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.
Evidencing a degree earned outside Canada
Hypothetical example: Sanaa is a Canadian citizen living in Springwater who works as a civil engineer and earned her engineering degree at a university abroad. The professional route depends on citizenship and on the credential the listed profession requires, and those are two separate documents proving two separate things. A degree from another country does not disqualify anyone, but it does mean the file has to explain clearly what the qualification is and how it corresponds to the requirement. Hypothetical example: Amina is a Canadian citizen and occupational therapist who earned her qualifying degree in Morocco before moving to Canada. Her concrete decision is whether to obtain a credential evaluation now or rely on a licence that speaks directly to the profession. The answer depends on the specific listed occupation and the document each pathway accepts, so she should compare the original credential, any required translation and current licence evidence before the employer writes its support letter.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Citizenship and credential are proved independently
- Explain the qualification rather than assume it is understood
- Translation and originals need lead time
A Mexican citizen with Canadian permanent residence follows a different procedure
Hypothetical example: Ximena is a Mexican citizen with Canadian permanent residence, working at a veterinary practice in Springwater. Her Canadian PR card is not what makes the professional route available; her Mexican citizenship is, because the route is open to citizens of Canada and Mexico. The practical consequence is that her procedure differs from a Canadian citizen's: Mexican citizens obtain a visa at a United States embassy or consulate rather than requesting classification at a port of entry. Hypothetical example: Karim is a French citizen with Canadian permanent residence and is being recruited as a user-experience designer by a U.S. company. His concrete decision is whether to treat the professional offer as a TN plan or investigate another route. Because his nationality does not meet the treaty rule, the employer's attractive job title and his PR card cannot supply the missing eligibility. He should establish the governing category before paying for credential work or scheduling travel.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Nationality decides the route, and it also decides the procedure
- Consular processing has its own calendar
- Where the application is filed is a question in itself
Bringing an employee into a treaty business you already own
Hypothetical example: a Springwater family already operates an American millwork company under a treaty investment and now wants to bring over its long-serving production supervisor. Employees of a treaty enterprise can be considered under the same classification, but not simply because the business qualifies. The employee must hold the same treaty nationality as the enterprise, and must be coming to fill a role that is executive or supervisory in character, or one requiring special qualifications essential to the operation. Hypothetical example: Sabine, a Canadian citizen, wants to acquire a U.S. company that services commercial solar-inverter systems. Her concrete decision is whether to sign the asset purchase now, with carefully negotiated protection, or wait with only uncommitted savings. The route requires a real, operating enterprise and capital that is committed and exposed to commercial risk, so the safer question is which commitments both create evidence and sensibly allocate the risk of a refusal.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The employee's own nationality is the first gate
- The role has to be executive, supervisory or essential
- The enterprise's own position must still hold
When an American entity has existed for a while but never traded
Hypothetical example: a Springwater metal-fabrication company incorporated an American subsidiary eighteen months ago and has done nothing with it since. Now it wants to send someone to start operations. The owners assume the entity's age means the new-office rules do not apply. What matters is not the date on the certificate of incorporation but whether the entity has been doing business, meaning the regular, systematic and continuous provision of goods or services, and a dormant company has not. Hypothetical example: Quinn manages a Canadian maker of emergency-vehicle storage systems that has leased a small U.S. warehouse but has not yet made sales. The concrete decision is whether the available evidence supports a new-office filing now or whether the company should first complete particular operating steps. A lease establishes premises, but the petition must also show a qualifying relationship, a business plan and a credible path to an operation that can support the intended role within the initial year.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Doing business is an activity test, not a registration test
- New-office petitions carry their own evidentiary expectations
- Dormancy can also complicate the corporate story
Who holds the status when the company changes hands
Hypothetical example: Peder is the operations head and a minority owner of an agricultural-equipment dealership based near Springwater, and the majority owners may sell within a few years. The two routes he is weighing differ in a way that matters for that possibility: the intracompany route is petitioned by the employer and depends on the relationship between two companies, while the treaty investment route rests on the nationality and the investment of the individual and the enterprise's ownership. Hypothetical example: Riku owns a Canadian company that refurbishes laboratory centrifuges and wants to expand into the United States. His concrete decision is whether to build an affiliate and transfer a manager, or personally acquire and direct the U.S. operation. He should start with the facts that cannot be styled away: qualifying corporate ownership and a year of foreign employment for L-1, versus treaty nationality, committed at-risk capital and investor direction for E-2.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- One route belongs to the company, the other to the ownership
- Ask what a sale would actually do
- Availability comes before preference
When a spouse would be better off with their own application
Hypothetical example: Björn is a forester in Springwater with an American offer, and his wife Amelie is a dietitian. The instinct is to file for him and bring the family as dependants. But a dependent spouse under this route has no work authorization, while both of their occupations appear among the listed professions. Where each spouse has their own qualifying offer, two independent applications may serve the household far better than one application and a dependant. Hypothetical example: Lydia is offered a U.S. role as a landscape architect, while her spouse, Chen, is a food scientist with a separate American offer. Their concrete decision is whether one person should be a dependant or whether each should pursue their own classification. They should compare the offers, credentials, timing and work consequences before giving notice at home, because dependent rights differ sharply across categories and the strongest household plan may involve two independent applications.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Dependent status is not neutral for a working spouse
- Two applications mean two of everything
- Children are in a separate position again
How much of your own time each route expects
Hypothetical example: Wendell is a semi-retired quarry-equipment dealer near Springwater who is willing to commit capital but not to run another business. That preference is directly relevant, because the investment classification requires the investor to be engaged in the management of the enterprise through managerial control or policy formulation, while the Gold Card program is described as a gift-and-fee framework routed through employment-based immigrant categories with their own separate requirements. Hypothetical example: Beatriz has liquid proceeds from selling a company that produces reusable surgical-instrument trays and wants a U.S. immigration path that does not require daily business management. Her concrete decision is whether to accept commercial risk and job-creation obligations through EB-5 or make the Gold Card applicant payment to the U.S. government while navigating its separate employment-based process. The distinction should be made before she chooses a project or transfers any funds.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The investment route expects engagement, in one form or another
- The described alternative locates the difficulty elsewhere
- Both routes examine the money, and neither promises an outcome