Payroll records, tax slips and dated position descriptions carry more weight than a letter asserting long service. The file must fix one continuous year of employment with the qualifying organization inside the three years before the petition, in a managerial, executive or specialized-knowledge capacity, and identify any time spent in the United States that interrupts it.
Prove employment and capacity separately, and account for every absence
Two distinct facts are in issue. The first is employment: that the applicant was employed by the qualifying organization abroad, continuously, for twelve months within the preceding three years. Payroll journals, records of remittance, annual tax slips and employment agreements evidence that better than a testimonial.
Contractor invoices generally do not, because engagement is not employment, and a period spent invoicing the group through a personal corporation may fall outside the qualifying year. The second fact is capacity, and it needs a period-specific description rather than a current one. An organization chart for the qualifying year, the decisions the applicant made, budgets controlled and personnel or functions directed all belong in the file.
Time spent working in the United States during the three-year window does not count toward the year abroad and should be listed with dates so the qualifying period can be identified without argument.
- USCIS: L-1A Intracompany Transferee Executive or Manager
- eCFR: 8 CFR 214.2, Special requirements for admission, extension and maintenance of status
- USCIS Policy Manual: Volume 2, Part L, Intracompany Transferees
- USCIS Policy Manual: Volume 10, Part B, Chapter 2, employment authorization for certain spouses
- USCIS: Form G-1055, Fee Schedule