IN THIS GUIDE · Measuring whether a safety director's duties are primarily managerial
Start with the L-1A eligibility and application overview
Build the duty description as a time allocation
Primarily is a proportion, so answer it with proportions. Set out the intended week: hours spent setting compliance policy, reviewing audit findings, directing staff and reporting to the owner, against hours spent personally reviewing driver logs, conducting inspections and filing reports. A description that lists twelve responsibilities without weighting them leaves the reviewer to assume the worst. A description that shows where the time goes, and who does the rest, answers the question directly.
Say who performs the non-managerial work
In a carrier with forty trucks, someone reviews the logs and processes the violations. Name the compliance clerks, dispatch staff or outside service that does it, and show them on a chart reporting to the director. Where the American operation currently has nobody in those roles, describe the hiring plan with dates. A transfer into an operation where the director will personally do the compliance work is a specialist transfer, and it should be analysed under the specialized knowledge standard instead.
Distinguish supervising professionals from supervising a function
The definition treats a first-line supervisor of non-professional employees differently unless the supervised staff are professionals, so a role that consists of overseeing a handful of clerks needs care. The stronger description is usually the function: the director owns the safety and compliance programme for both operations, sets its standards, holds authority over hiring and discipline within it, and can ground equipment or a driver. Write it that way if that is what is true, and not otherwise.
Prove the year abroad and the acquisition on paper
Collect payroll and an employment letter covering one continuous year of qualifying employment with the Canadian company within the last three years. Then document the acquisition: the purchase agreement, the share register of the American company after closing, and the ownership chain back to the Alberta corporation. Confirm that both companies continue to do business, since the relationship must hold at filing and at every extension, not merely on the day the deal closed.
Show a receiving organization that can support an executive
Executive capacity means directing the management of the organization or a major component, establishing its goals and policies, exercising wide latitude in discretionary decision-making, and receiving only general supervision from higher-level executives, the board or shareholders. The requirement can be met through the qualifying organization’s relevant parent, branch, affiliate or subsidiary; it is not enough that an unrelated contractor remains abroad. A functional manager may need evidence of managing an essential function at a senior level, while a personnel manager may need to show oversight rather than personal production.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.