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.
Preparing a TN evidence handoff for the procedure actually being used
TN preparation can involve different procedures depending on citizenship and circumstances. Before organizing the submission, establish which process the applicant and employer are using. A file prepared for one route should not be treated as a universal packet with identical forms, submission instructions or consequences for work and travel. Name the owner of each step in the same breath as naming the step. In practice four parties act: the employer, which controls the offer and any filing; the applicant, who answers for the file personally; counsel, who advises and prepares; and the professional body or evaluator, which speaks to qualifications and cannot be spoken for. Ambiguity about which of these owns an item is the most common reason a packet arrives incomplete.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Record the proposed procedure explicitly
- Separate common evidence from procedural requirements
- Control the handoff between participants
- Give every item a single named owner
- Verification is not the same job as preparation
How should I organize old and current immigration records for review?
A useful record set shows what each document establishes and when it applied. Canadian PR, citizenship evidence and U.S. travel or status records should not be blended into one label. Build a private chronology that helps counsel understand the current proposal and identify any specific historical issue needing assessment. Chronologies age badly. A new entry, a renewed passport, a change in Canadian status, a corrected date obtained from an official request — each of these makes the version you circulated last month wrong in a way nobody will notice until it matters. Treat the chronology as a document with versions: date every revision, keep what it replaced, and note in one line what changed and why. A record set that cannot show its own history is hard to rely on.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Group by purpose and authority
- Identify gaps without guessing
- Share selectively for a defined review
- What to do when a date turns out to be wrong
- Events that must be reported the moment they happen
Does an E-2 renewal require repeating the original investment?
Do not assume that every renewal requires spending the original amount again. Review the existing investment, current operation and any material ownership or business changes under the applicable rules. The useful task is reconciling the original evidence with actual results, not creating unnecessary purchases to imitate the first application’s budget. Boundaries are worth stating plainly, because the question invites over-reach in both directions. A renewal review examines whether the treaty investor still qualifies on the current facts; it is not a fresh audit of the original approval, and it is not an occasion to buy things the business does not need. Equally, it does not exempt a materially changed enterprise from explaining itself. Knowing which of those two errors your file is drifting toward is most of the work.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Start with the original record
- Explain changes and current performance
- Budget for genuine needs
- What renewal capital is not
- Changes a routine renewal cannot absorb
How should family timing fit the new-office launch?
The company’s expansion date and each family member’s immigration position are separate planning questions. An L-1 transferee’s spouse and unmarried children under 21 may seek L-2 status. Coordinate housing, school and employment plans using actual documents and advice rather than assuming a filed petition authorises the household to relocate. Sequence the household against the business, because the two run on different clocks and only one of them is under the company’s control. Premises, incorporation and hiring can be advanced whenever the company chooses. A spouse’s employment, a child’s school place and the sale of a home cannot sensibly be fixed until the immigration position of each person is known. Put the family steps that depend on someone else’s decision at the end of the list, and the ones that do not at the front.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the people and milestones
- Check the spouse’s actual work position
- Plan around the limited initial period
- What cannot be started early, and why
- Working backwards from the limited initial period
How should future renewals influence the L-1 versus E-2 choice?
Compare what the business can continue proving, not just what might support the first filing. L-1 requires the qualifying organization and role to remain supported within its applicable stay rules. E-2 requires continuing treaty-investor eligibility. Neither route promises automatic extensions, and neither should be selected solely from a headline validity period. Judge the comparison on what each route can be evidenced with by the people who will be doing it. One route depends on records the group generates as a matter of course — payroll abroad, organisational charts, corporate ownership documents. The other depends on records a small enterprise has to be disciplined about — bank statements, ownership registers, contracts, accounts that reconcile. Ask which set your organisation reliably produces without being asked, because that is the set that will still exist years from now.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Consider the continuing transfer record
- Consider the continuing investment record
- Compare the likely business trajectory
- The record each route has to keep producing
- Test the choice against a document you can produce today
What should the family check after each U.S. entry?
Check each person’s own admission record rather than assume the family received identical classifications and dates. For qualifying E-2 or L-2 spouses, the record can also be important employment evidence. Identify discrepancies promptly and seek the appropriate review before relying on a visa label, another family member’s record or an earlier visit. Errors found on the day of arrival are usually cheap to fix and expensive to ignore. The pattern is consistent: nobody looks, a wrong classification or a short admitted-until date sits unnoticed for months, and it surfaces at the point where it does most damage — a job offer, a renewal, a subsequent entry. Looking takes minutes at a moment when the household is together and the trip is fresh. Waiting turns a clerical discrepancy into a problem with consequences attached.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Review one person at a time
- Check spouse evidence separately
- Update the household record
- What an unchecked record costs later
- The assumption that one record speaks for the household
Does a pending investment or gift application authorise a move or work?
A pending EB-5 or Gold Card plan should not be treated as automatic permission to live or work in the United States. Ask counsel which status and documents support the intended activities for each family member. Payment, petition submission and actual immigration permission are distinct milestones under the proposed route. Identify who is answering each question before weighing the answers, because the parties around these two routes have different interests. A project promoter can describe a project and cannot advise on status. A migration agent’s summary of a programme is not an assessment of your family. An employer can state what a job requires and cannot say what permits you to hold it. Counsel advises; government decides. Where an answer comes from someone with a commercial stake in the decision, note that beside it.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Describe the intended activities
- Check each person’s position
- Connect commitments to confirmed authority
- Who can answer which question
- When one party is asked to hold every role