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.
When an employer asks to keep your original diploma
An employer that asks you to mail a diploma permanently is asking for custody of a record you may need again. Decide before mailing what the person reviewing the file must actually see, whether a certified copy or a scheduled inspection answers the same question, and how the original would be returned. Custody is a decision to document, not a formality.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Decide what each record has to prove
- Arrange inspection and return in writing
- Separate translation, evaluation and custody
Returning to the United States years after student status ended
A prior period of U.S. student status and Canadian permanent residence are two pieces of history. Neither is present work authorization, and neither is citizenship. Before discussing a new professional offer, set out the citizenships you hold, the date and nature of your Canadian status, and what your earlier U.S. records actually show.
Write citizenship, Canadian permanent residence and past U.S. status on three separate lines. TN is available to Canadian and Mexican citizens; permanent residence in Canada alone does not open it, whatever your address or years of residence. A completed study period ended when its authorization ended and does not carry forward into a work category. If a citizenship application is pending, say that it is pending and give its stage, rather than treating an expected date as a fact the new plan can rely on.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the three facts
- Retrieve the history without borrowing its effect
- Sequence the steps and the open questions
Separate customer deposits from the investor’s capital contribution
A business account holding customer prepayments is not the same thing as invested capital. If the enterprise you are buying owes goods or services against money already received, that money is an obligation to those customers. Separate it from your own committed funds before you describe an investment, and before you agree to a price built on the total balance.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Read the balance as obligations first
- Ask which part of the balance is genuinely available
- State what is committed, contingent, or neither
When consulting invoices replace a payroll record abroad
A founder who has invoiced through a consulting company, worked abroad in bursts and taken no payroll still has to show one continuous year of qualifying employment with a qualifying organization in the relevant three-year period. That is a factual question about the work and the entity, not about the title on the invoices. Build the record month by month before drafting the office plan.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Reconstruct the employment, not the title
- Map the months, including the quiet ones
- Set out what the first year must support
A CEO title abroad and a sales role in the United States
Being chief executive of the foreign company does not describe what you would do in the United States. If the proposed U.S. work is mostly selling and delivering the service yourself, say so, then ask what each route makes of that. L-1 examines the actual managerial, executive or specialized-knowledge function; E-2 asks whether you would develop and direct the enterprise.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Describe the U.S. work in hours
- Test the L-1 categories against that week
- Test the E-2 questions on the same facts
Reading age rules category by category before a long assignment
A four-year assignment and a child who is nineteen are two calendars that will not stay aligned. Dependent status depends on the child's own facts on the day they are assessed, not on the parent's approval period. Before agreeing to a multi-year plan, write down the dates and ask which age rules apply to which category.
Record each child's date of birth, marital status, and the day they would reach 21 measured against the requested validity period. TD status is available to a spouse and to unmarried children under 21; it permits study and does not authorize employment, and an unpaid activity is reviewed on its specifics rather than covered by any blanket rule about volunteering. E and L qualifying dependent spouses are employment-authorized incident to valid status with proper I-94 evidence; children are not covered by that same rule. Note which member of your household each of those sentences applies to.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Write the dates before the plan
- The birthday does not wait for the extension
- Ask which age rules apply, and to what
Reading the transfers behind a single accountant's letter
An accountant's letter that adds together transfers from three businesses summarizes the financial history, but does not automatically replace the underlying records. An EB-5 file needs the lawful source of the capital and the path it travelled, transfer by transfer, and the investor's right to the money at each step. Compare that work with what a Gold Card proposal would actually involve before choosing between them.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Rebuild the path underneath the summary
- Keep investor rights visible
- Read the Gold Card FAQ as its own scheme