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.
Building a dated evidence timeline for a project-based TN role
A project file should distinguish the commercial schedule, the proposed employment period and immigration steps. These dates can relate to one another without being interchangeable. Use a timeline to make the arrangement understandable and to expose assumptions that should be resolved before travel or a promised start.
List the dates stated in the offer, project documents and employer letter, with the source beside each one. Identify whether a date is agreed, estimated or dependent on another event. Do not rewrite uncertain project milestones as fixed employment terms merely to make the timeline appear more definite.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Keep the different date sources visible
- Describe the work during each phase
- Plan the response to a schedule change
- Record which source each date came from
- Agree the response to a schedule change in advance
- Describe what the individual does in each phase
Does owning a Canadian company resolve my U.S. nationality questions?
Company ownership, Canadian incorporation and Canadian permanent residence describe different facts. None should replace the applicant’s actual nationality in a U.S. assessment. Map the person, enterprise and proposed activity separately so that an L transfer or E-2 investment is considered on the requirements relevant to that arrangement.
Record who the applicant is, what nationality they hold and which legal entity owns or operates the business. A company may be incorporated in Canada while its owner is a permanent resident with another nationality. Clear labels prevent an organizational fact from being used incorrectly as proof of an individual’s citizenship.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the three identities
- Identify the proposed personal role
- Request the relevant records
- Keep three identities distinct on paper
- Describe the role you would personally perform
- Ask for the records that match the question
Can seller financing inflate the amount I claim for E-2?
The enterprise’s purchase price and the investor’s qualifying contribution can differ when financing is involved. Examine collateral and payment terms before counting borrowed amounts. Debt secured by enterprise assets is not treated like eligible personal borrowing merely because the founder also signs a guarantee or contributes some cash.
Identify the borrower, lender, security and disbursement for each loan. Separate the investor’s paid cash from a seller note or business loan. Obtain all collateral schedules and guarantees, including amendments. The legal assessment concerns the actual risk arrangement, so a simple label such as personal guarantee cannot replace review of which assets secure the debt.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Diagram the financing
- Apply the business-security distinction
- Check the post-closing cash plan
- Draw the financing before describing it
- Check what cash remains after completion
How will launch duties become a managerial role?
L-1A new-office guidance recognises initial involvement in day-to-day work, but the intended operation must support a managerial or executive position within one year. Show the transition in responsibilities instead of describing a founder who will permanently sell, deliver and administer everything under a senior title.
List customer acquisition, production or service delivery, finance, administration and management decisions. Identify who will perform each task at opening. Do not omit operational work simply because it weakens the role description; an accurate starting point lets counsel assess whether the planned transition is credible and sufficiently supported.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Inventory the real launch tasks
- Describe how responsibilities change
- Test the transition against resources
- List the launch tasks honestly before allocating them
- Show what has to change for the role to develop
- Keep evidence of the development as it happens
How should a new company registration be connected to an older business history?
A recent registration may describe a genuinely new operation or a legal change involving an older business. Those situations need different evidence before comparing L-1 and E-2. Establish which entity employed the person, which business actually operated and what changed; do not assume earlier history automatically belongs to the newly registered company.
For example, a recently incorporated entity might acquire assets from an existing operation, while another starts trading for the first time. Label that as the actual documented transaction, not simply a business birthday. Keep incorporation, acquisition and trading dates separate, with agreements and operating records that explain what existed before and after each event.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify what the registration actually changed
- Attribute employment to the correct organization
- Build the E-2 comparison from the present transaction
- Establish what a new registration actually changed
- Attribute each period of employment to the right entity
Does extending the principal’s stay automatically extend the family?
Do not assume that action on the principal’s case completes every dependent’s extension. Family members have their own status records and procedural requirements. Identify each person’s dates and the relevant category before relying on a principal extension, an employer’s update or a pending request as proof of continuing status or work rights.
Record the relevant status documents and dates for the principal, spouse and each child. Distinguish a filing receipt, approval and admission record rather than treating them as interchangeable milestones. This makes it possible to ask a precise extension question for each person instead of assuming that one family date controls every document.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Create an individual date list
- Check the dependent procedure
- Review work continuity separately
- Build a date list per person, not per household
- Check the dependent procedure separately
- Review work continuity as its own question
What do EB-5 job-creation claims add to the comparison?
EB-5 has a job-creation framework that Gold Card’s government-gift description does not replace. Compare the evidence connecting a proposed enterprise to qualifying jobs, rather than treating both routes as a payment for the same result. A project’s job forecast also needs to be distinguished from jobs already created.
Ask whether the proposal is standalone or regional-centre based and how it intends to demonstrate the required jobs. USCIS policy distinguishes the relevant methods. Do not assume a project brochure’s employment total explains the jobs attributable to the investor or meets the applicable immigration standard without reviewing its supporting basis.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the EB-5 structure
- Check what each record proves
- Compare the ongoing evidence burden
- Establish who produces the job evidence and when
- Compare what each route requires of you afterwards
- Ask what evidence you would have to produce yourself