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 employer letter that decides a Scientific Technician TN application
Hypothetical example: Grant works in Nipissing for a forestry contracting business, running stand assessments, sampling and data work for the foresters who plan the harvests. A U.S. forestry services company offers him similar work. Scientific Technician or Technologist is a USMCA profession with an unusual condition attached, and whether Grant is admitted will turn almost entirely on a single document: the letter his prospective employer writes about who he will support.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The condition most applicants have never read
- What the letter must say, in the officer's terms
- The supporting file behind the letter
When permanent residence is not citizenship: sequencing a two-route household
Hypothetical example: Ana Sofia is a Colombian citizen with Canadian permanent residence, working as a chef at a lodge in Nipissing. Her spouse is a Canadian citizen. They want to move to the United States together. TN is closed to her on two independent grounds, and the household therefore splits into two separate immigration questions that have to be answered in a particular order.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Why TN is unavailable to her, twice over
- Sequence the spouse's route first, because it defines hers
- What to settle before anyone applies
Allocating an E-2 investment across equipment, licences and working capital
Hypothetical example: Dermot runs a guiding and outfitting business in Nipissing and is buying a small fly-in service in the United States. The purchase price covers aircraft and equipment, the transfer of operating certificates and licences, and a working-capital float. He wants to know how the investment should be allocated across those three and, more usefully, what document proves each part.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Equipment: proof that it is bought, delivered and used
- Licences and certificates: proof of what was actually transferred
- Working capital: proof that it is committed, not merely available
What happens at the L-1 extension when the first year misses the plan
Hypothetical example: Yolanda owns a log-home company in Nipissing and opens a United States sales and assembly office. The new-office petition is approved for one year on the strength of a plan projecting three hires and a set volume of orders. Ten months in, one hire has been made and orders are running behind. The extension stage is where that gap gets examined, and how she records it now decides how it reads then.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What the first approval was actually granted on
- Record the shortfall as it happens, with reasons and responses
- Fix the position before the filing rather than describing it after
Ask who controls the U.S. entity before comparing L-1 with E-2
Hypothetical example: Cormac owns a marine and small-engine dealership in Nipissing and wants a United States operation. He has been given a comparison chart weighing L-1A against E-2 on duration, spousal work rights and permanent residence. All of that is downstream. The question that decides the route is who will own and control the U.S. entity, and it should be put to his lawyer and accountant before any comparison is read.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The control question, asked precisely
- What to ask the accountant and the lawyer, in that order
- Read the comparison only after the structure is settled
The two assumptions that break a TD household's plans
Hypothetical example: the Ferreira household leaves Nipissing when one parent takes a professional post in the United States on TN. The other parent will hold TD and intends to enrol in a college program there. The children are twelve and twenty. The plan looks settled, and it contains two assumptions that fail regularly: that TD permits some work, and that a twenty-year-old can be dealt with later.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- TD permits study and forbids employment, without exceptions worth relying on
- The twenty-year-old needs a separate plan now, not later
- What the household should settle before departure
What is still outstanding after you pay, under EB-5 and under the Gold Card
Hypothetical example: Ottilie is selling her share of a resort business in Nipissing and will have substantial proceeds. She is comparing EB-5 with the Gold Card and has been shown the two headline amounts side by side. The more useful comparison is what remains to be done after each payment is made, because the two routes place their unfinished business at completely different points.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- EB-5: the payment is early and the proving comes after
- Gold Card: the payment is later and the category question comes after that
- Sequencing the decision, and the sale that funds it