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.
Build a TN offer discrepancy sheet before the final letter
A useful preparation file makes disagreements visible. This exercise helps an Edmonton applicant compare the job offer with the project description and identify who can confirm each fact before the support letter is finalized.
Write down the legal employer, duties, intended period, work location and reporting arrangement from each document. Leave a field blank when the record does not answer it. A blank is a question for the responsible person, not an invitation to infer an attractive answer.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Compare the same five facts
- Resolve differences at their source
- Hand over the facts for classification review
Separate your Canadian residence documents from U.S. eligibility evidence
Living in Edmonton as a Canadian permanent resident does not establish Canadian citizenship for a TN application. Start a U.S. options review with the passports and status records that describe each person's actual circumstances.
List each current citizenship and the document supporting it. Keep Canadian immigration status in a separate field. If a citizenship application is pending, describe it as pending. Do not plan on a future passport being available before the process has actually produced it.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Record citizenship without guessing from residence
- Describe the U.S. activity independently
- Coordinate two countries' questions
Read the small-business purchase terms before choosing an E-2 budget
A quoted business price is the beginning of a funding review. Identify what the sale includes and what remains to be paid before treating that figure as the financial basis of an E-2 plan.
Separate equipment, stock, contracts and goodwill in the transaction description. Identify any liabilities or excluded assets that affect operations. Ask the seller or transaction adviser to explain unclear items; the immigration reviewer should receive the real agreement rather than a simplified advertisement.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Inventory what changes hands
- Track restrictions on money and control
- Leave room for commercial diligence
Create a first-year evidence calendar for a new U.S. office
An Edmonton company can make later review more reliable by preserving evidence as its U.S. operation develops. Build recordkeeping into ordinary management work instead of reconstructing the year shortly before an immigration deadline.
New-office L approval is initially limited to a maximum of one year. The case requires sufficient physical premises; for L-1A, the proposed operation must support a managerial or executive position within one year of approval. The qualifying organizations and foreign-employment conditions still apply. Use those requirements to identify the evidence the business needs to preserve. The qualifying foreign year must be full-time within the relevant three-year period. U.S. visit days do not count toward that year, although brief visits do not automatically interrupt continuity. New-office treatment concerns less than one year of qualifying U.S. business activity. L-1A specifically requires managerial or executive work in the qualifying foreign year; L-1B instead needs its specialized-knowledge showing and financial ability to compensate the employee and commence business.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Know what the initial period must establish
- Keep the original assumptions
- Capture actual changes each month
- Review the role as well as the business
Compare a corporate transfer with buying an unrelated U.S. business
An internal transfer and a business purchase call for different evidence. Put them into separate summaries before comparing options, even when the same Edmonton applicant is considering both.
Identify the foreign employer, the proposed U.S. entity, their relationship and the employee's actual work history. Explain the role after transfer. Do not use a prospective investment in an unrelated company as a substitute for the relationship and employment facts the L assessment needs. Establish one continuous full-time qualifying year abroad within the relevant preceding three years; ordinary foreign work can be managerial, executive or specialized knowledge, while the U.S. duties must fit the requested L classification.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Describe the transfer without the purchase
- Describe the purchase without the transfer
- Compare unresolved issues, not category labels
Make a household move sheet that separates everyone's work plans
A family can move together while having different immigration permissions. Prepare a separate line for each person so a principal applicant's work plan does not become an assumption about the spouse or children.
Record who hopes to work, attend school or join later, with relevant ages and current documents. Include a remote job intended to continue from the United States. Describing the activity clearly gives the reviewer a real question to assess instead of the general statement that the family will relocate.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Name the intended activity
- Check permission and evidence separately
- Mark commitments that depend on an answer
- Distinguish permissions and the order of immigrant entry
Compare an EB-5 investment with a Gold Card gift without mixing their terms
These proposals should not be presented as two interchangeable prices for residence. Read the financial arrangement and immigration requirements of each separately before making a comparison.
For EB-5, examine the investment proposal, underlying requirements and commercial risks. For Gold Card, check the current government-described gift and processing terms. Do not describe the gift as capital expected to be repaid or use a project's projected return as a guarantee of the investor's result.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify what the money is intended to do
- Compare the whole household cost
- Test each timeline against the real process
- Keep the legal sequence visible in the comparison