The time evolution of the buildup process inside a double-barrier system for off-resonance incidence energies is studied by considering the analytic solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation with cutoff plane wave initial conditions. We show that the buildup process exhibits invariances under arbitrary changes on the system parameters, which can be successfully described by a simple and easy-to-use one-level formula. We find that the buildup of the off-resonant probability density is characterized by an oscillatory pattern modulated by the resonant case which governs the duration of the transient regime. This is evidence that off-resonant and resonant tunneling are two correlated processes, whose transient regime is characterized by the same transient time constant of two lifetimes.

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