Not automatically. The requirement concerns qualifying employment abroad, including its continuity and timing, as well as the capacity in which the employee worked. Payroll is important evidence but does not establish every part of that analysis.
Review location and duties together
Prepare a chronology of actual work locations and travel alongside payroll and role records. Flag U.S. work, extended absences and changes of employer for review.
The foreign role may have been managerial, executive or specialised knowledge; the proposed L-1B role must involve the employee’s specialised knowledge. Do not substitute an employment anniversary for the full analysis. Payroll location and work location are different facts, and a year of Canadian payroll does not by itself establish a year of qualifying employment abroad.
Review the two together. Where was the person physically working, for which entity, and doing what? An employee paid through a Canadian company while working principally elsewhere, or one whose employer changed within a group without the payroll arrangement changing, both present questions that the payroll record alone will not answer.
The requirement generally concerns continuous full-time employment with a qualifying related entity within the three years preceding the filing or admission, in a managerial, executive or specialized-knowledge capacity. Each element needs its own evidence, and the capacity element is the one most often assumed rather than documented, particularly where the role changed during the period being relied upon.