IN THIS GUIDE · Separating a credibly revised new-office plan from claims that the office is already operating
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Date every version of the plan
Keep the original plan, the revision and the reasons for the change as three separate items, each dated. Record what triggered the delay, when it became known, and who approved the new version. A plan that quietly replaces its predecessor invites the question of which one was true. A plan that shows its own history, from original assumption through the event to the revised assumption, is far easier for a reviewer to follow and for counsel to defend. Keep the correspondence that records the trigger as well: the supplier notice, the lender's condition, the board's decision. A dated narrative assembled from documents the business generated at the time is more persuasive than a memorandum written afterwards to explain the change.
Show the money behind the revised numbers
A revised forecast is credible when something concrete stands behind it: a signed facility, a subscription agreement, a shareholder resolution, a term sheet with conditions listed, or committed cash on deposit. State the conditions still outstanding rather than presenting conditional funding as secured. Where the amount or the timing has changed, adjust the hiring schedule and the premises commitment in the same document, so the plan remains internally consistent instead of optimistic in parts. State what the revised figures assume about the first year of trading. A new-office L-1A approval is limited to one year, and any extension will be assessed against what actually happened during it, so figures chosen to look modest now are easier to meet later than figures chosen to look impressive.
Keep intended duties in the future tense
A new-office L-1A case turns on whether the plan will support a managerial or executive position within a year, and the initial approval is limited to one year. Describe intended duties as intended. Where a small amount of activity has already started, describe it at its real scale rather than letting it colour the whole account. Mixing a forecast with a description of current operations produces a document that is inaccurate about both. The distinction matters because the category asks whether the position will be managerial or executive within that first year, and both are defined terms rather than descriptions of seniority or workload. A plan promising that the transferee will run everything personally describes a busy person, not a managerial or executive capacity, and it can undercut the very claim it was written to support.
Choose between filing now and filing when funded
Put the choice to counsel plainly: file on the revised plan as it stands, or wait until the funding condition clears and the schedule firms up. Each option carries different evidence and a different first-year clock. Ask what the revision needs before it would be worth filing at all, and what the business should do in the interim. Agree a review date tied to the funding milestone, not to a hoped-for start. Whichever option is chosen, record the choice and its date. If the business files now and the funding later closes on different terms, the file already shows what was known and when. If it waits, the delay reads as a documented commercial decision rather than an unexplained gap in the organisation's own timeline.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.