IN THIS GUIDE · A general manager whose American team is small and whose authority must still be primary
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
One continuous year abroad, inside a relationship that exists on paper
Two structural facts come before anything about Hélène personally. The American subsidiary must stand in a qualifying relationship to the Canadian company — parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate — and both entities must be doing business, meaning the regular provision of goods or services rather than a registered name and a bank account. Then Hélène must have been employed abroad by that group for one continuous year within the three years before the petition is filed. Continuous means what it says. A four-month gap when she was retained as a contractor rather than an employee breaks it, and time already spent working in the United States does not count toward it. Share registers, financial statements and payroll records prove both points; an organizational chart drawn up for the petition proves neither.
Managerial capacity in a company with four employees
L-1A requires that Hélène be employed primarily in a managerial or executive capacity, and primarily is the operative word. A manager directs the organization, a department or a function, supervises professional or supervisory staff or manages an essential function, and holds discretion over day-to-day operations. With three subordinates in the first year, the petition should choose its ground carefully: a function manager who owns quoting, scheduling and supplier qualification, with authority over an outsourced engineering firm and a contract programmer, is a stronger description than an executive who supervises nobody. Calling her an executive because the title sounds senior invites the obvious question. Where she will personally run machines during a rush, say so, and say what share of the week it will take, rather than hoping the point is not raised.
A new office is approved for one year, and the year is the test
Because the American entity is new, the petition is a new-office petition and will be approved for one year rather than three. That first approval rests on evidence that the office exists and can support a managerial role: a signed lease for premises sufficient for the work, the capital committed, the customers or contracts in hand, and a staffing plan naming who will be hired and when. The extension at the end of the year is decided on what actually happened. If the plan promised six employees and the company hired one, the second filing has to explain why Hélène's role is managerial in fact rather than in forecast. The group should therefore draft that staffing plan as something it expects to be held to.
Seven years, and the clock does not pause quietly
L-1A status is limited to a maximum of seven years, and any time already spent in L-1B counts toward that total. For a new office the sequence is usually one year, then extensions in two-year increments, so the ceiling arrives sooner than it feels. Two consequences deserve planning at the outset rather than in year six. Time spent physically outside the United States during the assignment may be recaptured with proper records, which means keeping travel evidence from the first month instead of reconstructing it later. And if the group's longer intention is permanent residence, the immigrant route runs on its own timetable and its own requirements; the seven-year ceiling is not extended by an intention to file for something else.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-08. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.