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.
Why management-consultant TN files fail, and the documents that prevent it
Hypothetical example: a Pontiac resident with fifteen years in operations consulting is engaged by a U.S. manufacturer to redesign its scheduling processes over an eighteen-month project. Management Consultant is a listed USMCA profession, and its qualification allows either a degree or five years of experience as a consultant or in the field of the engagement. The central issue is whether the engagement is genuine consulting rather than ordinary employment. This guide explains what officers look for, why an employment-shaped offer fails and which documents keep the case on the consulting side of the line.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The problem is not the qualification; it is the shape of the engagement
- Lead with the contract and the five-year experience record
- Where the line is, and what to do if the offer is on the wrong side of it
A citizen pharmacist's TN and her permanent-resident husband's options
Hypothetical example: a pharmacist from Pontiac who is a Canadian citizen has a U.S. pharmacy offer, and Pharmacist is a listed USMCA profession requiring a degree or a state or provincial licence. Her husband is a heavy-equipment mechanic who holds Canadian permanent residence but citizenship of another country. Her TN case is straightforward; his position is not, and the family's assumption that he simply comes along and finds work is wrong on both counts. This guide sets out what each of them can and cannot do, and how his permanent residence interacts with a long stay in the United States.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Her case: profession, licence and a temporary stay
- His case: he may accompany her, but TD does not let him work
- His permanent residence has its own clock
Buying a campground: operating business or passive real estate for E-2
Hypothetical example: a couple from Pontiac plan to buy a seasonal campground and RV park in the United States, run it themselves through the summer and return to Quebec in winter. The purchase is mostly land and improvements, which raises the question consular officers ask first about any property-based business: is this a real, operating commercial enterprise that the investor develops and directs, or is it passive ownership of real estate dressed as a business? This guide explains where that line falls, what evidence puts a campground on the right side of it and how the seasonal and marginality questions are handled.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Passive ownership does not qualify; an operated business does
- Substantiality and marginality for a property-heavy business
- Seasonal operation, winters in Quebec and the household
A maple-products wholesaler's first U.S. distribution office on a one-year L-1A
Hypothetical example: a maple-products wholesaler with operations near Pontiac wants to open a U.S. distribution office to serve retail accounts it currently supplies from Quebec, and to send its managing director, who co-owns the company, to run it. There is no U.S. entity yet, no premises and no staff. A new-office L-1A is approved for one year and lives or dies on the extension. This guide explains what has to be in place before filing, what the one-year plan must promise, how a co-owner's role is assessed and what the extension petition will demand.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Filing requirements for a new office are physical, not aspirational
- The co-owner question and the one-year plan
- Build the extension file from the first month
A 30% co-owner of a lumber remanufacturer weighing L-1A against E-2
Hypothetical example: a Pontiac resident owns 30% of a lumber remanufacturing company and serves as its vice-president of operations; the majority is held by two other Canadian partners. The company wants a U.S. plant and he is the person to run it. He asks whether he should go as an L-1A executive of the company's U.S. subsidiary or as an E-2 investor. The answer turns on his minority stake, because the two categories treat ownership in opposite ways: L-1A cares about the relationship between the companies, E-2 about his personal control of the enterprise. This guide works through both.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- L-1A: his 30% is irrelevant; the company relationship is everything
- E-2: his 30% is the problem, unless control comes from elsewhere
- Deciding: the plant's timeline, his intentions and the partners' agreement
An E-2 owner's household: a teacher spouse, a 20-year-old and a 15-year-old
Hypothetical example: a Pontiac resident is opening a small U.S. auto-repair and tire shop on an E-2 visa. His wife is a secondary-school teacher who wants to keep teaching, their daughter is 20 and finishing college in Quebec, and their son is 15. The E-2 application covers him; the other three each face a different question, and the daughter's is urgent. This guide takes them one at a time, because the principal's visa does not settle three separate immigration positions with three separate deadlines.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The teacher: authorized to work, licensed by the state
- The 20-year-old: months to decide before derivative status closes
- The 15-year-old: simple now, planned for later
After selling an outfitting lodge: EB-5 job creation or a Gold Card gift
Hypothetical example: a couple in Pontiac have sold the hunting-and-fishing outfitting lodge they ran for two decades and hold the proceeds in cash. They are comparing an EB-5 investment in a regional-center project with the Gold Card as described on the official program page. Both can end in permanent residence, but the routes make different demands: EB-5 asks them to prove where the money came from and to see it create jobs; the Gold Card asks them to give it away after vetting. This guide compares the two on the source-of-funds burden, the job-creation condition and what remains at the end.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Source of funds: a full trace against a background check
- Job creation and engagement against a gift and nothing further
- What is left at the end, and how to decide