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PORT COQUITLAM · L-1A FIELD GUIDE

Which first-year records show the office is really operating?

Sources checked:

THE DIRECT ANSWER

Payroll registers and employment agreements, the current organisational chart, the premises lease and photographs, signed customer contracts and invoices, bank statements, tax filings, and internal reports showing decisions made during the year. Together these show an operating business rather than a plan that was filed and then set aside.

Pair each promise with its proof

Build the packet as a table with the plan's commitment in one column and the corresponding evidence in the next, leaving the empty cells visible. Those empty cells are the conversation with counsel. Keep the numbers reconcilable: revenue quoted in a letter should match the bank statements and filings behind it. Discrepancies between internal reporting and formal accounts are worth resolving before anyone builds an argument on either figure.

Keep the historical entity names and dates as they actually occurred, and gather the documents that explain each corporate change, identifying which entity employed the applicant during each period rather than restating history under the current brand. For a direct subsidiary: the Canadian company's articles and share register, the purchase agreement, proof of payment, and the U.S. entity's updated ownership ledger showing the Canadian company as majority holder. An organizational chart drawn for the petition proves little; a payroll register, a service agreement naming the parties, and minutes recording a decision the applicant made all existed before the immigration question arose.