IN THIS GUIDE · Managerial duties supported by ordinary work records
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Write duties from the working week
Start with recurring decisions and responsibilities, using plain language and realistic time allocations where useful. Identify the subject, authority and result of each duty. Broad statements about overseeing operations do not reveal whether the beneficiary manages others or personally performs the service the organization sells. Start by asking which decisions the person makes without routine approval, who reports to them, and how the organization carries out the underlying service. That sequence produces a duty record a reviewer can test against payroll and organization charts.
Use examples that explain authority
Select ordinary records showing the beneficiary directing work, setting priorities or making qualifying decisions. Explain the context and who implemented the decision. A document carrying the person’s signature is not automatically managerial evidence; its value depends on what the document shows about the role and the organization. The strongest record usually links authority to a real operating event: a budget approval, hiring decision, vendor selection, or change in priorities. Collect the contemporaneous record and identify the responsible people rather than relying on a title alone.
Reconcile descriptions across sources
Compare the petition narrative with internal job descriptions, charts, payroll titles and employment records. Differences may be explainable, but should not be ignored. Use dates to distinguish changes in role from inconsistent drafting, and retain the original records rather than revising company history to match an application theory. Reconcile legal entity names before describing the transfer. A share register, ownership chart, and employment records should establish the qualifying relationship and the foreign employment year; a polished organizational diagram cannot substitute for either record.
Keep operational duties visible
Include hands-on work honestly so the primary nature of the role can be assessed. Technical expertise used incidentally is different from routine delivery occupying most of the job. If the evidence shows a gap, discuss the actual responsibilities with counsel; more elaborate managerial wording does not cure the underlying issue. The key decision is whether hands-on duties are occasional support for a senior role or the principal work being transferred. If routine delivery dominates, changing the vocabulary in a letter will not change the staffing reality that the evidence reveals.
When a duty description needs a second opinion
Some duty descriptions can be settled internally and some cannot, and it helps to know which is which before drafting starts. Escalate where any of the following appears: the description relies on words such as manage or oversee with no example beneath them; the people said to implement decisions cannot be named; the time allocation was chosen rather than observed; or the same role is described differently in the staffing records, the organisation chart and an earlier filing. Each signals a document describing an intention rather than an operation. Where none appears, ordinary internal drafting is usually sufficient. Counsel should review the description alongside the staffing and operating records regardless, because identical phrasing can describe very different work in different organisations.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.