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.
Rewrite the TN letter around the profession before the border trip
Hypothetical example: a Guelph/Eramosa agronomist with an agriculture degree has a US seed company's standard offer letter, full of quota language, and a start date two weeks away. The TN file that succeeds is built in a specific order: the profession and its Appendix 2 requirement first, the employer's letter rewritten to match, the credential documents attached to prove the requirement, and the resignation last. Most refusals in cases like this trace back to doing those steps in the opposite order.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Start from the Appendix 2 entry
- Get the letter rewritten, then assemble the proof
- Apply, then resign, then move
Check every family member's citizenship before assuming the household travels together
Hypothetical example: a Guelph/Eramosa dairy-herd nutritionist holds Canadian citizenship and qualifies for TN, but his wife, a permanent resident of Canada who is a citizen of a non-treaty country, assumes she will cross with him on the same day with the same documents. What goes wrong is not his eligibility but hers: a TD dependant who is not a Canadian citizen needs a TD visa from a US consulate before travel. The household's citizenship facts should be listed person by person before any date is set.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Residence proves nothing; documents prove citizenship
- The non-Canadian dependant follows a different procedure
- What the PR card changes and what it does not
Structure the purchase so the money is actually at risk
Hypothetical example: a Guelph/Eramosa nursery owner buying a US garden centre has a term sheet with a small cash payment, a seller note secured on the business, and a US friend taking half the shares. The E-2 case needs work because the structure leaves little qualifying capital at risk, the fifty-fifty governance terms must preserve the Canadian investor's full management rights, and nothing is yet committed. Restructuring before signing is far cheaper than rebuilding the deal after a consular refusal.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Count only what the investor can lose
- Commit without losing everything if the visa is refused
- Own enough, and prove who decides
Do not send the owner to do the work in a new US office
Hypothetical example: a Guelph/Eramosa millwright and industrial-installation contractor wins recurring work at three US food plants and decides to open a US branch, sending its owner-manager to run it. The first-year petition is approved on evidence of premises and a plan, but the plan fails a year later because the owner spent the year on the plant floor, the branch never hired anyone, and the extension cannot show a managerial role. New-office cases go wrong at the extension far more often than at the first filing.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The first year is approved on a promise
- The extension is decided on what actually happened
- Keep the Canadian company alive and the structure honest
Choose between opening a subsidiary and buying a business by the mistake each one invites
Hypothetical example: a Guelph/Eramosa owner of an agricultural drone-services company that maps and sprays fields wants to work in the United States. She can open a US subsidiary and transfer herself as its manager under L-1A, or buy an existing US crop-scouting business under E-2. Each route has a characteristic failure. L-1A fails when the owner ends up flying the drones herself; E-2 fails when her capital is not really at risk or she does not control the business. Which failure she is more likely to commit should decide the route.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The L-1A failure: the owner becomes the workforce
- The E-2 failure: money that is not committed and control that is shared
- Decide by the honest first year
Fix the household's three most common errors before the principal applies
Hypothetical example: a Guelph/Eramosa agronomist's household is about to make three separate mistakes at once. He plans to resign before his TN is decided; his wife, a registered nurse, expects to start hospital shifts on TD status; their nineteen-year-old assumes his TD status will carry him through a US college degree. Each error belongs to a different person and has a different fix, and none of the fixes is difficult if done before the move rather than after.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The spouse's error: expecting to work on dependant status
- The student's error: assuming dependant status lasts
- The principal's error: resigning before the decision
Decide where you will actually live before comparing EB-5 with the Gold Card
Hypothetical example: a Guelph/Eramosa couple with farm-supply sale proceeds are comparing a regional-centre EB-5 investment with the Gold Card gift, and both conversations have skipped the question that decides everything: where the family will live. EB-5 leads first to conditional permanent residence. Under the current official Gold Card framework, a successful applicant receives lawful permanent resident status as an EB-1 or EB-2 visa holder. Both therefore require a genuine residence plan, and the Gold Card terms must be re-verified before money moves.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- EB-5 gives residence, with obligations attached
- The Gold Card is a gift with its own official terms
- Compare the family's real plan against each route's demands