Do not infer a universal answer from the label. Describe actual activities, contracts and operations during the period and have the qualifying-business facts assessed.
Provide the full operating account
Identify services, sales, maintenance, contracting and other activities that genuinely occur, with supporting records. Explain what has stopped and what continues. A registration alone is insufficient evidence of activity, but a lower-revenue period should not be described inaccurately as complete closure. The actual qualifying organizational framework matters.
The maximum periods are cumulative within the same maximum-stay period, so a person who spent two years in the group's American operation in a specialised knowledge role has used part of the allowance unless a qualifying immediate prior year abroad makes a new period available. An initial new office need not operate yet, but it requires secured physical premises and evidence addressing the U.S. investment and the foreign entity's financial ability, together with a first-year plan showing that the operation will support managerial or executive work within one year. The expectation is generally one continuous year of qualifying employment with the related organisation abroad within the relevant preceding three-year period, and how a leave, a resignation, or time spent in the United States interacts with that window is a case-specific question for counsel.