They address different requirements and should be tracked separately.
Build distinct dates for history and launch
The relevant foreign employment precedes the transfer assessment; new-office support and initial approval have their own conditions. A single anniversary should not replace both analyses.
The requirement is one continuous year of qualifying employment abroad within the three years preceding the petition, so filing early on the strength of a fourteen-month association that includes contract months puts the case at risk over a point that four months of patience resolves. A new office receives only one year initially and, at filing, must show sufficient premises and financial ability to remunerate the beneficiary and commence doing business; evidence at the next stage should show how the operation came to support the position. A new-office approval runs one year, so evidence for the extension, meaning actual staff, actual revenue and a role that remains primarily managerial or executive as described, accumulates from the first month rather than the eleventh.