Read the general business expansion overview
Hypothetical example: a Grand Bay-Westfield specialty food manufacturer plans to open a U.S. co-packing and sales office and send its founder on an L-1A new-office petition. Such a petition is approved for one year, and the extension at the end of that year is the real test: the company must show what was actually built. Premises, a business plan and capacity to support the role get the first approval. Hiring, revenue and an organization that leaves the founder managing rather than doing get the second.
What the first petition has to show
Hypothetical example: a Grand Bay-Westfield producer of smoked and preserved foods signs a lease on a unit inside a food-grade warehouse, incorporates a U.S. subsidiary and prepares a plan for co-packing and regional distribution. A new-office L-1A petition requires evidence that physical premises have been secured, that the qualifying relationship between the Canadian company and the new subsidiary exists, that the founder meets the qualifying year abroad in a managerial or executive role, and that the new entity will be able to support a managerial or executive position within one year. That last element is a forecast, so it needs to be built from real numbers: the lease terms, the equipment ordered, the funds committed by the parent, and a hiring plan with dated positions and salaries.
Design the first year backwards from the extension
Hypothetical example: the founder spends his first year doing everything himself, because that is what a new operation demands. Twelve months later the extension petition has to show that his duties are primarily managerial or executive, and a year of packing boxes and driving samples to buyers does not support that. The way to avoid the trap is to plan the hires before arrival and to make them on schedule: a production supervisor, a sales lead, an administrator. Each hire moves a category of work off the founder's desk and onto the organization chart, which is the document the extension turns on. Keep payroll records, job descriptions and reporting lines as they are created, because reconstructing them at month eleven produces a chart nobody can evidence.
Keep the Canadian parent visibly alive
Hypothetical example: as the U.S. operation absorbs attention, the Grand Bay-Westfield company's own activity thins out. That is a risk to the extension, because the qualifying relationship requires both entities to be doing business, and a parent that has become a shell no longer supports the transfer. Keep the Canadian company trading, keep its filings current, and be able to show ongoing operations and staff there. It also pays to record the intercompany arrangements properly, including how the parent funds the subsidiary and on what terms, because those documents evidence both the relationship and the capacity that the first petition promised. A clean set of intercompany invoices and a funding agreement do more for the extension than a narrative letter.
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: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.