IN THIS GUIDE · Parent and subsidiary ownership evidence
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Trace every link in the chain
Name the foreign employer, U.S. petitioner and any intermediary holding entities. Show ownership percentages and control at each step, using records that are current for the proposed filing. A neat chart is a navigation aid; it cannot replace the documents establishing the relationships it depicts or explain away a missing link.
Read ownership together with governance
Review share or membership records alongside voting rights, bylaws, operating agreements and relevant decisions. A certificate alone may not disclose total issued interests or restrictions on control. Identify agreements affecting actual direction of the company so counsel can apply the qualifying-relationship definitions to the complete structure.
Distinguish a holding entity from operations
A holding company may appear in an ownership chain, but a dormant foreign entity does not itself satisfy the ongoing doing-business requirement. Identify which qualifying organization abroad actually provides goods or services. Keep the ownership analysis and operating evidence connected without treating them as interchangeable.
Maintain the chain through the transfer
Changes to ownership or control can affect the petition and may require an amendment. Keep a record of relevant transactions and review proposed changes with counsel. Evidence should describe the current legal structure, not an outdated group diagram copied from a prior financing or acquisition presentation.
Establish the chain before describing the role
Two enquiries run through every L-1A case, and they are easier to answer in order. The first is corporate: does a qualifying relationship exist between the foreign employer and the U.S. petitioner, traced through legal ownership and control at each step. The second is personal: has the beneficiary completed one continuous year of qualifying employment abroad within the three years preceding the petition, and will the U.S. role be managerial or executive. Resolve the corporate question first. It is the one that fails cleanly, because a missing intermediate link cannot be repaired by a stronger description of the transferee duties, and effort spent drafting that description is lost if the chain does not hold. Corporate records also take longest to obtain, particularly across jurisdictions, so starting them early absorbs the delay. Once ownership and control are established and dated, the role description can be written against a structure that is known rather than assumed, and the seven-year maximum applying to L-1A can be planned against a real start date.
Hypothetical example: reading an ownership chain from the bottom up
Hypothetical example: a Canadian cold-chain logistics company holds its U.S. warehousing subsidiary through an intermediate holding entity incorporated in a third jurisdiction. Work the chain upward. Identify the U.S. petitioner and the register showing who owns it. Obtain that owner own ownership records next, and continue upward until reaching the foreign entity that actually employs the transferee. At each step record the percentage held, the voting rights attached and any agreement restricting how those rights may be exercised, because ownership and control are separate questions and a majority holding can coexist with contractual limits on direction. Then ask something the chart cannot answer: which entity in the group is actually doing business, providing goods or services on a regular basis. A dormant intermediate holder may be a valid link in the ownership chain while contributing nothing to that requirement. Finish by dating the whole picture, since a financing or reorganisation completed after the records were pulled can displace the structure the file describes.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.