IN THIS GUIDE · Two companies with the same owners and no parent-subsidiary link
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Common ownership is the whole argument, so it must be documented
Where there is no parent and no subsidiary, the qualifying relationship depends on showing that the same person or group owns and controls both entities in substantially the same proportions. That is an accounting and corporate-records exercise before it is an immigration one. The documents that carry it are share registers, shareholder agreements, minute books and the filings each jurisdiction requires, not a marketing page describing the two businesses as a group. If the shareholdings are not actually parallel — one company has a third investor, or a family trust holds part of one side — the argument has to be built on what the records say rather than on how the owners describe themselves. A reviewer should ask for share certificates, registers, purchase records, and organization charts before accepting a label such as affiliate. Those records settle control. They also show whether a change in ownership occurred during the employee’s qualifying period and whether the claimed relationship existed when it mattered.
Both entities have to be doing business, not merely existing
A qualifying relationship is only half of the requirement. Both the American company and the Innisfil company have to be actively engaged in business, providing goods or services in a regular and systematic way, and they have to remain so throughout the period of the transfer. A dormant corporation kept registered for a future plan does not meet that description, and neither does a company whose only activity is holding property. Devon's employer should be prepared to show ongoing operations on both sides: customers, revenue, staff and premises, evidenced rather than described. The foreign role needs evidence of management or executive authority, not merely a senior job title. Payroll records, reporting lines, personnel decisions, budgets, and minutes may show the scope of discretion. The U.S. duty description should then show a role at the same managerial or executive level.
One year of qualifying employment abroad, counted honestly
The transfer route requires one continuous year of qualifying employment with the related organization outside the United States within the three years before the petition. For Devon that means a clean record of employment with the Innisfil company across a full year: payroll records, employment agreement, and a description of duties that matches the capacity claimed. Periods spent working for a different employer, gaps between contracts, or extended stays inside the United States can complicate the count. It is far easier to establish this from records held now than to reconstruct it from recollection two years later. For a newer operation, the business plan should connect projected revenue to a staffing plan and explain who will perform routine work while the transferee directs it. A bare incorporation document does not answer whether the intended office can support an executive or managerial position after its first year.
Managing an operation is not the same as running it personally
The executive or managerial branch of the transfer route asks what Devon would primarily do. Directing an operation, setting its goals, controlling its budget and supervising other supervisors or professionals points one way; personally routing trucks, loading, and covering shifts points another, however senior the title. In a warehousing business, where the line between operating and managing is genuinely blurred, the petition has to describe the American organization around the role — who reports to whom, which functions exist, which decisions Devon would make alone — rather than simply attaching a title to a person. L-1A time is capped at seven years in total. Keep an entry-and-absence calendar from the outset. Time spent outside the country may matter to the maximum-period calculation, but it must be documented. That record also helps the family plan around a transfer, extension, or a later change of role.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.