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.
What the employer's letter has to establish, line by line
Hypothetical example: a dietitian working near Oro-Medonte has an American offer and a support letter drafted by a recruitment coordinator who has never written one. The letter is warm, brief and unusable, because it never names the profession, never describes what the work involves and never says how long the engagement is for. The letter is the document the whole application rests on, and it has four jobs to do. Hypothetical example: Karis is an environmental scientist whose American employer has a short project deadline. She must choose whether to lead with the degree path or an alternative credential route, because the documents and review time are different. Her decision is to match the listed profession to the actual duties before requesting letters. A Canadian applicant should also confirm the temporary, prearranged employment structure and avoid an arrangement that is in substance self-directed business activity in the United States.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Name the profession and describe the duties substantively
- State the period, the employer and the terms of engagement
- Identify the credential the profession requires
Whether to wait for citizenship before pursuing a professional route
Hypothetical example: Bogdan is a Ukrainian citizen with Canadian permanent residence, working as a mechanical engineer for an equipment manufacturer near Oro-Medonte. He has been told he should simply wait until he becomes a Canadian citizen and then use the treaty professional route. That may be right eventually, and it is a much longer and less certain plan than it sounds, because naturalization runs on Canada's requirements and timetable and cannot be accelerated for an American job offer. Hypothetical example: Imani is a Kenyan citizen with Canadian permanent residence and an American offer from a surgical-instrument manufacturer. She must decide whether her nationality, not her Canadian residence, permits the contemplated classification. Her passport is the starting record, while the PR card explains her Canadian status only. The decision should be made before an employer spends time tailoring a letter for a route she cannot use.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Permanent residence and citizenship are different facts
- Waiting is a Canadian process with its own conditions
- Ask what exists now rather than what might exist later
What a renewal looks at five years into the business
Hypothetical example: a couple from Oro-Medonte have been running an American business under a treaty investment for five years and assume a renewal is a formality because nothing has gone wrong. A renewal is an occasion to demonstrate that the requirements are still met: the enterprise still real, active and operating, still not marginal, still owned by treaty nationals, with the investor still developing and directing it. Businesses drift over five years, and the drift is what a renewal notices. Hypothetical example: Ivo owns a pet-food manufacturer and is weighing a renewal against a second American location. He must decide whether new funds should be committed to an existing enterprise or a separate venture, because the documents must show a real, active, non-marginal business and his role in directing it. The payment trail, operating results, and ownership records answer different parts of that decision. Funds left freely recoverable by the investor are not the same as commercial capital placed at risk.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The conditions are continuing, not historical
- Keep the evidence as the business generates it
- Review changes of ownership and role deliberately
Showing who the new office will employ within its first year
Hypothetical example: a specialty-food producer near Oro-Medonte is opening an American co-packing office and sending its operations lead to run it. The plan is for that person to do everything at first and hire later. A new-office petition is approved for an initial period of one year, and the file has to show that the American operation will support a managerial or executive role rather than one person performing all the work indefinitely, which is where a vague hiring plan causes difficulty. Hypothetical example: A fire-protection contractor wants to establish its first American office and send the Canadian operations head. It must decide whether the premises, financing, staffing plan, and projected managerial role are sufficiently concrete now, rather than after the employee arrives. The foreign employment record must show an uninterrupted qualifying year during the 36 months before filing. A new-office L-1 approval begins with a short initial period, so the business should plan the first year as an evidence-building year.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The first year is expected to build an organization
- Make the plan specific enough to be tested
- Expect the first year to be reviewed against what was filed
What happens to each route if the Canadian company winds down
Hypothetical example: Rhea owns an outdoor-power-equipment and small-engine dealership near Oro-Medonte and intends to move the whole operation to the United States over a few years, closing the Canadian side once the transition is complete. That intention has very different consequences for the two routes she is comparing, because the intracompany route depends on a qualifying relationship with an entity abroad that continues to do business, while the treaty investment route does not require a Canadian company at all. Hypothetical example: Maja operates a recycling depot and is choosing between transferring as an executive to a related American company or investing personally in a new enterprise. She must decide whether the stronger evidence is the corporate relationship and her qualifying foreign employment, or treaty nationality, her personal capital, and a business she will direct. An L-1A stay has a seven-year ceiling, while L-1B time reaches five years; E-2 provides temporary nonimmigrant status and is not permanent residence. The choice should follow the actual business structure, not the route that sounds faster.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The transfer route needs the company abroad to keep operating
- The treaty investment route looks at nationality and capital instead
- Say the long-term intention out loud at the start
A transferee household planning around a maximum period
Hypothetical example: the Ferreira family moved from Oro-Medonte on a managerial transfer three years ago. The spouse has been working, the children are settled in school, and nobody has looked at the calendar. The managerial and executive classification carries a maximum of seven years, and dependants' status ends with the principal's. Families are usually well served by treating that ceiling as a planning date rather than as a distant technicality. Hypothetical example: Ren is moving on an employment-based route while their spouse plans to operate a dance studio and their eighteen-year-old wants work after school. The family must decide, before moving, who has dependent status, who needs independent work authorization, and how long each person's plan can continue. Passports, relationship records, ages, and proposed employment documents are the first records to organize. The principal's approval is only one part of the household's immigration plan.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Dependent status is derived, so it ends when the principal's does
- Work backwards from the ceiling, not forwards from today
- Children's ages run on their own clock
What each route asks a business owner to prove
Hypothetical example: Constantin owns a cold-storage and warehousing business near Oro-Medonte and is comparing the two routes by what he would have to document. That is practical because EB-5 expressly requires lawful source and path evidence, while the current official Gold Card page describes a gift, a processing fee, vetting and EB-1 or EB-2 eligibility but does not state an EB-5-style source-and-path test. Gold Card terms must be re-verified before any money moves. Hypothetical example: Paloma has proceeds from an estate-planning publishing company and must choose whether to put capital into an EB-5 commercial enterprise or make a Gold Card payment under a current official process. EB-5 requires qualifying capital placed at risk and a job-creation framework, with conditional residence at the start. A Gold Card payment by an individual applicant is paid to the U.S. government arrangement and is a government gift/payment, not an ordinary investment. The decision turns on the underlying immigration eligibility and records, not on a slogan about speed.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The investment classification examines the enterprise as well as the money
- The described alternative concentrates on the applicant and the funds
- EB-5 expressly requires a lawful source and path