The actual qualifying employment during the relevant period must be assessed. A new title does not automatically transform earlier duties into managerial or executive work.
Reconstruct the role before and after promotion
Provide dated descriptions, reporting relationships, authority and examples of decisions from each period. Identify the one continuous year of qualifying employment abroad within the relevant three-year period, with timing reviewed for the individual. Do not combine unrelated periods or backdate a promotion to make the record appear continuous. Counsel can assess what the actual earlier role supports.
For L-1A, test the qualifying relationship, ongoing business, the individual’s full continuous qualifying year abroad in the three-year lookback, and whether the U.S. role is chiefly managerial or executive. Keep the seven-year overall limit visible when selecting a route or describing a multi-year plan. Hypothetical example: a fleet-maintenance company wants to transfer its Canadian dispatch chief after she spent nine months leading mechanics and three months covering routes herself. The review must separate the managerial period from operational coverage using payroll, reports, and authority records. The decision is whether the qualifying year is supported as managerial or executive employment, rather than whether the job title sounds senior.
Record that conclusion next to the dated evidence and reconcile any different description in payroll, organization charts, budgets, or the proposed job. The review should be able to tell which fact exists now and which remains a business forecast.