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.
Keeping professional licensing evidence separate from TN credentials
Academic qualifications, professional licensing and immigration permission answer different questions. A useful file identifies which evidence addresses each issue for the proposed work. Do not assume that a licence automatically establishes TN eligibility, or that immigration approval alone permits every regulated professional activity in the destination state.
Ask the employer what tasks the applicant will perform and where they will be performed. Identify the relevant professional regulator from official sources. Licensing questions can depend on the actual activity, so a broad occupation label may not be enough to determine what the employer and applicant need to verify.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Define the activity and jurisdiction
- Maintain a separate licensing record
- Coordinate without merging the decisions
- Write down the activity and the jurisdiction first
- Maintain the licensing record on its own timeline
- Coordinate the two processes without merging them
Can I explore a company transfer without Canadian citizenship?
L classification is assessed through the qualifying company relationship, employment history and proposed role rather than a requirement to be a Canadian citizen. Canadian PR does not itself qualify you. Separate the transfer merits from nationality-dependent travel procedures before using a colleague’s experience as your preparation model.
Identify the foreign and U.S. organizations, their relationship, your prior work and the proposed responsibilities. These are substantive questions about the transfer. A Canadian residence card cannot replace that evidence, and the existence of a U.S. entity does not by itself show that the individual’s history and role satisfy the category.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Describe the transfer facts
- Confirm the information owners
- Review the applicant’s procedure
- Set out the transfer facts before asking about eligibility
- Confirm who owns each piece of information
- Establish the applicant's own procedure early
Which cancellation rights matter to an E-2 commitment?
A paid invoice, deposit or escrow transfer may carry different cancellation rights. Review those rights before calling the money irrevocably committed. The decision is whether the actual terms support qualifying investment and near-term operations, rather than whether a document happens to use the words deposit, reservation or escrow.
List every condition permitting the investor to withdraw, recover money or postpone the transaction. Include side letters and vendor terms, not only the principal agreement. Match each condition to the affected payment. Counsel can then assess the real commitment instead of reviewing a capital total that conceals which amounts remain freely recoverable at the investor’s choice.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Build a conditions register
- Distinguish a visa condition
- Check readiness after the condition clears
- Build a register of every condition in the transaction
- Check operational readiness once a condition clears
- Distinguish a condition from a change of mind
Does the hiring plan support the claimed new-office role?
A hiring chart is useful only if its people, responsibilities and costs fit the launch. The new-office assessment concerns whether the business will support the proposed managerial or executive position. There is no single headcount in this guide that converts an otherwise unsupported role into an eligible one.
Start with the operational work the business must perform and identify who will do it. Then describe the proposed roles, qualifications and reporting relationships. This makes it possible to explain why a hire is needed and how it changes the transferee’s duties rather than adding boxes for appearances.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Assign work before inventing positions
- Connect recruitment to the forecast
- Preserve evidence of actual development
- Assign the work before inventing any position
- Connect recruitment to the financial forecast
- Keep evidence of what actually happened
How do equal partners compare L-1 transfers with E-2 investor cases?
Equal ownership does not answer every role and eligibility question. L-1 requires a qualifying organization and each transferee’s history and position; E-2 requires each proposed investor’s supported capital and direction. Prepare individual facts alongside the shared enterprise documents instead of assuming one partner’s eligibility automatically covers the other.
Record foreign employment and proposed U.S. duties separately for both partners. Common ownership may support a corporate relationship, but it does not establish that both people have qualifying executive, managerial or specialized-knowledge roles. Counsel should assess the partnership’s actual work allocation. Two founder titles and one organizational chart do not replace individual evidence of the required employment and role.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Review each proposed transferee
- Review each proposed investor
- Compare separate principal and derivative options
- Assess each partner as a potential transferee separately
- Compare principal and derivative options across the group
What should we review before a dependent child turns 21?
TD, L-2 and ordinary E-2 dependent-child frameworks concern unmarried children under 21. A child approaching that age needs an individual planning review before the household assumes existing arrangements can continue. School plans and the principal’s remaining authorization do not themselves resolve the child’s next status or employment questions.
Record the child’s age, current documents, education plans and any proposed work or travel. Keep the age milestone separate from school-calendar dates and the principal’s documents. The review should identify the actual category and facts early enough to discuss options, without assuming a general extension of the parent’s plan also answers the child’s future.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the relevant milestones
- Review the next activity
- Avoid transferring rules between categories
- Identify the milestones well before the birthday
- Do not carry a rule across from another category
When would money be committed under each route?
Compare the actual payment sequence, not just the total amount. EB-5 commitments depend on the proposed investment and applicable rules; Gold Card describes an initial processing fee followed by a requested gift after vetting. A private payment schedule should be checked against the correct route before funds move.
Have counsel review the investment agreement, proposed transfers and any escrow conditions before assuming when capital becomes qualifying. Distinguish invested capital from government fees and project charges. This guide does not endorse an escrow structure or suggest that simply parking funds in any account satisfies EB-5’s at-risk investment requirement.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Map the EB-5 commitment
- Map the Gold Card stages
- Identify the consequence of each step
- Map when money is committed under each route
- Identify the consequence of each step before taking it
- Write down what you would do if you had to stop