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.
Which single document decides a County of Brant engineer's TN, and what the rest of the file only supports
Hypothetical example: a County of Brant mechanical engineer is recruited by a U.S. maker of conveyor and materials-handling equipment to design bulk-handling lines. Her file will contain a dozen papers, but one of them decides the case: the employer's letter, because it is the only document that states what the U.S. work will be. The degree proves the credential, the passport proves citizenship, and everything else supports. Building the file in that order stops applicants from over-preparing the easy half. A second pass should test the letter against the credential rather than simply collecting more papers. It must identify the professional activity, the U.S. employer or client, anticipated pay and the period of the engagement. A Canadian may seek TN admission directly with the complete record or use an approved I-129 route; neither path permits operating a self-directed U.S. engineering business. Hypothetical example: a materials engineer has a letter calling her a product lead, but its duty list is mostly procurement. The decision is whether the employer can accurately describe engineering analysis as the real job, or whether the position needs a different route.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The credential half is usually already finished
- The employer letter is where cases are actually lost
- Assemble the file in the order the officer reads it
Waiting for Canadian citizenship, or moving now: sequencing for a County of Brant permanent resident
Hypothetical example: a County of Brant industrial designer is a Brazilian citizen who has held Canadian permanent residence for three years. A U.S. furniture manufacturer wants her. TN is closed to her because it runs on citizenship, and E-2 is closed because Brazil holds no treaty of commerce and navigation with the United States. Two things remain open: a route that ignores nationality altogether, and the option of waiting until she can naturalize. The choice is a sequencing question, not a legal one. The decision is best made with a nationality and timing worksheet, not an assumption based on residence. Record every passport, the expected naturalization eligibility date, any continuing Canadian residence obligation, the U.S. employer's true start-date flexibility and any qualifying multinational relationship. Hypothetical example: a Chilean product designer with Canadian permanent residence can wait for Canadian citizenship or accept a transfer through a corporate group. The practical decision is whether the employer can document the transfer and wait for it, not whether the Canadian card looks persuasive at the border.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What the permanent-resident card does not do
- The routes that do not care about nationality
- Costing the wait against the alternative
Goodwill, equipment and escrow: what counts when a County of Brant contractor buys an established U.S. business
Hypothetical example: a County of Brant excavation and drainage contractor agrees to buy an established U.S. septic and site-services company, with the price allocated among equipment, vehicles, customer lists and goodwill. E-2 requires the principal and at least fifty percent of the enterprise to have treaty-country nationality, substantial funds irrevocably committed and at risk, a real non-marginal enterprise, and ownership or other control sufficient to develop and direct it. The qualifying purchase price may include goodwill, but E-2 provides no direct path to permanent residence. The purchase decision should be made before the E-2 presentation is assembled. Identify what the buyer receives, who bears loss before closing, what loan collateral is used and which payments become non-refundable. The capital must be placed beyond the applicant's simple recall and exposed to business loss, and the acquired enterprise must be real, active and more than marginal. Hypothetical example: a wastewater-service buyer funds the deposit from savings but finances trucks with security over the acquired company. The decision is whether the financing weakens the investor's qualifying capital, which is resolved by the loan and security documents, not by the purchase price alone.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The purchase price is the investment; the allocation is evidence
- Substantial is measured against this business, not a threshold
- Escrow is how a buyer stops the deal being a wager
The first year and the review after it: a County of Brant fabricator's new U.S. office
Hypothetical example: a County of Brant custom sheet-metal fabricator wants to open its first U.S. location and send its operations manager to start it. The filing must prove a qualifying parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate relationship, an active foreign business, and the transferee's one continuous year of qualifying employment abroad within the prior three years. It must also show secured premises and the financial and organizational capacity to support the proposed managerial, executive or specialized-knowledge role. Initial new-office approval is limited to one year. The crucial decision is whether the first-year evidence can support the role the company is requesting. Secure premises, funding and a hiring plan before the petition, then keep records that show the office actually followed that plan. The transferred employee needs an uninterrupted qualifying overseas year in the applicable lookback period, and a manager's total L-1A stay has a seven-year ceiling while L-1B has a five-year ceiling. Hypothetical example: a metal-fabrication company signs a lease but postpones its service-hire plan until revenue arrives. The decision is whether the proposed manager will still be managing an organization by the extension review, which the staffing budget and timeline must answer now.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What has to exist before the petition is filed
- Describing a role that does not exist yet
- Twelve months later, the extension looks backward
Branch or purchase: how a County of Brant freight brokerage should compare L-1A with E-2
Hypothetical example: the owner of a County of Brant freight brokerage can either open a U.S. branch of her existing company and transfer herself into it under L-1A, or personally buy a small U.S. logistics agency and enter under E-2. Both put her in the United States running a business. They differ in what has to be true before she goes, what she risks, and what happens if she later wants to sell. Comparing them on those three axes is more useful than comparing processing times.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What each route needs to be true beforehand
- What each route puts at risk
- What happens when she wants out
When one parent stays working in Canada: dependants, commuting and a child close to twenty-one
Hypothetical example: a County of Brant household where the principal takes an L-1B assignment in the United States, his wife wants to keep her Ontario teaching position and commute, and their children are fifteen and twenty. Three separate questions follow, and answering them together is what usually goes wrong: whether a dependant must live in the United States, what the spouse may do while she is there, and what happens to the older child in the months before a twenty-first birthday. Family planning works when every person receives a separate legal and practical review. List the principal's classification, each dependant's relationship and age, the partner's intended work or study, intended travel pattern and any school or licensing deadline. Hypothetical example: a transfer principal's nineteen-year-old child wants to manage an online retail shop from the U.S. while attending college. The decision is whether the child has independent permission for that activity before it begins; a parent's status and tuition payment do not answer it.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Dependant status is permission, not an obligation to relocate
- What the spouse may do on either side of the line
- The twenty-year-old is the urgent file
Farmland sale proceeds: what EB-5 asks about the money and what the Gold Card framework does not
Hypothetical example: a County of Brant cash-crop farmer sells a parcel of farmland he has owned jointly with his brother and wants to know whether the proceeds are better placed in an EB-5 investment or a Gold Card application. The financial headline invites a comparison of amounts. The more useful comparison is what each framework requires him to prove about the money, and what he gets back if the plan does not work.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- EB-5 traces the money, not just its size
- The Gold Card framework is a payment, not an investment
- Two columns, and a date on every figure