As soon as the corporate relationship can be evidenced and a qualifying year abroad identified within the preceding three years. Where the acquired terminal has been under the group's control for under a year the petition is treated as a new office and approved for one year initially.
The corporate calendar usually decides the date, not the personal one
Marguerite's own eligibility is a matter of reconstructing a calendar, and that work can be done in days. The gating item is the American entity. Both organisations must be doing business, and a terminal only just brought into the group may need a period of trading before the record shows regular, systematic and continuous activity.
If the petition proceeds as a new office, approval runs for one year and the extension is decided on what has actually happened: staff hired, cargo handled, premises in use, and whether Marguerite's role has become genuinely managerial rather than hands-on start-up work. Sequencing therefore matters. Complete the share transfer and registry filings first, let the terminal trade and generate records, then file.
Filing while the corporate paperwork is still in draft produces a request for evidence that delays matters further than waiting would have.