L-1B time is capped at five years in total, and every prior period in that status counts. A two-year push therefore consumes a substantial share of the allowance, so the company should decide at the outset whether Erez is expected to return, to be replaced, or eventually to be presented in a different capacity on different facts.
Decide the exit before you plan the entry
The five-year ceiling is not a renewal formality but a hard boundary, and companies that treat the first petition as the only decision tend to run into it during a project that still needs the specialist. Three questions belong in the planning conversation now. Will the American affiliate have trained its own people by the time the allowance runs out, and who exactly is being trained?
If the role grows into directing a department, would a managerial case on genuinely different facts be available later, and what would need to be true for that to be honest rather than convenient? And if he must return, when should the handover start so the market is not abandoned? The backward clock applies too: one continuous qualifying year with a qualifying entity abroad must fall within the three years before the petition, which matters if he has already spent long stretches at the affiliate on short trips.