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.
Documenting a collaborative forestry assessment for TN
Hypothetical example: Hyacinth’s assessment is valuable because it shows her forestry reasoning, not because it claims every participant’s work as her own. The document package must match the future U.S. assignment and the credential route actually used.
State the forestry question, the evidence Hyacinth assessed, the method used, and the recommendation made. Credit technicians for plot collection, a mapping contractor for layers, and colleagues for their own approvals. A collaborative report can be persuasive when the division of responsibility is plain. Do not convert property marketing, routine field support, or a colleague’s conclusion into the applicant’s professional work. The U.S. letter should describe the future analysis in the same careful language. Keep the record practical: identify the date, author, recipient, and purpose of every important document, then compare its language with the future plan. Do not ask one paper to establish facts it cannot genuinely prove. Where a detail is uncertain, preserve the question for appropriate advice rather than rewriting it into a confident conclusion. This approach helps distinguish supporting context from the element that the applicable immigration rule actually requires.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the recommendation and its inputs
- Use the qualification that the list recognizes
- Finish with the real temporary arrangement
Why TN nationality differs from Canadian permanent residence
Canadian permanent residence is important immigration status in Canada, but it does not make a person a Canadian citizen for TN. The nationality question must be answered before a household spends time perfecting a professional package.
TN is limited to Canadian or Mexican citizens. A PR card, Ontario home, Canadian tax history, provincial licence, and Canadian employer are not substitutes. Write every traveller’s citizenship as shown by passport, separate from residence status. If the prospective principal lacks the required nationality, another category must be assessed on its own facts. This early check prevents a credential package from being mistaken for a nationality solution. Keep the record practical: identify the date, author, recipient, and purpose of every important document, then compare its language with the future plan. Do not ask one paper to establish facts it cannot genuinely prove. Where a detail is uncertain, preserve the question for appropriate advice rather than rewriting it into a confident conclusion. This approach helps distinguish supporting context from the element that the applicable immigration rule actually requires.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Record nationality first
- Assess professional facts after nationality
- Plan a mixed-citizenship household individually
Reading collateral in a seller-financed E-2 acquisition
A personal guarantee is only one part of a seller-financed transaction. The E-2 account must identify security over enterprise assets, personal-only collateral, and the investor’s independently traceable contribution.
Collect the signed purchase agreement, note, security agreement, guarantee, escrow record, closing statement, and amendments. Identify the property that secures repayment. Enterprise-secured debt is excluded from the qualifying capital account even where the buyer also pledges personal property. Personal-only secured or unsecured borrowing can be assessed under other E-2 conditions. Reconcile cash, financing, and reserves without double counting. A broker description never displaces the executed documents. Keep the record practical: identify the date, author, recipient, and purpose of every important document, then compare its language with the future plan. Do not ask one paper to establish facts it cannot genuinely prove. Where a detail is uncertain, preserve the question for appropriate advice rather than rewriting it into a confident conclusion. This approach helps distinguish supporting context from the element that the applicable immigration rule actually requires.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Read the effective documents together
- Apply the full treaty-investor standard
- Update when financing changes
Planning a new-office L-1A role while duties remain abroad
A new American office may need a Canadian manager during launch, but the plan has to show how both operations will genuinely function. A broad title and online availability do not explain who carries the operational work.
Prove the qualifying corporate relationship, such as parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate and regular business in the United States together with another country. A new office has less than one year of qualifying U.S. business activity; incorporation alone is insufficient. The transferee needs a continuous full-time qualifying year abroad in the relevant period and that foreign year must be managerial or executive for new-office L-1A. Short U.S. visits do not necessarily interrupt continuity, though U.S. days do not count toward the foreign year. Keep the record practical: identify the date, author, recipient, and purpose of every important document, then compare its language with the future plan. Do not ask one paper to establish facts it cannot genuinely prove. Where a detail is uncertain, preserve the question for appropriate advice rather than rewriting it into a confident conclusion. This approach helps distinguish supporting context from the element that the applicable immigration rule actually requires.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Verify the group and foreign employment
- Build a first-year managerial structure
- Allocate foreign work honestly
Comparing a cross-border transfer with a financed acquisition
A corporate transfer and a business purchase may both lead to a move, but the evidence begins in different places. L-1 tests the qualifying group and transfer role. E-2 tests treaty ownership, direction, capital, and the operating enterprise.
L-1 requires a qualifying parent, subsidiary, affiliate, or branch, continuing business in two countries, qualifying foreign employment, and a U.S. position that meets L-1A or L-1B standards. A purchase agreement by itself does not form that relationship. L-1A focuses on genuinely managerial or executive duties; L-1B focuses on qualifying organizational or advanced process knowledge. Retained Canadian work needs a credible delegation plan, particularly for a new office. Keep the record practical: identify the date, author, recipient, and purpose of every important document, then compare its language with the future plan. Do not ask one paper to establish facts it cannot genuinely prove. Where a detail is uncertain, preserve the question for appropriate advice rather than rewriting it into a confident conclusion. This approach helps distinguish supporting context from the element that the applicable immigration rule actually requires.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Test the corporate relationship and role
- Test capital and security independently
- Watch for changed facts
Separating household business help from permission to work
A useful skill, family company role, personal guarantee, or relationship to the principal does not automatically authorize U.S.-based employment. The household needs a fact-by-fact activity and status review.
Write down what each person expects to do: promotion, translation, bookkeeping, client contact, study, or unrelated employment. Include compensation, recipient, and where the task will be performed. A Canadian payer does not necessarily remove the U.S. work question when the person is physically present there. This approach is safer than characterizing a regular commercial role as informal family assistance and hoping that label settles the issue. Keep the record practical: identify the date, author, recipient, and purpose of every important document, then compare its language with the future plan. Do not ask one paper to establish facts it cannot genuinely prove. Where a detail is uncertain, preserve the question for appropriate advice rather than rewriting it into a confident conclusion. This approach helps distinguish supporting context from the element that the applicable immigration rule actually requires.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Describe activity and physical location
- Use the dependent rules that actually apply
- Keep investor and corporate plans individual
Keeping an EB-5 source trail separate from a Gold Card employee roster
Earlier investment proceeds and corporate sponsorship can both involve complex records, but they prove different things. EB-5 follows one investor’s lawful capital into a new at-risk enterprise. Gold Card planning identifies each person and gift payment under current official instructions.
Document original lawful source, the earlier contribution, actual distribution, intermediate accounts, and new transfer. Verify the applicable capital figure for the real filing date and project. The new enterprise needs at-risk capital, required job creation under the relevant method, and investor management or policy-formulation participation. An exit term from another investment does not decide whether this enterprise can offer a repayment right or protected return. Expected money is not a completed contribution. Keep the record practical: identify the date, author, recipient, and purpose of every important document, then compare its language with the future plan. Do not ask one paper to establish facts it cannot genuinely prove. Where a detail is uncertain, preserve the question for appropriate advice rather than rewriting it into a confident conclusion. This approach helps distinguish supporting context from the element that the applicable immigration rule actually requires.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Trace the EB-5 money and new enterprise separately
- Name Gold Card applicants and payments precisely
- Follow the immigration event that matters