Ownership may help explain the corporate relationship, but the qualifying foreign employment, the organizations' business activity, and the proposed managerial or executive role must still be independently established. Ownership does not substitute for any of those requirements.
Separate the owner from the proposed worker
Describe precisely what the applicant will do after the transfer and which people or functions they will direct. Identify who performs the routine technical, sales or delivery work instead. Where the corporate structure involves several owners or holding entities, ask counsel to assess control using the actual governing documents rather than a simplified organizational chart. For an owner or major stockholder, the applicable rule also requires evidence of temporary U.S. services and a subsequent assignment abroad.
Test four matters: a parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate relationship; the generally required one continuous year of full-time employment physically abroad during the relevant preceding three-year period; managerial or executive capacity; and, except under the special U.S. new-office rules, continuing business by qualifying organizations in the United States and another country during the stay. Ownership documents may prove part of the relationship, but owning the entities does not establish service or duties. Describe decisions, reporting structure, delegated operational work, and organizational authority. The common mistake is counting founder status or a senior title instead of proving that the position is managerial or executive.
Hypothetical example: an Ottawa founder of a freight-routing software company controls both the Canadian corporation and an established American subsidiary. Payroll shows eighteen months in Canada, yet project records show the founder still wrote most production code. The review must determine what capacity that foreign year demonstrates and what American job will primarily involve. A cap table proves ownership; it does not show that staff or a qualifying function relieves the founder from routine development work.