With ownership records for both companies showing the same individual or group owns and controls each in roughly the same proportions: share registers, articles, shareholder agreements and, where relevant, tax filings that list owners. A common founder without matching ownership is not enough.
Affiliation is proven by proportions, not by a shared name
A qualifying relationship can be parent and subsidiary, two subsidiaries of the same parent, or affiliates owned and controlled by the same individual or group of individuals, each owning roughly the same share and proportion of each entity. Hypothetical example: a Sainte-Brigitte-de-Laval entrepreneur owns eighty percent of a Québec cabinetry company and forty percent of a U.S. installation business with two American partners.
The companies share a name and marketing, but the proportions differ substantially, and the U.S. entity is not controlled by the same person. That is not an affiliate for L-1 purposes unless the ownership is restructured.
To prove a genuine affiliate relationship, assemble the share register or membership ledger for each entity, the articles or operating agreement showing voting rights, any shareholder agreement that allocates control, and recent tax filings listing owners. Add proof both companies are doing business: leases, payroll summaries, invoices, bank statements.