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.
How to compare an offer with the TN support file
Use the offer as a starting record, then identify what the proposed TN evidence must explain more fully. Comparing versions before accepting relocation commitments helps reveal unanswered questions about the work. A consistent file cannot establish eligibility if the position or qualifications do not meet the category requirements.
Put the offer and proposed support letter alongside each other. Compare the legal employer name, duties, compensation, intended work period and location. Note omissions separately from contradictions: an abbreviated offer may omit detail without contradicting it. Ask the employer to clarify unresolved terms rather than filling gaps with your own assumptions.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Create a terms comparison
- Name the owner of each clarification
- Keep the decision record separate
- Read the letter for what it must establish
- Decide in advance how to handle an inaccurate draft
Can I plan for TN while Canadian citizenship is pending?
A pending citizenship process is different from holding Canadian citizenship. TN is available to qualifying Canadian or Mexican citizens, not through Canadian permanent residence alone. Organize the current facts separately from the hoped-for change before an employer builds its offer or start date around TN.
Record the citizenship you hold now, your Canadian residence status and the stage of any citizenship process. An expected future document should not be described as an existing qualification. This distinction gives the employer and adviser an accurate starting point without requiring anyone to predict when a separate government process will finish.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Keep present and future facts separate
- Review the offer independently
- Define when to revisit
- Set the distinction out for the employer in writing
- Identify what can genuinely proceed meanwhile
Which enterprise cost should I compare with my E-2 contribution?
Before asking whether your contribution is substantial, establish the correct business-cost comparison. A purchase price, startup estimate and company valuation can describe different things. Use the actual enterprise and transaction, then reconcile the qualifying amount committed against a supported cost figure rather than selecting whichever denominator produces the best percentage.
Identify whether the case concerns purchasing an established business or establishing a new operation. Build the cost figure from documents that match that transaction. Do not compare a partial payment against only one convenient asset when the purchase includes an entire operating enterprise. Ask counsel to evaluate the substantiality analysis using the real structure and supported figures.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Choose a consistent comparison
- Explain excluded and included amounts
- Avoid turning a ratio into a rule
- Separate the valuation from the transaction
- Show what the money bought, not only that it left
Is the U.S. operation actually a new office?
The age of the company certificate is not the whole new-office question. USCIS defines a new office by less than one year of doing business in the United States through a qualifying entity. Establish the actual operating history before deciding which petition requirements the launch must meet.
List incorporation, first premises, initial contracts, deliveries, invoices and the start of recurring services. Keep preparatory activity distinguishable from actual provision of goods or services. The chronology should expose the real history rather than select whichever date produces the preferred classification; counsel can determine which events carry legal significance.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Build an activity chronology
- Reconcile inconsistent dates
- Choose the requirements from the facts
- Ask what doing business has actually meant here
- Understand what the answer changes
Does missing foreign employment make E-2 the next founder discussion?
If the founder lacks the required qualifying foreign employment, forming related companies does not cure the L-1 gap. E-2 does not use that same foreign-year test, but it has its own treaty, investment, control and enterprise requirements. Assess those independently rather than treating E-2 as an automatic fallback.
Prepare the actual employer, dates, duties and time outside the United States. L-1 generally requires one continuous qualifying year abroad within the relevant three-year period, subject to applicable rules. Counsel should assess interruptions and status history rather than infer the year from a company’s incorporation date. Unpaid ownership or occasional involvement should not be relabelled as qualifying employment.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Document the employment facts
- Test the separate investor requirements
- Choose an evidence-based next step
- Check whether the year is genuinely absent
- Compare the obligations each route creates afterwards
Can our household rely on two incomes during a TN move?
A TN worker’s spouse may be eligible for TD status, but TD does not permit employment. Treat a second income as a separate authorization question before building the household budget around it. A spouse’s proposed job needs review even when the principal’s TN opportunity appears well developed.
List which income the household expects to continue and what work would produce it. Distinguish the principal’s proposed employment from the spouse’s activity. This is a planning exercise, not financial advice; its purpose is to reveal whether the relocation decision depends on work that the spouse’s proposed status does not authorize.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the income assumption
- Assess the spouse’s actual options
- Coordinate before confirming start dates
- Cost the single-income year before deciding
- Establish what a second income would actually require
Does an older price comparison still apply?
An old EB-5 threshold or early Gold Card announcement can make a price comparison misleading. Date every amount and identify the exact programme, petition context and participant count. Rebuild the comparison from current official instructions before relying on a proposal to choose a route or move money.
Record whether an amount is EB-5 qualifying capital, a Gold Card gift, an official fee or a professional charge. Include the proposal’s publication date. A number without its category and applicable circumstances cannot support a meaningful comparison, even if the author describes it as the total cost of immigration.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify which figure is being quoted
- Check current primary guidance
- Recalculate the actual proposal
- Compare the obligations rather than the amounts
- Decide in advance when the comparison must be rebuilt