Read the general business expansion overview
Outside providers can be part of a real business model, but their roles must be described accurately. If the new-office plan relies on them to perform operational work, show the scope, capacity and funding of those arrangements rather than assuming the word outsourced proves the transferee will primarily manage. A first new-office review should map the related entities, the transferee’s one continuous year of qualifying employment abroad during the prior three years, the secured premises, and the first-year staffing evidence. The L-1A ceiling is seven years and the L-1B ceiling is five years, subject to applicable rules, so previous L time belongs in the early planning file. Outsourcing can support operations, but it cannot conceal that the transferee will personally perform the core work.
Map the services actually provided
Identify each provider, the tasks covered and the work that remains inside the company. An accountant may handle defined financial tasks without running the entire administration. Use genuine agreements and scope descriptions, distinguishing proposals from active services and avoiding claims that a provider performs responsibilities outside its engagement. Compare signed scopes, invoices, and vendor capacity with the business plan. The record that settles the point is what the provider is contracted and able to do, not an optimistic label such as full-service administration.
Identify the transferee’s remaining duties
Explain who directs providers, accepts deliverables and performs work not included in their contracts. Compare that workload with the claimed managerial or executive position. Counsel should assess the actual structure; this guide does not promise that outsourced services count as employees or automatically satisfy a particular managerial standard. Build a responsibility matrix showing the transferee, employees, contractors, and vendors. The company must decide whether the proposed position is primarily managerial or executive after accounting for the tasks nobody else actually performs.
Test continuity and affordability
Include service costs and dependencies in the forecast, and identify alternatives if a provider cannot deliver. Keep invoices and work records as the operation develops. The evidence should show genuine operational support, not paper contracts obtained solely to suggest delegation while the transferee continues doing the underlying work. Hypothetical example: a maker of orbital-welding fixtures hires an accounting firm and a fulfillment contractor for its first U.S. location. The transferee is still scheduled to assemble every fixture and answer all sales calls. The company must decide whether its staffing timeline supports the claimed leadership role within the initial period or needs a different operational plan.
Hypothetical example: verifying what the providers actually do
Hypothetical example: a first U.S. location engages an accounting firm and a fulfilment contractor, and the plan describes these as the operational team supporting a managerial role. The check is to read the service agreements, ask what each provider is actually contracted to deliver, and then ask what remains. Where the transferee is still scheduled to perform the assembly, the selling and the customer follow-up, outside providers handling bookkeeping and shipping do not change that picture. Map the services actually provided against the transferee remaining duties, and test whether the staffing timeline supports the claimed role within the first year of approval. Contracts are useful evidence precisely because they state what is and is not included.
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.