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.
Build a TN file around the credential the profession actually requires
A TN document set for a Centre Wellington technologist should lead with the record that decides the case: the transcript matched to the Appendix 2 entry. Hypothetical example: a mechanical engineering technology graduate offered a field role by a US equipment distributor needs the letter to name the Scientific Technician/Technologist profession, identify the supervising engineer and describe support work, with the transcript and diploma attached. Everything else in the file supports that match.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Put the transcript and the entry on the same page
- Make the employer letter answer the officer's questions
- Decide the procedure and carry the right originals
Separate the PR card from the passport before comparing US routes
Hypothetical example: a machinist at a Centre Wellington equipment manufacturer holds a Canadian permanent resident card and an Irish passport. His employer wants to send him to a US customer site. TN is unavailable because it requires Canadian or Mexican citizenship, but Ireland is an E-2 treaty country and L-1 does not depend on citizenship at all. The deciding document is the passport, not the PR card, and the comparison changes completely once that is recorded.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Record nationality from the passport, not the address
- Re-run the route comparison with the real nationality
- Keep Canadian status intact while planning
Read the escrow terms as carefully as the purchase price
Hypothetical example: a Canadian citizen in Centre Wellington buying sixty percent of a US electrical services company must show treaty nationality for the investor and at least fifty percent of the enterprise, funds irrevocably committed and at risk, a substantial investment in a real non-marginal enterprise, and ownership or operational control sufficient to develop and direct it. An escrow that releases on visa issuance and returns funds on refusal is one accepted means of showing commitment. E-2 provides no direct path to permanent residence, and the official requirements should be checked before money moves.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Draft the escrow with one condition only
- Trace the funds from the Canadian business to the escrow
- Use the seller's records to prove substantiality and a real business
Open the US office with a lease and a plan before the L-1 petition
Hypothetical example: a Centre Wellington manufacturer of seed-cleaning and grain-conditioning equipment wants to open its first US sales and service office and send its service manager to run it. Because the US entity has been doing business for less than a year, this is a new-office petition: approval is limited to one year. The petition must also show a qualifying parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate relationship, an active foreign entity, and the transferee's one continuous year of qualifying employment abroad within the prior three years, together with secured premises and the financial and staffing capacity to support the proposed role.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Secure premises and fund the entity before filing
- Describe the role as it will exist after the first year
- Plan the extension from the first day
Compare a transfer into a subsidiary with buying a share of a dealer
Hypothetical example: the general manager of a Centre Wellington custom-cabinet manufacturer is offered two futures by the same conversation. The company could transfer her to run its US subsidiary showroom on L-1A, or she could personally buy a controlling share of an independent US dealer on E-2. The routes ask different questions: L-1 looks at the corporate relationship and her year of employment; E-2 looks at her citizenship, her money at risk and her control. Reading which documents each route needs decides the choice.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- L-1 is decided by the company's records
- E-2 is decided by her own money and control
- Choose by the document you can produce, then by the life you want
Write a status line for each person before choosing the principal applicant
Hypothetical example: a Centre Wellington household includes a mechanical engineering technologist with a US offer, her husband who is a dental hygienist, a seventeen-year-old and a twenty-year-old. Each person has a different answer to the same three questions: citizenship, intended activity, and age. Writing those answers on one page shows that the technologist's TN would leave the hygienist unable to work, that the older child will age out of dependent status within a year, and that a different principal or route might serve the family better.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Citizenship and residence are separate columns
- Intended activity decides who needs their own route
- Ages set the calendar
Compare at-risk capital with a gift before the farm proceeds are spent
Hypothetical example: a Centre Wellington couple with proceeds from selling their cattle farm can either invest the EB-5 qualifying amount in their son's US processing business or make the Gold Card gift under the official program. The money leaves their hands in both cases, but with different consequences. EB-5 capital is at risk in an enterprise and may return if it succeeds; the Gold Card payment is a gift to the U.S. government plus a fee. The deciding documents are the enterprise's hiring plan and the official program terms.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What EB-5 asks of the money
- What the Gold Card asks of the money
- Decide on obligations, not on which sounds simpler