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.
Assemble a TN accountant file when the degree and the designation tell different stories
The accountant listing accepts either a baccalaureate degree or a CPA, CA, CGA or CMA designation. Pick the credential that is complete, current and issued in the applicant's present name, and make the employer letter describe that same credential. Hypothetical example: an accountant at an industrial-park fabricator in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood holds a foreign three-year degree and a Saskatchewan CPA membership; the membership record, not the degree, should carry the file, because it needs no evaluation and no explanation.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Decide which credential to lead with
- Make the employer letter and the credential agree
- Prepare the identity and citizenship documents
Plan a U.S. move for a household where one spouse is a citizen and the other is a permanent resident
Canadian citizenship and Canadian permanent residence are different facts and open different U.S. doors. Hypothetical example: a herd manager on a cattle operation in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood holds Canadian permanent residence and citizenship of a non-treaty country, while his wife is a Canadian citizen with a veterinary degree. Her citizenship supports TN; his permanent residence supports nothing on its own. Each spouse's route must be built from that person's own passport, and the household plan should be sequenced around whoever has the stronger independent basis.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify what each passport actually permits
- Sequence the household around the stronger route
- Keep the two files from contaminating each other
Buy a U.S. equipment dealership through escrow without weakening the E-2 commitment
Funds held in escrow count as irrevocably committed for E-2 when the only condition of release is issuance of the visa. Hypothetical example: a Canadian citizen from the Rural Municipality of Sherwood is buying a used-equipment dealership in the United States as an asset purchase and wants protection if the visa is refused. The escrow agreement, the asset purchase agreement and the source-of-funds file must be drafted so that the money is genuinely at risk yet recoverable only in that one circumstance.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Draft the escrow around a single contingency
- Structure the asset purchase so ownership and control are clear
- Trace every dollar before it reaches the escrow agent
Open a carrier's first U.S. terminal with a manager on a one-year new-office L-1A
A new-office L-1A is approved for one year and must show that premises have been secured and that the U.S. entity will be able to support a managerial position within that year. Hypothetical example: a trucking company in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood forms a U.S. subsidiary to open a cross-dock terminal and sends its Canadian operations director to establish it. The petition is judged on the lease, the funding, the staffing plan and the manager's own history, and the extension a year later is judged on whether the plan actually happened.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Secure the premises and the money before filing
- Show that the role will be managerial within a year
- Run the first year as if the extension were already being written
Decide whether a shop owner expands by branch or by buying a U.S. business in her own name
The same commercial goal can be reached through two different classifications with different evidence. Hypothetical example: the owner of a metal-fabrication shop in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood wants a U.S. presence and can either have her Canadian company establish a U.S. subsidiary that she runs, which points toward L-1A, or personally buy a small U.S. fabrication shop, which points toward E-2. The choice turns on who owns what, how long each route can last and what happens to the family, not on which sounds simpler.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Follow the ownership
- Compare duration and what comes after
- Weigh the family and the money at risk
Sequence a farm family's move when a child will turn twenty-one during the process
Derivative status for children ends at twenty-one, and the rules for stopping the clock differ by route. Hypothetical example: a farming couple from the Rural Municipality of Sherwood is planning a U.S. move with a twenty-year-old son who works on the operation and hopes to keep working. On a nonimmigrant route such as TN or L-1 he cannot work as a dependant and will lose derivative status on his birthday; on EB-5 the Child Status Protection Act may preserve his place. The order of steps should be chosen with his birthday on the calendar.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Know which routes stop the clock and which do not
- Give the son his own route if he wants to work
- Order the documents and the departures
Put land-sale proceeds into an EB-5 enterprise or give them as a Gold Card gift
The two frameworks ask for similar sums and nothing else in common. Hypothetical example: a couple from the Rural Municipality of Sherwood has sold farmland held through their corporation and is weighing a direct EB-5 investment in a rural U.S. processing business against the individual Gold Card gift. EB-5 is at-risk capital that must create ten jobs and may be repaid; the Gold Card is an irrevocable gift to the U.S. government with no return. Decide which obligation the household can live with before comparing figures.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Name what each dollar does
- Compare what still has to be proved
- Price the household honestly and re-verify before paying