Read the general business expansion overview
Hypothetical example: a Guelph/Eramosa millwright and industrial-installation contractor wins recurring work at three US food plants and decides to open a US branch, sending its owner-manager to run it. The first-year petition is approved on evidence of premises and a plan, but the plan fails a year later because the owner spent the year on the plant floor, the branch never hired anyone, and the extension cannot show a managerial role. New-office cases go wrong at the extension far more often than at the first filing.
The first year is approved on a promise
A new-office L-1A petition is approved for one year on evidence that physical premises have been secured, that the transferee had a qualifying year of managerial or executive employment abroad, and that the US operation will support a managerial position within a year, shown by the proposed organization, the size of the investment and the financial ability to pay the transferee and start business. A coworking desk and a plan to hire when contracts arrive rarely satisfy this. Sign a lease for a shop or office suited to the work, budget for at least the first hires, and write a staffing plan with dates. The owner's qualifying year must be as an employee of the Canadian company in a managerial role, which for an owner means payroll and a documented management position, not simply ownership.
The extension is decided on what actually happened
At the end of the first year the company must show that the branch is doing business and that the transferee is now primarily managerial. The examiner will look at payroll records for the US hires, the organization chart, contracts performed and the transferee's actual duties. If the owner spent the year installing conveyors himself while the branch used Canadian crews on short trips, the extension will be refused, and the seven-year maximum is irrelevant because the status ends at year one. The corrective is to hire early: a site supervisor and installers in the United States in the first months, so that by the extension the owner supervises supervisors, negotiates contracts and manages finances.
Keep the Canadian company alive and the structure honest
Both the Canadian company and the US branch must continue doing business for the whole period; a contractor that moves every job to the US branch and leaves the Canadian entity dormant loses the qualifying relationship. Keep Canadian contracts, staff and payroll running. If the US branch is a separate corporation, document that the Canadian company owns it. Where the honest plan is that the owner will personally do installation work in the United States for the foreseeable future, L-1A is the wrong instrument; consider whether an E-2 investment in a US installation business fits, since E-2 requires the investor to direct the enterprise but tolerates a hands-on owner in a way the managerial test does not.
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.