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.
Documenting a professional role at a small employer
A smaller employer may have less formal paperwork, but the proposed job still needs a clear factual explanation. Build a file showing the real employer, the work and the employment terms. Business size alone does not establish or remove TN eligibility, and a new position should not be described as already operating.
Record the employer’s legal name, trading name if different, contact details and the person responsible for the offer. Ask which existing records explain the business and proposed work. Avoid supplying a large bundle of unrelated marketing material when a short, accurate description would address the relevant question more clearly.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the business precisely
- Explain why the position exists
- Separate professional and general duties
- Let the owner describe the business in plain terms
- Explain the professional duties as a proportion of the whole
- Date the description and revisit it
Which nationality matters when a Canadian PR explores E-2?
E-2 has its own treaty-nationality requirement. Canadian permanent residence does not turn the investor into a Canadian national for that purpose. Identify the nationality actually held, then examine the proposed enterprise, investment and control before assuming that a Canadian address makes the investor or business treaty eligible.
Start with citizenship and nationality evidence relevant to the person who would apply. Keep Canadian immigration status on a separate line. This prevents a residence card from standing in for the treaty-nationality analysis and allows counsel to check whether the person’s actual nationality supports the proposed E-2 conversation at all.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the investor’s nationality
- Investigate the enterprise separately
- Continue beyond the nationality screen
- Trace nationality through to the individuals
- Continue the analysis past the nationality screen
Should gift-funded capital and the donor’s remaining savings be combined?
Only the investor’s supported qualifying commitment belongs in the investment analysis. A donor’s wealth or promise to help later is different from funds actually transferred into the investor’s possession and control and committed to the business. Build the budget around the real gift transaction, not the family’s combined resources.
Document the gift terms, lawful source and the investor’s receipt of the funds. Explain any conditions or continuing donor control accurately. A statement that a relative can provide additional money does not establish that the investor has already invested it. Counsel should review the actual arrangement before its amount is included in a capital schedule.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the completed transfer
- Separate available support from investment
- Match the funded plan to the gift
- Separate what was given from what remains available
- Size the plan to the funds actually received
Can the U.S. office fund the plan it describes?
A convincing new-office plan connects proposed spending to resources the business can actually deploy. USCIS considers the U.S. investment and the foreign entity’s financial ability to remunerate the transferee. Reconcile payroll, premises and operating needs before treating a large balance as sufficient evidence of an executable launch.
List launch and continuing costs using the proposed business model, including staffing, premises and operational inputs. Identify the source for significant estimates. Separate a management forecast from a contractual obligation so counsel can see which expenses are flexible and which must be paid regardless of early revenue performance.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Build an operating uses schedule
- Explain access to the resources
- Reconcile funding with the role
- Build the uses schedule before the funding argument
- Show how the money reaches the operation
When buying a U.S. business, should I assess acquisition funding or a transfer first?
A purchase can create facts relevant to both routes, but it does not automatically qualify the buyer. L-1 needs a qualifying relationship and transferee history; E-2 needs treaty investment and direction. Review the proposed buyer entity, ownership after closing and source of the purchase funds before selecting an application strategy.
For L-1, determine how the acquired business will relate to the qualifying foreign employer. Obtain the purchase agreement and ownership records, and preserve evidence of the employee’s foreign role. A founder’s personal purchase may produce a different structure from a corporate subsidiary acquisition. Counsel should assess the actual relationship rather than infer affiliation from the buyer’s involvement in both companies.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the buyer and post-closing group
- Review the E-2 purchase commitment
- Coordinate immigration review before closing
- Identify what the group looks like after closing
- Get the immigration review done before completion
How should we organize evidence of family relationships?
Dependent planning requires an accurate account of who qualifies as a spouse or child under the relevant route. Start with the actual relationships and identify the records available to establish them. A shared address or moving plan should not substitute for relationship evidence or an individual assessment of eligibility.
Identify the principal applicant and each person seeking to accompany them, stating the relationship accurately. TD, L-2 and ordinary E-2 family frameworks concern spouses and unmarried children under 21. Where the family circumstances raise a more complex relationship question, flag it for qualified review rather than assume a household label answers it.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Map relationships before collecting files
- Identify records and inconsistencies
- Keep the evidence review individual
- Draw the relationships before opening any file
- Review each person's records individually
How does selling an asset affect the route comparison?
An anticipated sale can fund either plan without determining which route is appropriate. Separate the asset decision from immigration eligibility and distinguish projected proceeds from available money. Compare the consequences of committing those proceeds to an at-risk EB-5 investment with making the Gold Card gift under its current terms.
Identify the asset owner, proposed transaction and expected net proceeds with qualified advisers. Keep valuations, draft agreements and completed sales clearly labelled. A budget built on an unrealised price does not show that funds will be available when either programme or an investment agreement requires them.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Establish what can actually be funded
- Compare the destination of the proceeds
- Preserve the evidence if the sale occurs
- Establish the realistic net before comparing anything
- Follow the proceeds to where each route sends them
- Decide what happens if the sale does not complete