Read the general business expansion overview
Hypothetical example: a Kent dealer in milking and barn-automation systems wants to open a U.S. service branch and transfer its service manager to run it. Because the branch has not operated for a year, the petition is a new-office case: USCIS requires secured premises, a defined U.S. entity with a qualifying relationship, financial ability to start operations and pay the manager, and a plan showing the operation will support a managerial role within one year. The initial approval is one year, and the extension tests whether that plan happened.
The four things USCIS wants to see at filing
The regulation sets out the new-office evidence for a managerial transfer. First, sufficient physical premises have been secured; a signed lease for a service bay with parts storage satisfies this, a letter of intent does not. Second, the beneficiary has one continuous year in the preceding three in a managerial or executive capacity, and the proposed employment carries such authority over the new operation. Third, the U.S. operation will support a managerial position within one year, shown through the office's proposed nature, scope, structure and financial goals, the size of the U.S. investment, and the foreign entity's ability to pay the beneficiary and commence doing business. Fourth, the qualifying relationship between the Kent dealer and the U.S. branch is documented by ownership records.
Writing a first-year plan that describes a manager, not a technician
The plan should show how the branch grows from a manager and one or two technicians to an operation in which the manager's time is spent directing rather than performing service work. Describe the customer base the branch will serve, the manufacturer warranty and dealer agreements it will hold, the hiring timeline for technicians and administrative staff, and the point at which the manager stops being the person who climbs into the milking parlour. Tie each step to a projection the Kent dealer's own statements can support; USCIS reads the plan again at extension. A plan that shows the manager as the only employee for most of the year describes a working supervisor, and the extension will be refused on that basis.
The year after approval
The initial approval runs one year. Before it expires, the petition to extend must show the branch is doing business—that it has been providing services in a regular, systematic and continuous manner—and that the manager's duties have become primarily managerial. Keep the branch's contracts, invoices, payroll records for the technicians hired, organizational charts as they change, and evidence of the decisions the manager has made about staffing, pricing and suppliers. If the branch is slower than planned, address it honestly in the extension rather than restating the original plan. An L-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status throughout, and the L-1A maximum of seven years runs from the first admission, so the first year is part of the total rather than a trial period outside it.
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.