It can. Any change in the ownership structure should be reassessed for its effect on the qualifying corporate relationship and the applicant's own role, rather than assumed to be irrelevant to an immigration filing already in progress.
Flag ownership changes as they happen
Confirm the actual approval and status dates from the underlying documents, and identify whether a proposed buyout or dividend event needs to be disclosed or reassessed before or after filing. Keep the corporate timeline and the immigration timeline visible together rather than treating them as unrelated tracks.
Place the dividend, redemption, or buyout beside filing, admission, and transfer dates. Recalculate ownership and voting control after each contemplated transaction to confirm that a parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate relationship will still exist. Also verify the employee’s continuous full-time foreign year within the three-year lookback and whether the American duties remain managerial or executive. Do not freeze the organization chart at drafting when a transaction will change the qualifying relationship before work begins. The general L-1A maximum is seven years, subject to regulatory exceptions and recapture rules, so prior L periods belong on the chronology too.
Hypothetical example: A LaSalle executive at an industrial-fastener distributor expects two shareholders to complete a buyout shortly after the petition is filed. Counsel should review the purchase agreement, closing conditions, cap tables, board control, and operating evidence before filing. If closing would sever the affiliate link, a pending petition cannot preserve the old relationship by itself. If the transaction is postponed, the company should keep dated proof of what actually occurred and update material facts rather than presenting an anticipated ownership structure as final.