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.
Which paper decides a land surveyor's TN case
Hypothetical example: a land surveyor from L'Ange-Gardien has an offer from a U.S. engineering firm and holds both a surveying degree and a Quebec licence. The USMCA listing for Land Surveyor accepts a baccalaureate degree or a state, provincial or federal licence, so either could carry the case. The right choice depends on which document is cleaner, which the officer can verify fastest and whether the state where the work sits will let a Canadian-licensed surveyor sign drawings. This guide explains how to pick the qualifying document and what to bring beside it.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Choose one qualifying document and build the file around it
- Make the employer's letter match the qualifying document
- Separate the immigration question from the practice question
When a permanent resident of Canada is offered a listed profession
Hypothetical example: an occupational therapist living in L'Ange-Gardien holds Canadian permanent residence but not citizenship, and a U.S. rehabilitation clinic has offered her a position after reading that Occupational Therapist is a USMCA profession. The offer is real and the profession is listed, but TN is available only to citizens of Canada or Mexico. Permanent residence, however long held, does not qualify. This guide explains what the clinic and the therapist should check first, which alternatives actually exist for a non-citizen and how a pending citizenship application changes the timeline.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- A PR card answers where she may live, not which passport she holds
- The alternatives depend on her nationality and the clinic's willingness to petition
- A citizenship application in progress changes the sequence
Counting a franchise fee, equipment and reserve toward an E-2 investment
Hypothetical example: a landscaping and snow-removal contractor from L'Ange-Gardien is buying a U.S. lawn-care franchise territory. His outlay is a franchise fee, two trucks and their equipment, a deposit on a yard lease and a cash reserve for the first season. He wants to know how much of that a consular officer will count as an E-2 investment, whether the reserve sitting in a bank account counts at all and how the officer decides that the business is not marginal. This guide answers those three questions in the order they come up.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Money spent or irrevocably committed counts; money merely available does not
- Substantial is measured against what this business costs, not a national figure
- Marginal means it supports only the investor; show the crew
Opening a U.S. sales-and-installation office with a one-year L-1A
Hypothetical example: a timber-frame home manufacturer based in L'Ange-Gardien has enough U.S. orders to justify a permanent sales-and-installation office and wants to send its sales director to open it. No U.S. entity exists yet. A new-office L-1A petition is approved for one year, and the extension at the end of that year is decided on what the office has actually become. This guide explains what must exist before the petition can be filed, what the one-year plan has to show and how to run the first year so the extension is a formality rather than a second contest.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Before filing: an entity, a lease and a chart
- The plan must explain how the director stops selling houses himself
- Run the year as if the extension file is being written every month
Owner-manager of a hauling company: transfer through a subsidiary or invest personally
Hypothetical example: the sole owner of an agricultural bulk-hauling company in L'Ange-Gardien wants to run a U.S. operation herself. She can have her Canadian company form a U.S. subsidiary and transfer as its executive on an L-1A, or she can personally buy or start a U.S. carrier and apply for E-2 as the investor. Both are available to an owner-manager, but they differ in who must own what, how long each lasts, what happens to her spouse and whether either leads toward permanent residence. This guide lays the two side by side on those points.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Who owns the U.S. business decides which category is even open
- Duration, spouse and the permanent-residence question differ
- Sequence the choice around the seven-year cap and the hauling licences
One executive's transfer, four different immigration positions in the household
Hypothetical example: an executive at a bilingual customer-support company in L'Ange-Gardien is being transferred to its U.S. subsidiary on an L-1A. Her husband is a paramedic who wants to keep working, their daughter is 19 and about to start university, and their son is 22 and employed in Quebec. One petition covers the executive; the other three people are each in a different position. This guide walks through the household one person at a time, because the principal's approval does not settle everyone's status and work permission at once.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The spouse: authorized to work, still needs a state certification
- The daughter: a derivative today, with a deadline she can see
- The son: outside the derivative definition from the start
Investing in a project or giving to the U.S. government after selling a farm-supply business
Hypothetical example: a couple in L'Ange-Gardien have sold a feed-and-farm-supply business and are choosing between placing US$800,000 in an EB-5 regional-center project and making the Gold Card gift described on the official program page. Both routes lead to permanent residence if they succeed, but the money does entirely different things: one is capital at risk in an enterprise that must create jobs and may be returned; the other is a gift to the government that is never returned. This guide compares what the money does, what must be proved and how the timeline runs.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What the money does: an at-risk investment versus an outright gift
- What must be proved: source of funds against vetting
- Timeline and household arithmetic