An unsigned or partially negotiated succession agreement should be described as exactly that. The petition needs to show who currently has the authority, under the company's existing governing documents, to direct the proposed U.S. operation, not who is expected to hold that authority once a future agreement is finalized.
Use the documents that are actually in force today
Identify the company's current governing documents, officer appointments and any board or shareholder resolutions already in effect, and keep them separate from draft succession terms still being negotiated among family members. If authority is genuinely informal or shared among siblings without documentation, that gap itself needs to be resolved with proper corporate records before the U.S. role's authority can be established. For an owner or major stockholder, the applicable rule also requires evidence of temporary U.S. services and a subsequent assignment abroad.
Establish present authority before describing future succession. Collect executed shareholder records, current reporting charts, board resolutions, and evidence showing who controls budgets, personnel, and major decisions. L-1 requires a parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate relationship and generally requires one continuous year of full-time employment physically abroad during the relevant preceding three-year period. For a new-office L-1A, that foreign year must itself be managerial or executive, and the plan must support a managerial or executive U.S. role within one year. The common error is treating an unsigned family arrangement as though it already transferred control.
Hypothetical example: a Clarence-Rockland grain-elevator equipment distributor wants its operations director to launch an affiliated U.S. sales company while two siblings negotiate ownership succession. Records give the director authority over managers; the draft names a different post-closing officer. The petition uses the effective structure and identifies the possible change without claiming completion. Counsel also checks that the foreign company will continue doing business while the American affiliate develops, rather than assuming a planned handover proves the qualifying relationship.