Read it.
Use it.
Focused guides for the questions that need more than a quick answer. Each includes a worksheet to prepare your next conversation.
Guides for your next decision.
Build a TN employer evidence brief before drafting the letter
Read & prepare Applicant planningKeep an L-1A new-office record from approval to extension
Read & prepare Applicant planningCompare the E-2 evidence for a startup and a business purchase
Read & prepare U.S. destination planningCanadian RN planning for New York State
Read & prepare U.S. destination planningCanadian RN planning for California
Read & prepareSeven decisions, answered before you prepare.
The document set for a landscape architect’s TN application from Chelsea
Hypothetical example: a Chelsea landscape architect with a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture is offered a two-year position by a U.S. design firm. The Landscape Architect listing requires a baccalaureate or licenciatura degree, so her degree is the deciding document. The remaining papers exist to prove that the job is professional landscape architecture, that the firm is her employer, and that she is a Canadian citizen entering temporarily. Assemble them so that each element of the regulation is answered by a specific page. The reader must decide whether the qualification is established by the listed degree, an alternate credential route, or a licence, before collecting peripheral material. The application also needs a genuine prearranged professional role and a lawful employer structure; TN cannot be used to operate an applicant-owned U.S. business. Hypothetical example: an industrial designer has a degree but receives a letter calling the role a product coordinator. She asks the firm to describe design duties and the fixed engagement before choosing CBP processing or an employer-filed USCIS petition.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Prove the degree in the way the listing expects
- Have the employer describe the professional work precisely
- Present citizenship, intent and the fee correctly
When a Chelsea permanent resident marries a Canadian citizen who takes a U.S. TN job
Hypothetical example: a Chelsea couple where one spouse is a Canadian citizen accepting a TN position and the other is a Canadian permanent resident who is a citizen of a third country. The citizen qualifies for TN on her own citizenship. The permanent resident does not, and marriage does not change that. He may accompany her as a TD dependant if otherwise admissible, but he will need a visa in his own passport, cannot work, and must plan his own route if he wants employment. The key decision is which status belongs to each person, because Canadian permanent residence is neither Canadian citizenship nor a work authorization in the United States. A family should separately assess the principal's nationality, the dependant's ability to work, visa needs, and the Canadian residency obligation. Hypothetical example: a Canadian permanent resident who is a citizen of Brazil is offered a U.S. accounting role while her Canadian-citizen spouse works in Canada. She cannot use TN on permanent residence alone and must compare a nationality-based route with waiting for citizenship.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- TN eligibility belongs to the citizen alone
- TD is available, but it is not a work status
- Look at his own nationality for the alternatives
Substantiality and marginality for a low-cost translation start-up from Chelsea
Hypothetical example: a Chelsea bilingual translation and localization specialist wants to open a U.S. company from scratch with US$130,000 drawn from a home-equity line of credit. A service business needs little equipment, so the question is not whether the sum is large but whether it is proportional to the real cost of starting this enterprise, whether the borrowed money counts, and whether the business will ever be more than a one-person living. Those three tests decide a low-capital E-2 case. The investor must decide which expenditures are genuinely committed to the business and which remain personal reserves. E-2 capital must be placed beyond unilateral withdrawal and exposed to commercial risk; the resulting enterprise must be real, non-marginal, and directed by the investor. Hypothetical example: a watch-repair specialist puts funds into conditional escrow for shop equipment, then learns that a refundable apartment deposit cannot be treated as business capital. She revises the budget before deciding whether the investment is substantial for the actual start-up cost.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Measure the investment against the actual start-up cost
- Borrowed money counts only when the borrower bears the risk
- Show the business will grow beyond the investor’s own living
Opening a first U.S. office for a Chelsea software-testing boutique
Hypothetical example: a Chelsea software-testing firm with twelve staff wants to send its operations lead to open a U.S. office that will serve existing American clients directly. A new-office L-1A petition is approved for one year at most and must show, at filing, that physical premises have been secured, that the U.S. entity has the financial ability to start paying the transferee, and that within a year the office will support a managerial or executive position. Plan the office before planning the petition. The business must decide whether it can document secured physical premises, a credible first-year operating plan, and a role that will become mainly managerial or executive. The transferee also needs one continuous qualifying foreign year in the three years before filing. New-office approval is short, and any later L-1A stay remains subject to the seven-year maximum. Hypothetical example: a laboratory-supply company sends its sales operations manager to launch a U.S. office. It delays filing until the lease, staffing sequence, and revenue assumptions show how the manager will stop doing daily sales work.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Secure premises and form the entity before filing
- Write a one-year plan that ends with a manager, not a technician
- Prepare for the extension from day one
A Chelsea arboriculture company owner: transfer under L-1A or invest under E-2?
Hypothetical example: the owner-manager of a Chelsea tree-care and landscaping company wants to expand into a U.S. state. If her Canadian company forms and funds a U.S. subsidiary, she can seek L-1A as a transferred executive. If she personally invests in a U.S. company she owns directly, E-2 is the route. The choice turns on who will own the U.S. entity, how long she intends to stay, and whether her Canadian company must keep operating. The decision is structural before it is procedural: L-1 depends on qualifying organizations and a continuous qualifying year abroad during the relevant three-year lookback, while E-2 depends on treaty nationality, ownership, investor direction, and committed risk capital. L-1A has a seven-year ceiling; E-2 can renew but does not itself create a permanent-residence route. Hypothetical example: the owner of a commercial-window-cleaning company can either have the Canadian corporation form a U.S. subsidiary or personally buy a U.S. operation. She compares whether preserving the Canadian management role or using her personal capital is the fact that actually matches her plan.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- L-1A ties the move to the Canadian company
- E-2 ties the move to her own capital
- Decide on the structure, then match the sequence
A Chelsea household with a child turning 21 during the U.S. application
Hypothetical example: a Chelsea policy adviser accepting an L-1A transfer has a spouse who works as a translator and a daughter aged 20 who is in her second year of university. The spouse will be employment-authorized as an L-2. The daughter can enter as an L-2 dependant only until she turns 21, after which she needs her own status, most likely as a student. The family’s plan must be built around her birthday, not the parent’s start date. The household must choose each person's lawful path rather than assume the principal's approval answers every question. Age, marital status, work plans, school timing, and the principal's remaining classification time can each change the result. Hypothetical example: a nurse manager transfers in L-1A with a spouse who wants to work as a surveyor and a child who turns 21 during the first year. The spouse's professional licensing and the child's independent status plan must be decided before the family's move.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Derivative status ends on the twenty-first birthday
- The spouse’s work is authorized; the child’s is not
- Sequence the family’s filings around the calendar
Campground sale proceeds from Chelsea: at-risk EB-5 capital or a Gold Card gift?
Hypothetical example: a Chelsea couple have sold the seasonal campground they operated for fifteen years and hold roughly US$1.2 million. They are weighing an EB-5 investment against a Gold Card application. The simplest way to compare is to ask what happens to the money: EB-5 capital is placed at risk in a business and may be returned if it succeeds, while the Gold Card gift goes to the U.S. government and is never returned. Everything else follows from that. The reader must decide whether accepting commercial risk and a job-creation obligation is preferable to an applicant-paid gift payment under the published Gold Card framework. EB-5 capital is at risk and supports conditional residence only after the relevant process; Gold Card is not a conventional visa and the payment is made by the applicant to the U.S. government, not placed in a return-seeking enterprise. Hypothetical example: a furniture-restoration business owner has enough liquidity for either route but wants to preserve funds for retirement. She compares a project's job evidence and risk disclosure with the official Gold Card terms before deciding whether capital recovery matters more than a non-investment payment.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- EB-5 buys a conditional residence with money that stays invested
- The Gold Card converts money into a gift with no return
- Compare what each route asks of the couple