USA
How the L-1A requirements split
The L-1A visa requirements split in two. The company proves it qualifies as a petitioner. You prove you qualify as the intracompany transferee. This page covers the second half of the L-1A: your year abroad, the role you held there, and the role waiting for you here.
USCIS weighs both halves together. A clean corporate structure does not rescue a thin role, and a strong role does not survive a relationship the company cannot document.
Officers refuse these cases when the record shows you doing the work rather than directing it. Below, each of the L-1A requirements gets the rule in the government’s own words, what proves it, and what weakens it.
L-1A requirements at a glance
The L-1A requirements come to six tests. Three sit with the company. The three below are yours.
| Requirement | What it means | Decided on |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifying relationship | Real ownership ties the US and foreign entity | The company side |
| Doing business | Both entities trade in goods or services, and keep trading | The company side |
| A US petitioner | The US employer files. You cannot file for yourself | The company side |
| One year abroad | Twelve continuous months, full-time, inside a three-year window | You |
| Capacity abroad | That year was managerial or executive, under one of three tests | You |
| Capacity in the US | The incoming role meets the same standard | You |
A new office adds conditions to both columns. Those sit in their own section below.
Which L-1A requirements does the company have to meet?
Three of the six. The two entities need a genuine ownership link. Both need to be actively trading. The US employer has to file the petition, which rules out self-petitioning even for a founder transferring into a company they own.
Those three L-1A requirements live with what the petitioner has to show, alongside blanket approvals, new-office company conditions and post-approval site visits. The rest of this page assumes the company side holds.
One continuous year of qualifying employment abroad
The first of the beneficiary-side L-1A requirements is time. You need twelve continuous months of full-time work for the qualifying company abroad, inside the three years before the petition is filed. The year does not have to be the most recent twelve months. It has to fall somewhere in that window.
What counts toward the year
Only time spent physically outside the US working full-time counts. Part-time work generally does not aggregate, with one exception: hours split across affiliated companies in the same group can be added together.
The requirement is measured at filing. If you are short by a month when the petition goes in, the petition fails, even though you would have qualified by the decision date.
- Payroll records covering the full twelve months, with hours or full-time status stated
- An employment letter from the company abroad giving exact dates and duties
- Tax filings or social security records from the country you worked in
- Entry and exit stamps, or a travel history, to show where you were
Do trips to the US break the L-1A year abroad?
The ruleBrief visits for business or pleasure in B-1 or B-2 status do not interrupt the 1-year foreign employment requirement.
USCIS Policy Manual, vol. 2, pt. L, ch. 6
No. A short trip does not reset your year, because officers treat brief visits as neutral under the L-1A requirements. The days still do not count toward the twelve months. Officers subtract time spent in the US from the months worked abroad, so ten days here pushes your eligibility date out by ten days.
The arithmetic matters if you travel often. Flying to the US monthly for review meetings pushes your twelve-month mark weeks past where the calendar puts it.
The rule that pauses the three-year clock
The ruleTime a beneficiary spent working in the United States for a qualifying organization does not count towards the 1-year foreign employment requirement.
USCIS Policy Manual, vol. 2, pt. L, ch. 6
Those US years do not count toward your twelve months. They do not burn the three-year window either: the same passage says the running of that period is tolled while you are in the US. So the window stretches by however long you worked here for the group.
Take someone who worked four years for the company in India, then moved to the US on an H-1B with the same group and stayed three years. The three-year lookback pauses across that H-1B period. Their Indian year is still inside the window, and they remain eligible.
You may have written yourself off years ago without checking. If you moved to the US on another status and stayed inside the corporate group, run the dates before you rule yourself out.
- Approval notices and pay records for the earlier US status with the same group
- A corporate chart showing the US and foreign entities were related throughout
- A dated timeline mapping the year abroad, the US period, and the filing date
Are you a manager or an executive under the L-1A?
Either one satisfies the L-1A requirements. A manager qualifies two different ways, and an executive is a third route, so you have three to choose from and need to clear one. Picking the wrong one wastes the strongest evidence you have.
Officers look past the title to the work, applying the definitions set out in the USCIS Policy Manual. All three tests measure whether other people carry the operational work while you direct it.
| Test | Fits you if | What carries it |
|---|---|---|
| Personnel manager | You supervise a team, and those people are professionals, supervisors or managers themselves | Org chart, subordinate credentials, personnel authority |
| Function manager | You own an essential function with few or no direct reports | The function’s scope and budget, who performs its daily work |
| Executive | You direct the company or a major component and answer only to the board or senior executives | Decision authority, goals and policies you set, reporting line |
Founders with a small US team most often build on the function manager route.
Personnel manager: the four elements
You probably picture this test when you hear the word manager. It turns on whether the staff you supervise are professional employees.
The rule
The ruleA first line supervisor is not considered to be acting in a managerial capacity merely by virtue of the supervisor’s supervisory duties unless the employees supervised are professional.
INA 101(a)(44)(A), 8 USC 1101(a)(44)(A)
The statute sets four elements. You manage the organization, or a department, subdivision, function or component. You supervise and control the work of other supervisory, professional or managerial employees. You hold authority over hiring, firing and other personnel actions. You exercise discretion over day-to-day operations.
A professional employee holds a position that requires a bachelor’s degree or higher. Supervising four people does not help if those four are non-professional staff doing routine work. That is the line between a shift lead and a manager.
- An org chart naming each subordinate, their title, and who they report to
- Educational credentials for the people you supervise, showing degree-level roles
- Occupational listings for their positions, from the Occupational Outlook Handbook or O*NET
- Records of decisions you made on hiring, pay, promotion or leave
- Subordinates listed by headcount with no titles, duties or qualifications
- A duty breakdown where operational work takes most of your week
- An org chart that contradicts the payroll or the support letter
- Job descriptions written for the petition rather than drawn from the company’s own records
Function manager: the five elements
You can qualify without a team. Managing an essential function counts, and this route carries most founders and early-stage transfers. It is also the hardest to evidence, because you have no org chart to point at.
The five-part test
The ruleThe function is a clearly defined activity. The function is essential, that is, core to the organization. The beneficiary will primarily manage, as opposed to perform, the function. The beneficiary will act at a senior level within the organizational hierarchy or with respect to the function managed. The beneficiary will exercise discretion over the function’s day-to-day operations.
USCIS Policy Manual, vol. 2, pt. L, ch. 6, section C
Start by naming the function, and name it narrowly. "Operations" is too broad to qualify. "Market development for the Americas" works, because it has a defined scope, a budget and an output.
Then show that someone else performs the work while you direct it. Those people do not have to sit on the US payroll. A decision USCIS treats as binding approved a case where the US office had two employees. Eight staff at the parent company abroad worked exclusively in support of that beneficiary. Officers must weigh the reasonable needs of the whole organization, related entities included.
Officers judge essentiality case by case, on the record in front of them. Small size alone cannot sink a petition, though it stays a relevant factor in whether the operation is substantial enough to need a manager.
- A written scope for the function: what it covers, what it delivers, what it is measured on
- The budget or revenue the function carries, and your authority over it
- Named staff who perform its daily work, including people at related companies abroad
- Where you sit in the hierarchy, and who you report to
- A function described in one line, with no scope, budget or output
- Nobody identified as performing the underlying work
- Evidence limited to the US payroll when the support sits abroad
- A role that reads as the company’s only worker rather than its senior decision maker
Executive capacity: the four elements
Executive capacity sits above management. The test measures direction and discretion rather than headcount.
The rule
The ruleReceives only general supervision or direction from higher level executives, the board of directors, or stockholders of the organization.
INA 101(a)(44)(B), 8 USC 1101(a)(44)(B)
Four elements make up executive capacity. You direct the management of the organization or a major component or function. You establish its goals and policies. You exercise wide latitude in discretionary decision-making. And you answer only to the board, the shareholders or a more senior executive.
The fourth element decides most cases. Where someone reviews your daily decisions, the record reads as management rather than executive direction.
A ceremonial title will not carry the case. Holding the position of Director or President without being primarily engaged in managing the organization does not qualify. Officers have refused cases where the President was still running the sales desk.
- Board minutes, resolutions or delegations of authority naming you
- Policies, budgets or strategy documents you approved
- Signing limits and spending authority set out in writing
- A reporting line that ends at the board or a senior executive
- A senior title alongside duties that read as daily production work
- Decisions that need sign-off from someone outside the board
- No written record of the goals or policies you claim to set
Does the US role have to match the role abroad?
No. Someone who was an executive abroad can arrive into a managerial role, and the reverse works too. New office cases are the exception, where both sides need to sit in the same category.
The US role cannot fall below the bar. It has to meet the same capacity standard as the year abroad. Officers give it more scrutiny, because the foreign role is a completed history while the US role is a forecast.
A US job description that mixes managing with doing will sink the case. If the plan has you building the product through the first year, officers read the role as operational, whatever the title says.
- A written role description drawn from the company’s own planning, not from the petition
- A US org chart, including roles you will hire and when
- Budget and headcount approved for the function or team you take over
- A reporting line showing who you answer to and who answers to you
What changes when the US office is new?
Two of the L-1A requirements shift. Where the US entity has traded for less than a year, the petition runs as a new office case. The company conditions on premises, funding and the business plan stay on the petitioner side.
The first approval runs one year instead of three. Across that year USCIS accepts that you will be hands-on while the team is built, so early operational work does not defeat the case on its own.
The second change lands at the extension. The company files again after twelve months, and the officer checks whether the plan happened. Staff hired, office running, and a role that has become managerial in practice. Cases fail at this stage when the first-year plan never became a structure.
What documents do the L-1A requirements need?
Each element needs its own proof, and the L-1A requirements are met on paper or not at all. Most refused petitions met the requirements and failed to document them. Below is what carries each element, and what officers read as a gap.
| Element | Primary evidence | Common gap |
|---|---|---|
| One year abroad | Payroll covering twelve months, employment letter with dates, tax records | Gaps in pay records, or untracked US trips |
| Capacity abroad | Org chart, detailed duty description, work product, subordinate payroll | Duties written for the petition, contradicting the company’s own records |
| Professional subordinates | Degree certificates plus occupational listings for their positions | Subordinates named with no qualifications shown |
| Function managed | Written scope, budget, named staff performing the work | Support staff abroad left out of the filing |
| Executive standing | Board records, delegated authority, signing limits | Authority asserted with nothing in writing behind it |
| The US role | Role description, org chart, hiring plan with dates and budget | A plan with no timeline, or a role that still performs the work |
Gather the subordinate credentials early. They sit with HR in another country, they take weeks to collect, and they are the single item most often missing when the file goes in.
How do L-1A requirements differ from the L-1B?
On one point only: what you did during the qualifying year. Both subtypes share the corporate relationship and the one-year rule, so the L-1A requirements and the L-1B requirements diverge at capacity.
The L-1A asks whether you managed. The L-1B asks whether you hold specialized knowledge of the company’s products, services or procedures, at a level uncommon in the industry. Deep technical expertise anyone in the field could match does not clear that bar.
The choice also sets your ceiling. L-1A status runs to seven years, the L-1B stops at five, and only the L-1A feeds the multinational executive green card. A promotion from L-1B into a managerial role can lift the ceiling, though the company has to file for it and the role has to be real.
Check your L-1A eligibility against all six tests
L-1A eligibility rests on the six tests below, and all six have to hold at the same time. Being strong on one does not make up for a gap in another, so the useful question is which one is still open.
- Twelve continuous months with the company abroad, inside the last three years
- A managerial or executive role during that year, under one of the three tests
- A managerial or executive role waiting for you in the US
- A qualifying ownership link between the US and foreign entity
- Both entities actively doing business, and staying that way
- A US employer ready to file, because you cannot petition for yourself
How the imigOS eligibility check works
The check asks about your role, your company and your time abroad, then reads those answers against every US category we cover. You see where you stand on the L-1A and on the other routes your record reaches, side by side.
- Answer the questions. A few minutes on your role, your company abroad and the job waiting in the US. The set adapts as you go, so you only see what applies to you.
- See where you stand. Which of the six tests your answers clear, and every other pathway your record reaches, with time, cost and difficulty next to each other. No account needed to read the result.
- Talk it through, if you want. A free call with an imigOS expath, one of our immigration experts. Expaths are not lawyers, so the call covers eligibility and planning rather than legal advice.
- Meet the attorneys. Where a pathway looks suitable, you see the licensed attorneys available for that case type, and you decide whether to go ahead.
The check is free, it takes a few minutes, and the result appears without an account. Check your eligibility before you build a case around the wrong category.
Common questions
All six have to hold at the same time: a year with the company abroad inside the last three, a managerial or executive role there and again in the US, a qualifying ownership link, both entities trading, and a US employer willing to file. The eligibility check tests all six and reports which one is open.
No. The L-1A carries no prevailing wage requirement and no minimum salary, unlike the H-1B. Compensation still matters as evidence. A salary far below the level the role implies invites questions about whether the position is genuinely managerial or executive rather than operational.
No. Officers read the actual duties, the reporting lines, and the qualifications of the people supervised. A ceremonial title such as Director or President does not qualify where the work stays primarily operational. Officers weigh the duty breakdown against the org chart and the payroll before accepting a title.
No. The US employer files the petition, even where the beneficiary owns the company. A founder may sign as an officer of the petitioning entity, so the restriction governs which party petitions rather than who signs the form. A US entity able to employ has to exist first.
Timing depends on the service center handling the case and whether the company pays for faster processing. Regular and premium processing run on different clocks, and a request for evidence extends both. The stages and current windows sit with how long the petition takes.
Government fees vary with the size of the petitioning employer, and several fall on the company rather than the beneficiary. Legal fees sit on top of those, and a new office case usually takes more work to prepare. The full breakdown sits with what an L-1A costs.
Yes. The L-1A supports dual intent, so pursuing permanent residence does not undermine the status. The category maps onto the multinational executive green card, which skips labor certification. The route, its conditions and its timing sit with the green card path.
Sources
- Policy Manual, Volume 2, Part L, Chapter 3: Managers and Executives (L-1A)U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services · August 31, 2026
- Policy Manual, Volume 2, Part L, Chapter 6: Key ConceptsU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- Policy Manual, Volume 2, Part L, Chapter 2: General EligibilityU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- INA 101(a)(44): Managerial and executive capacity, 8 USC 1101(a)(44)Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute
- 8 CFR 214.2(l): Intracompany transfereesCornell Law School, Legal Information Institute
- Matter of Z-A-, Inc., Adopted Decision 2016-02 (AAO Apr. 14, 2016)USCIS Administrative Appeals Office
2–6 months
$10,000–$13,500
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