Read the general business expansion overview
A new-office L-1A petition must show that the U.S. entity has secured sufficient physical premises to house the operation and that within one year it will support a managerial or executive role. A signed lease is the starting point, but the officer reads it for what it actually provides: exclusive space, a term long enough to matter, and a fit with the business described. A Lévis company opening a U.S. service depot should match the premises to the plan before the petition is written, not after a question arrives.
Read the lease against the business plan
Hypothetical example: a Lévis manufacturer of marine electronics wants a U.S. service and calibration depot run by its service manager. The U.S. entity has taken a month-to-month licence for one bay in a shared industrial workshop, with common-use benches. The business plan describes bench repairs, a parts inventory and two technicians within a year. A shared bay on a monthly licence does not obviously house that operation, and the officer can say so. A twelve-month lease of a defined unit with its own access, or a longer term with a break clause, aligns the premises with the plan. Fix the lease first; the petition describes what exists.
Prove capacity to support the manager within the year
The petition must show financial ability to start doing business and to pay the transferee, plus a plan that reaches a managerial structure within twelve months. That means a funded bank account for the U.S. entity, a capitalisation record from the Lévis parent, a hiring schedule with dates and roles, and a forecast the parent's own accounts can support. The service manager's role must become managerial by the extension stage: directing technicians, controlling the parts budget, setting service pricing. If the plan has him doing every repair himself for eighteen months, the first-year approval may arrive but the extension will be hard.
Keep the first year's evidence as it happens
Initial new-office approval lasts one year. The extension is decided on records: payroll showing hires, invoices showing customers, the lease renewed or upgraded, bank statements showing the parent's funding, and an organisation chart that now has people under the manager. Set up a folder on the day the petition is filed and add to it monthly. Where the plan slips, for instance a technician resigns and the manager covers the bench for a season, write it down when it happens and show how it was corrected. A reconstructed year reads as a story; a contemporaneous year reads as evidence.
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.