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 licence a state board issues can decide a TN case the degree cannot
Hypothetical example: Célestine is a dietitian in East Ferris with a Canadian degree and eight years in clinical practice, offered a hospital post across the border. Dietitian appears in USMCA Appendix 2, and the entry is met by a baccalaureate degree or by a state or provincial licence. Her degree answers the immigration question. It does not answer the state's, and the state's is the one that decides whether she may lawfully perform the job at all.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Two questions that look like one
- Assemble the credential evidence the way the entry reads
- Describe the engagement so nothing has to be inferred
A permanent resident of Canada has no TN, and the alternatives are not consolation prizes
Hypothetical example: Nnamdi is a Nigerian citizen and a Canadian permanent resident who has worked at an East Ferris manufacturer for six years. His employer's American customer wants to hire him and assumes a TN is available because he lives in Ontario. TN is limited to citizens of Canada and Mexico. A permanent resident card is not citizenship, length of residence does not substitute for it, and the routes actually open to him are different in kind rather than in quality.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Why the distinction is absolute
- The routes that never depended on being Canadian
- What to settle before anyone applies
Marginality is the E-2 condition that turns down perfectly good businesses
Hypothetical example: Ramona owns a landscaping and snow-removal company in East Ferris and is buying an American grounds-maintenance business that currently supports its retiring owner and one seasonal helper. Her capital is real, her ownership is Canadian, and the money will be committed and at risk. The condition she has not addressed is marginality: an E-2 enterprise must do more than provide a minimal living for the investor and family, and this one, as purchased, would not.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What marginality actually asks
- The plan is the evidence, and it has to be checkable
- Fix the structure before the closing, not afterwards
A new-office L-1 buys one year, and the second filing is the real test
Hypothetical example: Silas manufactures fabricated steel railings in East Ferris and is opening a first American office to serve contractors across the border. Because the U.S. entity is new, an L-1A petition for him will be approved for one year rather than three. That year is not a grace period. It is the evidence base for the extension, and what the company does inside it decides whether the transfer survives its first anniversary.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What the first filing must already show
- Write the first-year plan as a commitment
- What year two has to prove
Ownership decides E-2 and corporate structure decides L-1, so ask the accountant first
Hypothetical example: Habiba owns a commercial cleaning company in East Ferris and wants to operate in the United States. Two routes are commonly suggested to her, and which one is available is not a matter of preference. L-1 requires a qualifying relationship between two entities and a year of employment abroad. E-2 requires treaty-national ownership of at least half the American enterprise, with capital committed and at risk. Her accountant's files answer both questions faster than any brochure.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The four questions that decide L-1
- The four questions that decide E-2
- What each route costs her in the long run
One household, three permissions, and only one of them belongs to the principal
Hypothetical example: the Sagala-Tremblay household leaves East Ferris on an L-1B transfer. The principal's petition is the only part of the move anyone has examined. His partner intends to work, they have not married, and their elder child turns twenty-one during the assignment. Each of those is a separate question with a separate answer, and none of them is resolved by the strength of the principal's case, however carefully it was built.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Dependent work rights differ by category, sharply
- A partner is not a spouse, and a birthday is not negotiable
- Immigrant milestones run on their own calendar
One route asks you to build something afterwards, the other asks nothing and returns nothing
Hypothetical example: Augustin has sold a propane-distribution business near East Ferris and is comparing EB-5 with the Gold Card. The comparison is usually framed around price, which is the least informative difference between them. EB-5 capital is invested, stays at risk, must be attributable to at least ten qualifying full-time jobs, and carries two years of conditional residence. The Gold Card's money is a gift to the U.S. government plus a nonrefundable fee. What each demands after payment is the real distinction.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- EB-5: the obligations begin when the money moves
- Gold Card: the obligations end when the money moves, and so does the money
- Choose on what you can prove and what you are willing to do