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.
Paradise TN guide: proving three years of design experience when the diploma is the only credential
Hypothetical example: a Paradise graphic designer with a two-year design diploma is offered a position by a U.S. marketing agency. The Appendix 2 line for Graphic Designer accepts a baccalaureate degree or a post-secondary diploma plus three years of experience, so her file depends on experience letters that are specific, dated and from the employers themselves. The support letter must describe design work, she must be a Canadian citizen, and the agency must be the employer that directs her. Assemble the experience evidence first, because it is the part the officer will spend the most time on.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Collect the experience letters before anything else
- Make the support letter match the profession's line
- Order the file for a port-of-entry reading
Paradise guide: a permanent resident with a citizenship application pending, and which routes wait for it
Hypothetical example: a Paradise resident holds a Canadian PR card, has applied for citizenship, and has a U.S. opportunity through his employer that cannot wait a year. TN requires Canadian citizenship and is closed to him until the oath. E-2 requires treaty nationality, which Canadian permanent residence does not supply, though his own country of citizenship might. L-1A and L-1B do not require Canadian citizenship at all; they require a year with the qualifying employer and a qualifying role, and he would obtain a visa at a consulate because he is not visa-exempt. Sequencing the routes around the citizenship date is the whole exercise.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Sort the routes by what they require of his nationality
- Plan the L-1 now and the TN later, without letting one spoil the other
- Keep the permanent residence alive while abroad
Paradise E-2 guide: a self-storage business must be run, not merely owned
Hypothetical example: a Paradise couple plans to build a U.S. self-storage facility with their savings and treat it as their business. Each principal investor must have treaty-country nationality, and at least half of the enterprise must be owned by nationals of that same treaty country; Canadian citizenship qualifies. E-2 also requires an active, non-marginal commercial enterprise that the investor develops and directs. A storage facility can qualify if the couple operate it as a business and their capital is irrevocably committed, substantial relative to its cost and genuinely at risk. Passive ownership of property or income without operation does not qualify.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Draw the line between an active business and a passive holding
- Commit the capital in stages that are still irrevocable
- Prove substantiality and the road past marginality
Paradise L-1 guide: an electrical contractor's first U.S. office and the year that follows
Hypothetical example: a Paradise electrical-contracting company forms a U.S. subsidiary and sends its estimating and projects manager to open it. A new-office L-1A petition is approved for one year and requires evidence that premises are secured, that the Paradise company can fund the office and the manager's salary, and that the U.S. operation will grow within the year to support a managerial role. The manager needs one continuous year with the Paradise company in the three years before filing, and the first year's record decides the extension.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Set up the subsidiary so it can lawfully do the work
- Describe the manager's role as it will evolve
- Run the first year to produce the extension evidence
Paradise guide: an employee offered a transfer, or leaving to buy a U.S. business of his own
Hypothetical example: the projects manager of a Paradise electrical contractor is offered an L-1A transfer to open the company's U.S. office, and is also tempted to leave and buy a small U.S. electrical contractor himself under E-2. L-1A keeps him an employee: the petition is the company's and the corporate relationship and his qualifying year do the work. E-2 makes him the owner: his citizenship, his capital at risk and his control do the work, and the status lasts while the business qualifies. The choice is between whose company it is and whose risk it is.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Read the L-1A offer as an employee would
- Read the E-2 purchase as an owner would
- Decide in the order that keeps both doors open longest
Paradise family guide: choose the principal's route by what the spouse needs to do
Hypothetical example: the Paradise developer on this site holds a TN offer, her husband is a paramedic who wants to keep earning, and their daughter is sixteen. TD status would let him live and study in the United States but not work, so his need decides the question before hers does. If the household needs his income, the developer should explore whether her employer's structure supports L-1B, where an L-2 spouse is work-authorized, or accept TN with the husband remaining in Paradise or retraining. The daughter's school is the easiest link in the chain; the spouse's work is the hardest.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Run the spouse's question first
- Plan the daughter's school and her twenty-first birthday
- Keep the chain honest as the routes change
Paradise guide: an inheritance not yet distributed, and what each route needs from it
Hypothetical example: a Paradise couple expects an inheritance from an estate still in probate and is weighing EB-5 against the Gold Card. EB-5 requires the capital to be invested and traceable at filing, so an undistributed estate is not yet capital, and once received it must be documented back to the deceased's lawful accumulation. The Gold Card's official framework requires a processing fee, vetting and a gift on official instruction, with eligibility under an employment-based immigrant classification, and no business or return. Neither route can be started on an expectation, and the inheritance's timing decides which comes first.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What EB-5 will ask about the inheritance
- What the Gold Card will ask instead
- Sequence both routes around the distribution date