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.
Torbay TN guide: what goes wrong at the port of entry for a geologist
Hypothetical example: A Torbay geologist offered a position with a U.S. mineral-exploration company has one of the cleaner TN profiles, since Geologist is listed with a baccalaureate degree as the qualification. Files still fail, and they fail for reasons visible in advance: a letter that describes field-crew supervision rather than geology, a degree in a related science with no explanation, an open-ended role that reads as permanent, or a consulting arrangement through the geologist's own company. This guide walks through each failure and how to prevent it. The practical decision is whether the evidence describes a geologist employed to perform professional geology, or a person arriving to manage a project or serve a client through a controlled company. A first review should produce a final employer-letter checklist, a degree-and-transcript packet, citizenship proof and a clear temporary term. Canadian applicants can request TN admission through inspection, while an employer may also seek USCIS approval with an I-129 petition; neither path lets the professional operate a U.S. business for themself.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Failure one: the letter describes the wrong job
- Failure two: the degree does not say geology
- Failures three and four: permanence and self-employment
Torbay guide: a citizen and a permanent resident in the same household
Hypothetical example: When a Torbay household contains a Canadian citizen and a permanent resident who is a citizen of the United Kingdom, the two adults have different U.S. options and the household should not assume the citizen's route carries the other. The citizen may use TN in a listed profession; the permanent resident may not, but as a UK national has E-2 treaty eligibility in their own right. Marriage does not confer Canadian citizenship, and a pending citizenship application does not either. Each adult's route is assessed separately.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What each nationality opens
- Why the dependant route may be the wrong default
- Citizenship timing and the Canadian obligation
Torbay E-2 guide: buying an equipment-rental business and counting what was really invested
Hypothetical example: A Torbay excavation contractor buying a U.S. equipment-rental business will find that the purchase price is not the same thing as the E-2 investment. Payments for the fleet, the yard lease, the customer contracts and the goodwill count once they are irrevocably committed; a portion held back for contingencies, a deposit that can be recovered, or inventory financed by the seller on the security of the inventory does not. The investment must also be substantial in proportion to the total cost and must leave the contractor owning and directing a non-marginal business.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the price into its components
- Working capital, reserves and what officers accept
- Control, licences and the sequence
Torbay L-1 guide: a remote-first software company opening its first U.S. office
Hypothetical example: A Torbay software company whose staff work from home across Newfoundland and Labrador and whose chief technology officer will open a U.S. subsidiary must still satisfy the physical-premises rule for a new-office L-1A: a registered agent's address or a virtual office is not enough. The petition is approved for one year and extended only if the office has developed. The officer needs one continuous year with the Canadian company, an executive or managerial role in the United States, a plan to hire and pay staff within the year, and a Canadian company that keeps operating.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Premises for a company that has none
- Executive or manager in a subsidiary that starts with one person
- The Canadian company, the ownership and the family
Torbay guide: a commercial-diving contractor sequencing L-1A and E-2
Hypothetical example: The owner of a Torbay commercial-diving and underwater-inspection company who wants to work in the United States can go two ways: form a U.S. subsidiary and transfer himself as its L-1A executive, or personally buy a U.S. diving contractor under E-2. The two routes have different clocks. L-1A needs a completed year with the Canadian company and a subsidiary with premises; E-2 needs funds irrevocably committed and control. Sequencing matters because one route can be started while the other's precondition is still running.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The two clocks
- What decides between them
- A workable sequence
Torbay family guide: two professionals, two TN applications, two children in school
Hypothetical example: A Torbay household in which one spouse is a physiotherapist and the other a registered nurse, with children aged 8 and 12, should plan for two TN principals rather than one principal and one dependant, because a TD spouse cannot work and both professions are listed. Each spouse needs their own U.S. employer, credential and application; the children accompany either parent as TD dependants and may attend school. Two applications double the paperwork but give the household two incomes and two independent statuses.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Why one principal is the wrong shape
- Two applications, two sets of documents
- The children, the school year and the two statuses
Torbay guide: what usually goes wrong when EB-5 and the Gold Card are compared by price
Hypothetical example: a Torbay engineering-firm owner who sold his shares compares an EB-5 investment with the Gold Card by putting the two figures side by side. EB-5 capital is invested at risk in an enterprise that must create ten jobs and may be returned; the Gold Card gift is made to the United States and is not returned. EB-5 has its own investor category. The Gold Card uses EB-1 or EB-2, with the qualifying gift treated as evidence of relevant eligibility under Executive Order 14351, and applicants remain subject to lawful-permanent-residence eligibility, admissibility, vetting and visa availability.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Error one: treating the gift as a larger investment
- Error two: forgetting the underlying category
- Error three: ignoring the two-year condition and the family maths