Read the general business expansion overview
Hypothetical example: Barnaby Ellsworth's blade-inspection company operates from Lambton Shores with drone crews and a small analysis team, and he is establishing an American subsidiary to serve operators in three states. He expects to run it himself for the first two years. Because the U.S. entity will have been doing business for less than a year when the petition is filed, this is a new-office case, and new-office cases are decided on evidence about a business that does not exist yet.
What must already be true when the petition is filed
A new-office petition is approved for one year initially rather than the longer period an established entity attracts, and it carries requirements the ordinary case does not. Sufficient physical premises to house the new operation must have been secured, which means a signed lease or purchase for real space rather than an address service, a spare room or a promise to find somewhere on arrival. The petitioner must show the qualifying relationship between the Canadian and American entities and that it has the financial ability to pay the transferee and to begin doing business. Where the claim is managerial or executive, the evidence must show that the American operation will support such a role within the year, with a plan, a hiring schedule and a budget that make that credible.
The extension is where the plan is compared with the year
At the end of the first year the company applies to extend, and the adjudicator now has something the first petition lacked: twelve months of history. Expect the plan filed at the outset to be read against what actually happened. Evidence of doing business is required — contracts with operators, invoices issued, payroll for employees actually hired, tax filings, bank activity — together with a description of the duties Barnaby has in fact been performing. This is where a founder who has spent the year flying drones himself has a problem, because the petition described a manager and the year describes a technician. The realistic protection is to hire against the plan on schedule, or to file the extension on an honest description of a role that has changed.
Three things a new office is not
It is not a mailbox: a registered agent's address, a virtual office or a shared desk booked by the hour will not satisfy the premises requirement for an operation that needs space. It is not a home office in most cases, particularly where the business involves equipment, staff or client visits, and treating a spare bedroom as the American operation invites the question of what the entity actually is. And it is not a desk inside a customer's building, since work performed principally at another employer's site raises separate conditions about supervision and about labour for hire. Barnaby should lease space that matches the business he described, keep the lease and photographs of the premises, and treat the first year as the period in which the promise is either kept or revised in writing.
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.