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.
Assemble a veterinarian's TN file in the order the licence dictates
Hypothetical example: a Lake Country veterinarian is offered a position with a Washington large-animal practice. Veterinarian is a USMCA profession requiring a D.V.M., D.M.V. or equivalent degree, or a state or provincial licence, and the practice will require Washington licensure to treat animals. The TN file is therefore built from the licence outward: board application first, then the reissued offer letter, then the citizenship and degree evidence, then the port-of-entry package. Assembled in that order, nothing in the file contradicts anything else on the day of application. The practical decision is whether the application can be made with a complete, current file at the border or whether the employer should use the petition process to allow more time for review. Hypothetical example: a Lake Country landscape architect receives an Oregon offer while the employer's licence verification is still pending. The candidate should obtain the issuing authority's record first, then have the firm confirm the lawful starting duties in a final letter. Canadian citizenship, a qualifying professional credential, a real US employer, and a temporary engagement remain the governing points; a planned ownership interest that gives the applicant control of the practice needs separate advice because TN does not authorize working for oneself in the United States.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Start with the state board, because it is slowest
- Then have the offer letter reissued to match
- Finally, prepare the package for the day of application
A British-citizen permanent resident of Canada has no TN route; L-1 may fit, while UK E-2 requires an inhabitancy check
Hypothetical example: a Lake Country hospitality manager holds British citizenship and Canadian permanent residence. Her employer, a resort operator, is expanding into Idaho. TN is closed to her because it requires Canadian or Mexican citizenship, and a PR card cannot substitute. L-1A does not depend on nationality if the related companies, continuing business, qualifying foreign year and managerial role fit. E-2 is not established by her British passport alone: the UK treaty applies to inhabitants of the covered British territory, meaning actual and permanent residence and domicile there, so a person settled in Lake Country needs a treaty-specific inhabitancy analysis before relying on it. The decision is therefore between an employer-led transfer and a personally funded treaty-enterprise plan, not between a PR card and a passport. Hypothetical example: a Lake Country French citizen with Canadian permanent residence is offered management of a US specialty-food distributor and is also considering buying into a separate retail business. The transfer requires the qualifying corporate relationship and the relevant year of overseas managerial employment; the investment route requires treaty-national ownership, money already committed and exposed to loss, genuine direction by the investor, and a business that is not merely marginal. Her passport determines the treaty question, while the facts of each enterprise determine whether either route is viable.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Why the PR card is not a substitute for citizenship
- What her British nationality makes available
- How the employer's expansion can carry her on L-1A
Commit start-up capital to a US equipment dealership when there is no seller to pay
Hypothetical example: a Lake Country dealer in orchard and vineyard equipment wants to open a dealership in Washington from scratch rather than buy one. With no purchase price there is no single closing that commits the funds, so the E-2 question becomes which start-up spending counts as irrevocably invested and in what order to make it. Signed leases, paid deposits on inventory, purchased tooling and a funded operating account can add up to a substantial, at-risk investment; money still in the dealer's own bank account cannot. The sequence of commitments is the case. The key decision is whether to bind the lease and supply commitments now, with carefully limited visa-denial protection, or wait and accept that unspent funds do not demonstrate an investment. Hypothetical example: a Lake Country commercial-kitchen supplier pays a refundable warehouse reservation fee but has not signed the equipment contract. That fee alone is unlikely to show meaningful financial exposure; the investor must decide which lease, inventory, tooling, and operating commitments can be made binding before applying. The completed file must show capital placed beyond the investor's discretionary control, a genuine operating enterprise, and a credible plan that will not be marginal.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Which start-up outlays count as committed
- Sequence the spending so the file shows a business, not a shopping list
- Prove the dealership will not be marginal and that the dealer directs it
Questions to ask the landlord, the accountant and the lawyer before a new-office L-1A
Hypothetical example: a Lake Country geotechnical and engineering consultancy wants to open its first US office in Washington, staffed by a founding partner who will build the practice there. A new-office L-1A petition is approved for one year and must show that premises have been secured, that the US entity is properly related to the Canadian firm, and that within the year the office will support a genuinely managerial or executive role. Rather than list documents, this guide gives the partner the questions to put to three advisers, because the answers become the petition.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Ask the landlord for a lease that reads as an office
- Ask the accountant to build a year that ends in a manager's job
- Ask the lawyer to confirm the structure and the partner's history
A resort general manager weighs a company transfer against her own franchise
Hypothetical example: the general manager of a Lake Country resort group has two prospects. Her employer plans to open a property in Arizona and would send her to run it on an L-1A. Separately, a restaurant franchisor has offered her a territory she could fund herself, which would be an E-2. The routes differ in who owns the business, whose money is at risk, how long each can last and what happens to her family. The right question is not which is faster but which matches the life she is choosing.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What to ask the employer before relying on L-1A
- What to ask the franchisor before relying on E-2
- Compare the consequences, not the processing times
An L-1B family's calendar: the spouse can work, the children cannot, and one is about to turn 21
Hypothetical example: a Lake Country panel-fabrication specialist is transferring to a Montana affiliate on L-1B for a planned four years. His wife, a licensed practical nurse, wants to work; their son is 17 and hopes to earn money in summers; their daughter is 20 and finishing a diploma. Each has a different answer. The spouse is employment-authorised incident to L-2 status. Neither child may work. The daughter's L-2 status ends on her 21st birthday, which falls within the assignment, and she will need her own basis to stay.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The spouse: authorised to work, but licensed to practise separately
- The son: school yes, summer jobs no
- The daughter: plan her independent status now
A contractor who wants to run the plant should not confuse EB-5 with a gift
Hypothetical example: a Lake Country building contractor is deciding between investing directly in an Arizona modular-housing plant under EB-5 and using the Gold Card framework. The two are not alternative prices for the same thing. EB-5 puts qualifying capital at risk in a business, requires at least ten full-time qualifying US jobs and requires the investor to engage in management or policy formulation. Gold Card begins with a non-refundable processing fee and, after successful vetting, an unrestricted gift that is treated as evidence of specified EB-1A and EB-2 criteria. The gift is not an EB-5 investment, and all official terms must be re-verified before money moves.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What EB-5 asks of him and gives him
- What the Gold Card asks of him and gives him
- Decide on the basis of purpose and failure mode