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.
Organizing ownership and employment facts for TN review
If the applicant has an ownership interest, organize the actual structure and proposed work before assuming the arrangement fits TN. Ownership questions call for individual assessment, particularly because TN does not authorize self-employment. The preparation file should expose the relationship clearly rather than hide it behind a conventional job title.
List relevant ownership interests, the entity offering work and who controls the employment arrangement. Use existing corporate records to support the description. Identify uncertainty about control for counsel rather than translating it into a reassuring label. A statement that someone is an employee does not settle every underlying issue.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Record the interests and decision makers
- Document the genuine employment proposal
- Keep alternatives outside the evidence file
- Record what each document proves, next to the document
- Hypothetical example: annotating a forestry consultancy file
How should a dual national with Canadian PR explain their citizenships?
List every citizenship actually held and keep Canadian permanent residence separate. Different U.S. categories and travel programs use nationality in different ways. A second passport may raise a relevant question, but it should not be treated as a universal solution or omitted because another nationality seems more convenient.
Prepare a private list of citizenships, the documents available for each and any uncertainty requiring clarification. Distinguish a citizenship already held from one being pursued. The review should use the complete factual picture, rather than infer nationality from birthplace, residence, a family member’s passport or the country where you most recently worked.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Make the personal record complete
- Ask a route-specific question
- Keep later documents consistent
- Build the citizenship record before the route conversation
- Hypothetical example: two passports and one convenient assumption
Does buying a minority interest change the E-2 investment calculation?
A minority purchase raises both capital and control questions. The price paid for shares does not independently establish the ability to develop and direct the enterprise. Explain the stake, enterprise value, governance rights and actual contribution together rather than treating a high purchase price as a substitute for operational control.
Identify the ownership percentage, seller, payment recipient and rights attached to the interest. Distinguish buying existing shares from contributing new money to the company. Both the transaction and supporting value evidence should be clear. Counsel needs the actual arrangement to assess investment and control; the amount paid cannot be evaluated in isolation from what was acquired.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Describe what the payment buys
- Review authority beyond the percentage
- Keep substantiality separate from control
- Separate the two questions the purchase raises
- Hypothetical example: a purchase price that answers neither question
Can a function manager lead the new U.S. office?
A new office relying on function management needs to identify the essential function, the transferee’s authority and who performs its underlying work. A small workforce does not answer the issue by itself. The plan must demonstrate a qualifying future role through actual organisational resources and responsibilities.
Describe the function’s place in the business, decisions within its scope and why it matters to operations. Avoid broad labels such as strategy without an explanation of what is managed. Ask counsel to evaluate the legal criteria using this description and the transferee’s actual foreign experience, rather than choosing a title first.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Define the function concretely
- Locate the people performing the work
- Show the first-year organisation
- Name the function in a document, then find its workers
- Hypothetical example: a function with no one beneath it
Can gifted funds support E-2 when the founder has no transfer history?
Gifted capital may be relevant to an E-2 assessment under the applicable source and control rules. It does not create L-1 qualifying employment or a corporate relationship. Compare the actual gift and business plan with the founder’s real work history rather than assuming family financing makes either route automatically available.
Record the foreign employer, qualifying year and proposed U.S. role. A relative’s financial contribution does not establish any of those facts. If the founder has no qualifying employment history, counsel should assess that gap directly rather than treating ownership of a newly funded company as a completed transfer relationship. Company activity and employment must be real and supported.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the L-1 facts that money cannot supply
- Document the gift for investor review
- Separate contributing relatives from applicants
- List what a gift can and cannot evidence
- Hypothetical example: a family-financed launch with no employment record
Can an unmarried partner use the same dependent plan as a spouse?
Do not assume that a household partnership automatically meets a category’s spouse requirement. TD, L-2 and ordinary E-2 guidance identifies spouses and eligible children. Describe the relationship accurately and obtain advice about the actual circumstances before copying a married couple’s checklist or assuming the partner can accompany and work.
Explain the current legal relationship and any planned change without using spouse as shorthand if that status has not been established. A shared address or long relationship may be important personal context, but it should not be treated as a completed answer to the specific U.S. dependent-category question being reviewed.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- State the relationship precisely
- Keep alternative activity questions open
- Review before arranging the sequence
- Describe the relationship in the words the category uses
- Hypothetical example: a checklist borrowed from the wrong couple
Is corporate Gold Card transferability comparable to investment exit rights?
A corporate Gold Card replacement mechanism and an EB-5 investment’s exit terms answer different questions. One concerns government processing for a different sponsored person; the other concerns rights and risks in an enterprise. Neither should be described as unrestricted transfer of permanent residence or guaranteed recovery of money.
The Gold Card FAQ describes contribution reuse and transfer charges; Executive Order 14351 contemplates prior-holder abandonment and screening of a replacement. Obtain current procedural advice before relying on that concept. It does not establish that an employer may simply assign an employee’s status or that a replacement automatically qualifies.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Read the corporate mechanism narrowly
- Examine the actual investment agreement
- Compare the affected people and obligations
- Two mechanisms, two document sets, no common measure
- Hypothetical example: naming everyone the change would affect