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.
An offer titled site designer can still be a landscape architect's TN if the letter says so
A Rothesay landscape architect with a baccalaureate in landscape architecture is offered a role at a U.S. design-build firm under the title site designer. The USMCA list includes Landscape Architect and requires a baccalaureate or licenciatura degree. The title on the offer does not decide the case; the letter's description of professional landscape-architecture work does. Canadian citizenship, temporary intent and no U.S. self-employment are also required; any ownership in the employer must be disclosed and assessed.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Ask the employer to write to the profession, not the payroll title
- Attach the degree and address licensure honestly
- Prepare for the port of entry or the petition
A dental hygienist's PR card is not the citizenship the TN list requires
The USMCA list includes Dental Hygienist, requiring a baccalaureate or a state or provincial licence, but the category is open only to citizens of Canada or Mexico. A Rothesay dental hygienist who is a Canadian permanent resident and a citizen of the Philippines cannot use TN, whatever her licence and experience. Her Canadian-citizen husband's TN as a mechanical engineer gives her TD status, which permits study but not work. Her own working route has to be built from her own nationality.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Record the facts that differ between the spouses
- Consider the routes that her nationality does allow
- Weigh the citizenship timeline against the offer
Seller financing reduces the part of an E-2 purchase that is genuinely at risk
A Rothesay couple buying a U.S. heating and cooling service company have agreed a price of which forty percent is a promissory note to the seller secured on the business. E-2 counts only funds irrevocably committed and at risk by the investor; a note secured on the enterprise's own assets is the seller's risk, not theirs. The cash portion, if committed and traced, is the investment, and its substantiality is measured against the business's full cost.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the cash from the note
- Test substantiality against the whole cost
- Show an operating, non-marginal enterprise that they direct
A virtual office address will not carry an L-1 new-office petition
A Rothesay insurance-software company wants to send its head of sales to open a U.S. office and has arranged a virtual office address with mail handling and occasional meeting-room access. A new-office L-1 petition must show that sufficient physical premises have been secured, and the initial approval is limited to one year. A virtual address is a mailbox, not premises. The petition also has to show the U.S. operation will support a managerial or executive role within that year.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Secure premises before filing, not after
- Show that the role will become managerial within a year
- Prove the relationship, the year abroad and the family's status
Three equal partners need genuine operational control for one to qualify as a treaty investor
A Rothesay engineering consultancy owned equally by three partners wants one of them to establish a U.S. practice. E-2 ordinarily requires the applicant to develop and direct the enterprise, usually through at least fifty percent ownership or operational control; a one-third owner may not meet that. L-1A treats the partner as an employee transferred by the Canadian firm to its U.S. subsidiary, which depends on the corporate relationship and her year of qualifying employment, not on her personal stake.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Look at ownership from each category's point of view
- Compare what she must prove under each
- Choose on structure, control and the long view
A stepchild's E-2 derivative status depends on when the marriage happened
A Rothesay couple moving on E-2 includes the wife's fifteen-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. The husband is the principal investor. For the girl to qualify as his stepchild for immigration purposes, the marriage creating the step-relationship must have occurred before she turned eighteen. It did, so she can accompany as a derivative until she turns 21. The wife is employment-authorized incident to E-2 status and plans to open her own business, which her status permits.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Confirm the relationship that gives the child status
- Let the spouse's business rest on her own status, not the investment
- Plan the daughter's transition before 21
Selling a rental portfolio can fund EB-5 capital or a Gold Card gift, but the paperwork diverges
A Rothesay couple selling several residential rental properties accumulated over twenty years want permanent residence in the United States. EB-5 would put the proceeds at risk in a job-creating enterprise, with two years of conditional residence and a later I-829; the Gold Card involves a processing fee and a government gift, followed by EB-1 or EB-2 processing. EB-5 requires documented lawful source and path. Gold Card requires the current official vetting and I-140G materials, and the gift is treated as evidence under specified eligibility grounds.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Build the property file that both routes will draw on
- Set the two frameworks side by side without treating them as prices
- Decide by eligibility and by what happens on failure