Two to three months of preparation is realistic, dominated by assembling internal evidence and confirming the qualifying year, plus adjudication time that should be checked against current published figures at the point of filing.
The records request starts the clock
Preparation begins with an internal request for the documents that support the knowledge claim, and that request nearly always uncovers gaps: a protocol whose author has left, a validation report filed under an old system, a training record kept on paper. Filling those honestly takes weeks. In parallel, the qualifying year has to be confirmed on payroll and travel records, and the corporate evidence assembled to show both entities are related and operating. The position description and the knowledge statement are then drafted and usually revised at least twice. Only then is there a petition worth filing. Companies that start from a desired arrival date and work forward file thinner cases and are surprised more often.
Hypothetical example: Mateo has worked abroad for a Canadian packaging-equipment company for fourteen months and is needed at its U.S. plant after a product launch. His first review should verify the continuous foreign employment dates, identify all prior U.S. time, and collect the technical record before the launch creates urgency. Payroll settles the qualifying year, while entry history informs the remaining cap. The company should schedule knowledge-transfer milestones and decide whether the employee will train local staff or perform a continuing specialist function. Waiting until production is delayed encourages rushed letters that describe a staffing crisis instead of the qualifying expertise.