A branch claim should show the same foreign legal entity operating in the United States through relevant registrations and business records. A subsidiary claim instead needs evidence of a separate company and the qualifying ownership and control relationship.
Use consistent entity names
Review tax, employment, lease and registration records for the exact legal employer. Explain any trade name or payroll arrangement without assuming it changes the entity relationship. A chart can help the reader navigate the records, but cannot supply the legal link by itself.
Counsel should select the evidence that fits the actual structure and office stage, rather than copying a packet from another corporate form. Leases, invoices and a shared logo are the records most often over-read. A lease shows premises, not ownership; an invoice shows trade between two companies, not control of one by the other; a common brand shows marketing, not a corporate link.
Each has a genuine but narrow use, and stretching it beyond that use is what produces a request for further evidence. Hypothetical example: a digital-signage manufacturing group offers a supply agreement and matching stationery as proof that the U.S. buyer is its subsidiary; the agreement in fact describes an arm’s-length distributor, and the ownership records that would have settled the point were never requested from the corporate registry.
Match every record to the single fact it can establish.