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.
A medical laboratory technologist's file has to prove the diploma and the years together
The USMCA listing for Medical Laboratory Technologist in Canada accepts a baccalaureate or licenciatura degree, or a post-secondary diploma or certificate plus three years of experience. An applicant relying on the second alternative must document both halves, and the employer letter must describe laboratory work that fits the listing rather than a generic hospital job. Canadian citizenship, a prearranged temporary role and no U.S. self-employment remain required; any ownership in the employer must be disclosed and assessed.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Decide which alternative the evidence actually supports
- Have the employer describe technologist duties, not hospital duties
- Assemble the file in the order the officer will read it
A permanent resident spouse cannot borrow the citizen's TN eligibility
TN is available only to citizens of Canada or Mexico. A permanent resident of Canada who holds another country's citizenship does not qualify, however long she has lived in New Brunswick and however strong her profession. Her spouse's Canadian citizenship gives her TD status as a dependant, which permits study but not work. Her own route depends on her own nationality and on a category that fits her activity.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Write each person's nationality on its own line
- Identify which category could fit her activity
- Consider timing against Canadian citizenship
A home-equity line can fund an E-2 investment only if the risk stays with the investor
Borrowed money can be an E-2 investment when the loan is secured on the investor's own assets and the investor is personally liable, because the funds are then genuinely at risk. Money borrowed against the U.S. business's own assets is not at risk in the same way. A Quispamsis couple funding a U.S. childcare-centre purchase from a Canadian home-equity line should document the security, the personal guarantee and the flow of funds so that the risk is visible.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Show what secures the loan
- Show the money cannot be recalled
- Meet the operating and nationality tests together
A coworking membership must provide sufficient premises for an L-1 new office
A new-office L-1 petition is approved for one year and must show that sufficient physical premises have been secured and that the U.S. operation will support the managerial, executive or specialized-knowledge role within that year. A Quispamsis cybersecurity consultancy planning to send its founder to open a U.S. office on a month-to-month coworking pass is likely to fall short on premises, and its business plan must show real capacity, not ambition.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Secure premises that match the plan
- Show the U.S. entity can support the role within a year
- Prepare the extension evidence from day one
A sixty-percent owner can qualify under either L-1A or E-2, but the two files look different
A Quispamsis home-care agency owner who holds sixty percent of her company and wants to open a U.S. operation could be transferred by her company under L-1A or could invest personally under E-2. L-1A depends on the corporate relationship and her year of qualifying employment; E-2 depends on her own treaty nationality, ownership and capital at risk. Her minority partner's nationality and role affect one route and not the other.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Map who owns what and who would own the U.S. entity
- Compare what each route requires her to prove
- Sequence for the family and the long term
A teacher married to a TN accountant needs her own basis to teach
When a Quispamsis accountant takes a TN role, his wife, a high-school teacher, can accompany him in TD status and their son can attend college as a TD dependant. TD does not authorize employment, so her teaching would need its own category, and the son's derivative status ends when he turns 21. Each person's plan has to be written against the rule that applies to that person.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate presence from permission
- Check the listed profession and the state's licence
- Plan the son's timeline around his twenty-first birthday
An inheritance can fund either an EB-5 investment or a Gold Card gift, but they buy different things
A Quispamsis insurance executive who has inherited a substantial sum from a parent's estate is weighing an EB-5 investment against the Gold Card. EB-5 places capital at risk in a job-creating enterprise, with conditional residence and a later removal of conditions; the Gold Card, per the official framework, involves a processing fee and a gift to the government, followed by EB-1 or EB-2 processing. The inheritance must be documented as EB-5 lawful source and path; for Gold Card, she should retain source records for vetting and any supporting-document request. The two commitments are not comparable as prices.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Document the inheritance before choosing
- Compare the two frameworks on what they require and what they return
- Decide on the basis of eligibility, not speed