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.
Mount Pearl TN guide: let the accounting designation and the degree each do their own job
Hypothetical example: a Mount Pearl accountant with a commerce degree and a CPA designation is offered a senior accountant position at a U.S. manufacturer. The Appendix 2 line for Accountant lists a baccalaureate degree or a CPA, CA, CGA or CMA designation. Either satisfies the credential requirement; build the file around the one that is cleanest to prove, with the other as support. The support letter must describe accounting duties, the applicant must be a Canadian citizen, and the employer must be the entity that directs the work. Assemble the file so each point is verifiable from one document.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Pick the credential that carries the least explanation
- Make the support letter read as accounting, not as finance in general
- Assemble in the order the officer reads
Mount Pearl guide: when one spouse is a citizen and the other holds a PR card
Hypothetical example: in a Mount Pearl household one spouse is a Canadian citizen and the other holds a PR card and a third-country passport. In that household, the citizen can pursue TN or E-2 on the strength of citizenship, while the permanent resident cannot use either in his own right, because a PR card is not citizenship. He may accompany her as a dependant, subject to visa requirements based on his own nationality, but cannot work in TD status. His nationality may open a separate door if it is a treaty country, and his Canadian residency obligation keeps running abroad.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Read the two documents for what they prove
- Map the dependant route and its limits
- Keep the Canadian side of his status alive
Mount Pearl E-2 guide: buying contracts and equipment rather than shares
Hypothetical example: a Mount Pearl commercial-cleaning company owner buys the vehicles, equipment and contracts of a U.S. cleaning business rather than its shares. He needs to show that what he bought amounts to a real, operating enterprise he controls, not a collection of equipment. The investment is the price paid for the assets and contracts plus working capital committed to the new entity, all at the investor's personal risk. Customer contracts that transfer, employees who are retained and a lease in the new company's name are the evidence that the enterprise exists on the day of closing.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Decide what an asset purchase leaves behind
- Prove the enterprise is operating and not marginal
- Structure the commitment and the control
Mount Pearl L-1 guide: sending a service manager to open the first U.S. office
Hypothetical example: a Mount Pearl HVAC-controls contractor sends its service manager to open a first U.S. subsidiary office. A new-office L-1A petition is approved for one year and requires evidence that premises are secured, that the Canadian company can fund the office, and that the U.S. operation will support a managerial position within that year. The manager still needs one continuous year with the Mount Pearl company in the three years before filing, and the extension depends on what the office actually did, not on what the plan said.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Secure the premises and the corporate structure before filing
- Show the money and the growth path
- Run the first year as if the extension were already being reviewed
Mount Pearl guide: transferring through your own company or buying a U.S. business in your own name
Hypothetical example: the founder of a Mount Pearl sign-manufacturing company wants to run a U.S. shop. She can be transferred to a subsidiary under L-1A as an executive, or can personally invest in a U.S. business under E-2. The L route depends on the corporate relationship, a year of employment with the Mount Pearl company and an executive or managerial role; the E route depends on Canadian citizenship, capital at personal risk and control of a real enterprise. The two are not interchangeable, and sequencing them badly, for example by moving before the qualifying year is complete, can close one door without opening the other.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Read the owner's own history against the L rules
- Read the same facts against the E rules
- Sequence so that neither route is spoiled
Mount Pearl family guide: a working spouse, a young child and a son who turns 21 mid-assignment
Hypothetical example: a Mount Pearl L-1A manager relocates with a licensed-practical-nurse spouse, a 12-year-old and a son who is 20. Each member of that household has their own rule. The spouse of an L-1A manager is employment-authorized as an L-2; a child of 12 can study as an L-2; a son who is 20 at filing can be admitted as an L-2 but loses that status on his 21st birthday and needs his own basis to stay, such as student status, before then. Citizenship, age and intended activity, not the family's shared address, decide what each person may do.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Give the spouse's career its own plan
- Enrol the child and record the son's birthday
- Keep every dependant tied to the principal's timeline
Mount Pearl guide: the record an EB-5 gift needs against the record a Gold Card needs
Hypothetical example: a Mount Pearl couple whose funds include a parent's gift weighs EB-5 against a Gold Card. They should compare what each route asks them to prove. EB-5 asks for a traceable lawful source for every dollar, including the parent's, an investment placed at risk in a business that creates ten jobs, and a two-year conditional period ending in a removal-of-conditions petition. The Gold Card's official framework asks for a processing fee, vetting, a gift to the U.S. government on instruction and eligibility under an existing immigrant category, with no business and no return. The paperwork and the risks differ.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- List what EB-5 requires the couple to document
- List what the Gold Card requires instead
- Compare the risks the couple would actually carry