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.
Prove the diploma-plus-experience branch for a technical publications writer at a farm-equipment dealer
Hypothetical example: Ruth writes service manuals and operator bulletins for a Lethbridge County farm-equipment dealer and has been offered a documentation post with a U.S. manufacturer. Technical Publications Writer is a listed USMCA profession, but it has two qualification branches: a baccalaureate degree, or a post-secondary diploma or certificate plus three years' experience. Ruth has a two-year diploma, so her file must prove the experience branch with dated evidence, not a résumé, and must show the U.S. work is technical writing rather than marketing.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify which branch you are relying on, then document only that one
- Make the U.S. employer's letter describe technical writing, not communications
- Assemble the packet for a port-of-entry application and know its limits
A Mexican citizen with Canadian permanent residence: TN is available, but the procedure changes
Hypothetical example: Rodrigo is a Mexican citizen who has held Canadian permanent residence for four years and works as a civil engineer for an irrigation contractor in Lethbridge County. He assumes his PR card is what matters for a U.S. offer. It is irrelevant. TN is open to Mexican citizens as well as Canadians, so his nationality qualifies him; what his nationality changes is the procedure, because a Mexican citizen must obtain a TN visa at a U.S. consulate before travelling rather than applying at the port of entry.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Permanent residence is not the fact that decides TN; citizenship is
- A Mexican citizen applies for a TN visa at a consulate before travelling
- Plan the Canadian side so the U.S. job does not cost him what he already has
Spending sequence for a hay exporter building a U.S. pressing facility from the ground up
Hypothetical example: Anneke exports compressed hay from Lethbridge County and wants to establish a pressing and container-loading facility in the United States as a new enterprise, with herself as the E-2 investor. There is no seller and no existing business, so the question is not what to buy but in what order to spend, so that by the time she applies the funds are irrevocably committed, substantial relative to the total cost of the project, and put into a real enterprise that will employ people rather than a plan on paper.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Start with the total cost of the project, because substantiality is measured against it
- Commit in an order that shows the enterprise is real before the visa issues
- Prove non-marginality and direction, and set expectations about what E-2 is
A seed-cleaning company's owner-manager opens the first U.S. depot: what the one-year approval expects
Hypothetical example: Gerhard owns a seed-cleaning and conditioning company in Lethbridge County and wants to open a first U.S. depot himself, as the L-1A manager of a newly formed subsidiary. New-office petitions are approved for one year on evidence that premises are secured and that the business can support a managerial role within that year. The risk for an owner-manager is that USCIS sees a self-petitioning sole worker rather than a manager, so the plan must show who else will do the cleaning and loading.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The owner can be the transferee, but the petitioner must still be an employer
- Premises, capacity and a staffing plan are the new-office evidence
- The first-year extension is decided on what actually happened
Which fact decides it: an ag-parts distributor's owner choosing between transferring herself and investing
Hypothetical example: Corinne owns a Lethbridge County agricultural-parts distribution company and wants to open a U.S. branch that she will run. She could go as an L-1A transferee of her own company, or as an E-2 investor who capitalizes a U.S. enterprise from her own funds. The two routes are decided by different facts: L-1A by one continuous year of qualifying employment abroad, the corporate link and a managerial role; E-2 by ownership, capital at risk and a non-marginal business. Lining those facts up in a table answers the question faster than comparing the categories in the abstract.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The facts that decide L-1A
- The facts that decide E-2
- Read the table, then decide on the fact you cannot change
An animal scientist's TN, a husband who wants to keep running the Alberta farm, and a son who turns 21
Hypothetical example: Lena, a Canadian citizen with an animal-science degree, has a TN-eligible offer from a U.S. feed company. Her husband Piet, also Canadian, would come as her TD dependant but intends to keep managing the family's Lethbridge County grain operation remotely and fly back for seeding and harvest. Their son Joris is twenty and will study. Three people, three different answers: Lena's route is settled by her profession and credential, Piet's remote management is work that TD does not authorize, and Joris has less than a year of derivative eligibility left.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Lena's case: a listed profession, a degree and an employer letter
- Piet's case: managing a Canadian farm from a U.S. address is work
- Joris's case: derivative status ends at 21, so plan his own route now
A potato-storage operator compares a rural EB-5 project with the Gold Card by asking what each one actually buys
Hypothetical example: Sandra is selling her share of a Lethbridge County potato-storage and packing business and has been approached about two things: an EB-5 regional-center project in a rural targeted employment area, and a Gold Card application. She wants to know what each amount buys, what happens to the money, what her husband gets, and which one leads to permanent residence on what timeline. The two are not versions of each other. EB-5 is an at-risk investment with conditional residence and job requirements; the Gold Card is a gift to the U.S. government under an official program whose terms must be read directly.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What the money does in each route
- What the household receives, and when
- Questions to settle before either cheque is written