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.
Prove a computer systems analyst qualifies on a diploma plus experience, not a degree
Hypothetical example: a systems analyst working for a Regina employer and living in White City has a two-year college diploma and six years of experience, and a U.S. software firm wants her on TN. The listing for Computer Systems Analyst allows either a bachelor's degree or a post-secondary diploma or certificate plus three years' experience. The file has to prove the second route with documents, because an officer who sees no degree and no experience evidence will refuse. This guide sets out what to gather and how the letter should read. Hypothetical example: An airport-baggage systems analyst has the same diploma route but has worked for several employers. She must choose records that prove three full years of analytic duties, rather than merely listing software titles on a résumé.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Which qualification rule the letter invokes
- Documenting three years of experience
- The rest of the file and the border
Use an L-1 when the applicant is a Canadian permanent resident, and plan for the visa stamp
Hypothetical example: a maintenance planner at a Regina-based mining contractor lives in White City, holds Canadian permanent residence, and is a citizen of a country without a treaty with the United States. His employer wants him to run planning for its U.S. affiliate. TN and E-2 are closed to him: TN requires Canadian or Mexican citizenship and E-2 requires treaty nationality. L-1 has no nationality requirement at all, which makes it the natural route, but as a non-citizen he will need a visa stamp from a U.S. consulate before he can be admitted, which changes the timeline and the documents.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Which routes his status closes and which it leaves open
- The consular step a citizen would skip
- The rest of the household
Buy a majority stake in a U.S. landscaping company while the retiring owner keeps 40%
Hypothetical example: a Canadian citizen living in White City who has run a seasonal landscaping and snow-removal business for a decade agrees to buy 60% of a U.S. landscaping company from its retiring founder, who will keep 40% and stay on for two seasons. The E-2 nationality rule is satisfied because the investor is a Canadian citizen and Canadian nationals will own more than half of the enterprise. The harder questions are whether he genuinely develops and directs the business while the founder still works there, how the purchase is structured so the funds are irrevocably committed, and how goodwill and equipment are treated in the substantiality calculation.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Ownership is enough for nationality; control is a separate showing
- Structure the purchase so the money is at risk
- What the investment is measured against
Open a first U.S. office with an L-1B specialist instead of an L-1A manager
Hypothetical example: a structural inspection and engineering firm with a White City office wants to open its first U.S. location and send a bridge-inspection specialist who knows the firm's proprietary rating methodology, rather than a manager. New-office L-1B petitions are permitted and carry different evidence from a new-office L-1A: there is no requirement to show that a managerial role will be supported within a year, but the petition must still prove premises, the qualifying relationship, and the U.S. entity's financial ability to pay the specialist. Initial approval is one year, and the extension hinges on the office actually operating.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What a new-office L-1B must show
- Premises, funding and the knowledge claim
- The first year and the extension
Two siblings, one company, and a ten-year horizon: L-1A or E-2 for the one who moves
Hypothetical example: two siblings in White City co-own an environmental remediation company. One will move to the United States to build the business there and plans to stay for good. Forming a U.S. subsidiary and transferring her on L-1A, or having her personally invest on E-2, looks like a corporate question, but the deciding factor is the horizon. L-1A ends at seven years and can lead to the EB-1 multinational-manager category; E-2 can be renewed indefinitely but has no direct path to permanent residence. The comparison should start from where she wants to be in ten years.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What each route requires from the same facts
- Where the routes diverge
- What to ask before choosing
A blended household moving south: stepchildren, a nurse spouse and the limits of dependent status
Hypothetical example: an engineer from White City has accepted a U.S. role and will move with his wife, her fourteen-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, and their own six-year-old son. His wife is a registered nurse who wants to keep working. Two questions decide the household's plan. The stepdaughter qualifies as his child for immigration purposes only if the marriage took place before she turned eighteen, which it did. And dependent status will not let his wife work if he goes on TN, so her own TN as a nurse may be the better route for her.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Who counts as family under U.S. rules
- What the spouse can and cannot do
- Sequencing the move
Pharmacy owners with liquid savings: capital that may return or a gift that will not
Hypothetical example: a couple in White City who own two community pharmacies have savings large enough for either an EB-5 regional-centre investment or an individual Gold Card gift. The amounts look comparable on paper. They are not the same kind of money. EB-5 capital is invested at risk and may be returned after the sustainment period if the project performs; a Gold Card gift to the U.S. government is final by definition. The routes also differ in what they demand of the applicant afterward, in how long they take, and in which immigrant category ultimately grants residence.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What each amount is
- What follows the payment
- How to decide