IN THIS GUIDE · Documenting span of authority and delegation for a regional role covering multiple US sites
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Define the region as a component of the organisation
Set out which sites are included, what each one does, how many people work there, and what output or result each is responsible for. A regional title can cover three similar branches or a mixed portfolio of a warehouse, a sales office, and a joint arrangement. The classification asks whether the applicant manages a component of the organisation, so the boundary of that component needs to be clear before the role can be described at all. Draw the boundary on paper before describing anything. List the sites, what each produces, the headcount at each, and the measure by which their performance is judged together. A region that cannot be drawn is a region that will be questioned, and the exercise often reveals that one site reports elsewhere or that another was added last quarter without any document recording the change.
Establish the reporting line at each location
Record who leads each site, whether that person reports to the applicant directly or through a matrix, and who else has a claim on their time. Where the applicant is one of two managers a site leader answers to, say so plainly. Function management can qualify on the facts, but a dotted line drawn on a slide is not evidence of anything. Ask the site leaders to confirm in writing who sets their objectives and reviews them. Ask each site leader to confirm in writing who sets their objectives, who reviews them, and who approves their leave. Three sentences from each is enough, and they are worth more than a chart drawn at head office. Where the applicant is one of two managers a site leader answers to, record that plainly; a shared line assessed honestly is far stronger than an exclusive one contradicted by the people it describes.
Show what is delegated and what is retained
Delegation is the substance of a regional role. Record which decisions site leaders make without asking, such as hiring below a level, spending under a threshold, local pricing, or scheduling, and which come to the applicant. Then record what the applicant keeps: budgets, staffing plans, capital requests, escalations. That contrast shows managerial or executive level far better than a claim of overall responsibility. Where the applicant regularly runs a site directly, note how often and why. Write the delegation as two lists side by side. On one, the decisions site leaders take without asking: hiring below a level, spending under a threshold, local pricing, scheduling. On the other, what comes upward: budgets, staffing plans, capital requests, escalations. Where the applicant regularly runs a site directly, note how often and why, since an unexplained pattern of hands-on work undercuts the description.
Settle the practical worksite questions
Multiple locations raise issues beyond the duty description. Identify where the applicant will be based, how time is expected to be divided, and whether any site is operated by a client or a third party, since those arrangements raise separate questions for counsel. Confirm which entity employs the staff at each location and whether all of them sit inside the same corporate group. This is an illustration; have counsel review the worksite plan before the region is described in a filing. Hypothetical example: a musical instrument distributor gives a manager two branches and a warehouse operated by a logistics provider. The third site changes the analysis, because an arrangement with an unaffiliated operator raises separate questions about supervision and about which entity employs the staff. Identify the base, the expected division of time, and the employing entity at each location, and put the worksite plan to counsel before the region is described in any filing.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.