IN THIS GUIDE · Show the U.S. role's real authority is intact even though the transferring manager also owns shares in the Canadian parent
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Disclose the stake and its actual voting weight
Hypothetical example: a LaSalle-area applicant holds a 12% non-controlling interest in the Canadian parent while three unrelated shareholders hold the rest and make board-level decisions. Set out the cap table, voting rights and actual decision authority, then document the employment and U.S. duties separately. A controlling ownership interest would not itself bar L-1A either; it requires assessment of the actual qualifying work and the owner-specific evidence.
Separate the new-office plan from the ownership question
Where the U.S. entity is a genuine new office, the evidence needs to show secured premises and an operation capable of supporting the qualifying managerial role within one year, independent of who owns shares in the parent. A funding commitment from the applicant as a shareholder is a different fact from the operating plan for the new office and should be documented as such. For this framework, the qualifying U.S. organization has been doing business for less than one year. The foreign qualifying year specifically must be managerial or executive, the U.S. operation must support that role within one year of approval, and initial new-office approval cannot exceed one year.
Establish the qualifying corporate relationship with real records
Confirm the parent-subsidiary, affiliate, or branch relationship through actual ownership documents, and be ready to show that both organizations are genuinely operating businesses. A minority shareholder role in the parent does not itself establish or undermine that relationship — the underlying corporate documents do.
Confirm the year of qualifying foreign employment on its own facts
Set out the applicant's employment dates, title, and duties at the foreign entity clearly, distinct from the shareholding. A person can be both an employee and a minority shareholder of the same company; the qualifying-employment analysis looks at the employment relationship and duties actually performed, not at the size of the ownership stake. Establish one continuous qualifying foreign-employment year within the relevant three years. For ordinary L-1A, that work can be managerial, executive or specialized knowledge; assess the U.S. managerial or executive duties separately. The group must continue U.S. and foreign business, not merely retain corporate registrations.
Describe the subordinate managers’ actual authority
A manager in the L-1A sense primarily manages the organisation, a department or an essential function, supervises other supervisory or professional employees or manages a function, and has authority over hiring and discipline or recommends it. Executive capacity means primarily directing the management of the organization, setting goals and policies, exercising wide latitude in discretionary decision-making and receiving only general supervision. Brief business trips to the United States generally do not break continuity, but a longer period of United States employment during the same window can reduce the time available. Signing authority and a spending limit describe what may be done; an executive-capacity claim rests on discretion over a major function and supervision flowing through subordinate managers.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.