Read the general business expansion overview
Hypothetical example: Thibault owns a port-logistics software firm in Richmond County that sells berth scheduling and cargo tracking systems, and he is opening an American subsidiary in Portland with himself as its first manager. He expects an approval to give him three years to build the operation. A new-office petition is approved for one year, and what he does inside that year decides whether there is a second, so the plan he files is a commitment rather than a description.
What must exist on the day of filing
A new-office petition for a managerial or executive transferee requires evidence that sufficient physical premises to house the new office have been secured, that the beneficiary has the requisite qualifying employment abroad, and that the American entity will support an executive or managerial position within one year of approval. Secured is stronger than identified: a signed lease, or ownership, rather than a shortlist of buildings and a broker's letter. The Canadian firm must also be shown to be doing business, and the relationship between the two entities evidenced on corporate records. Thibault should assume every element of that list will be checked against documents rather than accepted on assurance.
The business plan is read again twelve months later
The extension is decided on what actually happened, compared against what was filed. If the plan promised six employees, a sales office and two implementations in the first year, an adjudicator will look for six employees, a lease in use and evidence of the implementations. A plan written optimistically to look impressive therefore creates the problem it was meant to avoid. Thibault is better served by a conservative plan he can meet, with hiring milestones dated, a staffing chart showing who will report to him, and revenue assumptions he is willing to be held to. Payroll records, contracts and tax filings should be kept as they are generated, since reconstructing a year at month eleven is painful.
By the end of the year he must be managing, not building
The category requires managerial or executive duties, and the founder of a small subsidiary spends the first months doing everything: configuring servers, writing proposals, meeting customers, and handling the accounts. That is expected at the outset and is a problem at extension, because the question then is whether the position has become genuinely managerial. Hiring is what resolves it, so the recruitment schedule is really the immigration plan. Where the specialised-knowledge route is used instead for a technical colleague, the same one-year approval applies and the maximum stay is five years rather than seven. Either way, the offsite rule matters if staff will work primarily on customers' premises.
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.