Months, not weeks, and the length depends entirely on what the corporate and payroll checks reveal. Clean records mean quick preparation; defects mean waiting.
The schedule is set by the defects you find
There is no standard lead time, because the work that takes time is repair rather than preparation. If the ownership documents already establish a qualifying relationship and the payroll shows an unbroken qualifying period, the remaining work is straightforward. If the structure grew informally, documenting it properly takes accounting and legal time. If the employment period is broken, it is restored only by working the required time under a corrected arrangement, which no urgency shortens. A newly established base abroad adds a parallel track of premises and funding evidence, and its initial approval period is short enough that the first year's plan must be genuinely achievable rather than optimistic. Build the season's commitments around whichever of these takes longest.
Start with the date on which the qualifying year is complete, then place corporate-record repairs and the new operation’s preparation around it. Payroll records settle the first date; executed premises and funding documents settle whether a new office can operate on arrival. The decision is whether the desired launch date is feasible or should be moved to protect the underlying case. A premium processing choice cannot create qualifying employment or an operating business. Hypothetical example: a food-packaging operations leader reaches the required continuous-employment anniversary after the planned launch, so the company assigns an interim local manager instead of filing early.