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.
Reapplying after a refusal means correcting the record, not hiding it
Hypothetical example: a Hampton physiotherapist was refused TN admission because her employer's letter described her as overseeing clinic operations as well as treating patients. The refusal is not the end of the route, and it is not something to leave out of the next attempt. What the second application has to do is show what has actually changed: a rewritten description confined to the listed profession, evidence of her licence and degree, and a straight account of the earlier request.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Understand precisely why it failed
- Change the facts, not just the wording
- Disclose the earlier request and show the difference
When neither spouse can use the professional route
Hypothetical example: in a Hampton household the wife is a British citizen and a Canadian permanent resident working as a registered nurse; her husband is a Canadian citizen and a heavy-duty equipment mechanic. A U.S. employer wants to hire her. TN is unavailable to her because she is not a Canadian or Mexican citizen, and unavailable to him because his occupation is not on the professional list. Neither can carry the other as a dependant, so the family's route has to be built somewhere else entirely.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Two separate reasons, one result
- The routes that remain go through the employer or through time
- Plan the working spouse's position from the start
Selling the business is an immigration event too
Hypothetical example: a Hampton couple bought a U.S. plumbing supply business five years ago and hold E-2 status through it. A competitor now wants to buy them out, and their children are settled in school. E-2 status is tied to the enterprise: if they sell it, the basis for their status and their children's derivative status goes with it. An exit that is planned as a purely commercial transaction can end a family's ability to remain, and the sequencing has to be decided before a sale agreement is signed.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The status belongs to the investment, not to the years served
- Options exist while you still own something
- Write the immigration consequences into the deal
A founder who has just incorporated has no qualifying year yet
Hypothetical example: a Hampton entrepreneur incorporated her consultancy eight months ago and wants to open a U.S. office on a new-office L-1A petition. The new-office rules address a young U.S. entity, not a young Canadian one. She still needs one continuous year of qualifying employment with the foreign entity within the three years before the petition, in a managerial or executive capacity. Eight months is not twelve, and no feature of the new-office provisions supplies the difference.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Two different young companies, only one is accommodated
- Time is the simplest fix, and it is not the only one
- Use the waiting months to build what the petition needs
The employee's version of the same choice
Hypothetical example: a Hampton production supervisor is offered a role at a U.S. company owned by Canadians. He owns nothing, so the comparison people usually run, between investing and transferring, does not describe his position. Two routes might still be open: employment by a treaty enterprise as a person with essential skills, which requires him to share the owners' treaty nationality, or L-1 if his current employer has a qualifying relationship with the U.S. company. The evidence for each is completely different.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- E-2 employment depends on someone else's nationality
- L-1 depends on his own employer and his own year
- Ask what each route costs you if things change
When the principal changes employers, the family's status changes with it
Hypothetical example: a Hampton engineer holds TN status through one U.S. employer and is offered a better role with another. TN is employer-specific, so the move requires a fresh application or petition rather than a resignation letter. His wife and two children hold TD status derived entirely from his, which means their position moves with his and cannot be left in place while he sorts out the change. The family's paperwork has to be sequenced along with his.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Derivative means dependent, in every sense
- Sequence the change so nothing lapses
- Use the change as a moment to audit the household
What neither route gives you, and how long each one asks for
Hypothetical example: a Hampton couple in their late sixties have sold a dairy operation and want to live near grandchildren in the United States. They are weighing EB-5 against the Gold Card and are comparing prices. The more useful comparison is what each route produces and over what period: EB-5 leads to conditional permanent residence, continuing obligations and a second filing two years later, while the Gold Card framework's terms must be read from its own official material. Neither is citizenship, and neither is instant.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- EB-5 is a multi-year commitment, not a purchase
- Read the Gold Card framework for what it actually confers
- Neither is citizenship, and both ask where you will live