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 end date in the letter: TN documents for a La Pêche forester’s two-year U.S. inventory contract
Hypothetical example: a La Pêche forester, licensed in Quebec as a forest engineer, has been hired by a U.S. timber company to lead a two-year forest-inventory program. Forester appears on the USMCA professionals list with a state or provincial licence or a baccalaureate degree as the credential. Her file is straightforward on eligibility; the document questions are about how the letter fixes the length of her admission, how the provincial licence is presented, and what she carries when she returns for a renewal.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The employer letter fixes the admission period
- Presenting a provincial licence as the credential
- What to carry on each return
A newly naturalized La Pêche architect and her permanent-resident husband: what each can hold and for how long
Hypothetical example: a La Pêche architect took the Canadian citizenship oath last spring after years as a permanent resident; her husband, a citizen of a country with no U.S. treaty, remains a Canadian permanent resident. A U.S. firm has offered her a three-year position. She now qualifies for TN as a Canadian citizen; he does not. His Canadian permanent residence has a 730-day residency obligation, but time abroad accompanying his Canadian-citizen spouse may count toward it. The household should document both the accompaniment and each person’s separate U.S. status.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Citizenship opens TN on the day it is granted
- The husband’s TD status and his Canadian obligation
- Sequencing citizenship for him, and the family’s long view
Shipping the equipment south: in-kind contributions in a La Pêche mason’s E-2 investment
Hypothetical example: a La Pêche stone mason who restores heritage masonry plans to open a U.S. restoration company and to bring his scaffolding, lifts, saws and a truck with him rather than buy new. He asks whether equipment he already owns counts toward the E-2 investment, how it is valued, and whether it remains at risk once it crosses the border. Capital includes assets as well as funds, and property transferred to the enterprise counts at its fair market value, provided the investor can show ownership and the transfer.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Assets are capital when they are transferred to the enterprise
- Substantial and at risk, measured against this business
- What continues to be tested at renewal
A La Pêche distillery’s first U.S. office: the one-year approval and what the extension must prove
Hypothetical example: a La Pêche craft distillery is sending its co-owner and chief operating officer to open a U.S. distribution and tasting-room office. A new-office L-1A petition is approved for one year, not three, and the extension filed near the end of that year must show that the office is doing business and that she is functioning as a manager or executive. The initial petition should be written with the extension in mind, because the plan it describes is what USCIS will measure the office against twelve months later.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The initial year and its evidence
- What the extension must show at month ten
- After the extension: the seven-year horizon and the exit
Seven years or no limit: a La Pêche wellness-retreat owner chooses between L-1A and E-2
Hypothetical example: the sole owner of a La Pêche wellness retreat, with a lodge, a spa and a small staff, plans to open a second retreat in a U.S. mountain state. If her Canadian company owns the U.S. company, she can seek L-1A as a transferred executive, with a seven-year limit and a route to permanent residence. If she invests personally, E-2 offers two-year admissions renewable without limit but no path of its own to a green card. Choosing between them is choosing which clock she prefers to live under.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- L-1A: a fixed horizon with a door at the end
- E-2: no ceiling, but no door
- Match the structure to the intended length of stay
When the spouse is the professional: a La Pêche engineer’s TN and her self-employed husband
Hypothetical example: a La Pêche mechanical engineer has accepted a three-year TN position with a U.S. manufacturer. Her husband writes and illustrates graphic novels, self-employed, with publishers in Canada and Europe, and their twins are 12. He assumes he can keep working from the new home because his clients are not American. TD status permits no employment of any kind, and the location of the client does not change that. The household’s plan has to account for three years without his work, or a route of his own.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What TD permits and what it prohibits
- Whether he has a route of his own
- Planning the three years and what comes after
How long each takes and what follows: a La Pêche physician and trucking-company owner compare EB-5 and the Gold Card
Hypothetical example: a La Pêche couple, a physician who has closed her practice and a husband selling his regional trucking company, hold about US$1,500,000 and want to retire in the United States within a few years. They can fund the current US$800,000 regional-center EB-5 amount, but not the current Gold Card fees and gifts for both spouses, which total US$2,030,000. Their comparison is about both affordability and time: how each route produces permanent residence, what conditions attach afterward, and which obligations follow them once resident.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- EB-5: a petition measured in years, then a two-year condition
- Gold Card: a published sequence with no published duration
- What both routes ask of retirees afterward