Twelve months on it can produce three hired technicians, a payroll register and two signed maintenance agreements, so the managerial description now matches an actual staff. Had nobody been hired, the same person would be described as performing the service work, which at best belongs to L-1B and only where it amounts to specialised knowledge of the company’s own product, process or procedures rather than skill common across the trade. Approval of a first year guarantees nothing about a second. Either way the total is finite: seven years in L-1A, five in L-1B. Where the transferee is also an owner or major stockholder, the file must additionally show that the U.S. service is temporary and that an assignment abroad follows it.
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: 2026-09-08. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.