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 the offer letter and employment contract disagree
Before preparing a TN file, compare the offer, contract and proposed employer letter side by side. A different salary, reporting line or start date is a question to resolve with the employer, not a choice of whichever document looks strongest. Keep the original records and obtain an accurate explanation of any change. Two documents that disagree are not merely an administrative annoyance; they are two competing accounts of the same job, and a file can carry only one. Decide which account is true before deciding which paper to submit. A discrepancy settled by choosing the more favourable version tends to reappear later as a question the applicant is not equipped to answer, because the other document still exists and still says something else. Ask the employer which version they would stand behind if the question were put in writing.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Build a discrepancy table
- Distinguish a translation issue from a changed job
- Keep the unresolved items visible
- Rank the documents by who is bound by them
Replacing a passport while assessing a U.S. job offer
A lost or expiring passport creates an identity-document task, while Canadian permanent residence raises a separate status question. Identify the citizenship actually held and the U.S. route being considered before treating a replacement passport as the only obstacle. A PR card does not establish the Canadian or Mexican citizenship required for TN. Two documents are doing separate jobs here, and merging them is the common error. A passport evidences nationality and permits travel; a permanent resident card evidences status in Canada and permits return to it. Only the first speaks to the citizenship condition a professional route imposes, and no processing estimate on the second changes what the first has to establish. Establish which citizenship the applicant actually holds before any timeline is built around a replacement document.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the lost document from the nationality
- Ask the employer for facts while retrieval proceeds
- Keep return travel and application timing separate
- Compare what each authority can actually answer
Separating the purchase price from the capital actually committed
A business purchase price may combine cash, future payments and financing. For E-2 review, show how the transaction will actually be funded and what has been committed rather than presenting the headline price as the applicant’s investment. The terms, source, risk and business proposal require assessment together; a signed purchase agreement alone does not answer them. Set the price against the capital, because the two answer different questions. A purchase price measures what the seller receives; committed capital measures what the buyer has irrevocably placed at risk, and the second is what the classification examines. They coincide only where the entire price was paid outright from the buyer's own funds, which is rarely how a business changes hands.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Break the transaction into its components
- Follow the money before describing the investment
- Test the operating proposal as well
- Contrast escrowed funds with an unconditional commitment
Funding the first year without treating sales leads as revenue
A new-office plan should distinguish available funding, signed business and prospective customers. For L-1A, the proposed operation must support an executive or managerial position within the first-year framework. A forecast does not establish that result by itself. Explain who will perform the operational work and how the business can fund the plan if sales arrive later than expected. Two things separate a new-office petition from an ordinary transfer, and both bite later rather than at filing. The initial period granted is limited, and the extension is assessed against what the office actually did with that period rather than against what the plan predicted. Write the first-year plan as a document you will be asked to account for line by line.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Label each revenue assumption honestly
- Connect funding to duties and staffing
- Preserve evidence as the plan becomes reality
- Draft the plan backwards from the extension review
Comparing a franchise licence with a qualifying company relationship
A shared brand or franchise agreement does not by itself establish the corporate relationship required for L-1. If a franchise purchase is being compared with a transfer, map the actual ownership and control before choosing a route. E-2 has a separate nationality, investment and operating-business analysis; the strength of the brand does not establish either category. Two questions hide inside this one decision, and separating them shortens the analysis considerably. The first asks what the applicant already has: a qualifying employment history with a related entity, or capital together with a treaty country's nationality. The second asks what the applicant is willing to acquire. Only the first is a matter of present fact, and it frequently eliminates one route before any comparison of cost begins.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Show what the franchise agreement actually grants
- Assess the applicant separately under each route
- Read the commercial restrictions before committing
- Compare what each route asks of the company with what it asks of the person
Checking a spouse’s admission record before a separate work start
A spouse’s offer letter does not establish permission to begin work. First identify the status actually granted and the evidence of any employment authorization. TD and qualifying E/L spousal status have different rules, so a household should not borrow the answer from a friend’s dependent category or from the principal’s approval notice. Household status is not a single thing, and treating it as one produces the mistake this guide exists to prevent. Each person holds a status of their own, granted at their own admission, expiring on their own date and carrying its own permissions. Read every record separately rather than reading one and assuming the rest, and read them before an employer is told anything about a start date.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Read the spouse’s own record
- Apply the rule for the actual category
- Coordinate the start with the evidence
- Contrast permission to be present with permission to work
Planning liquidity before comparing an investment with a government gift
A household’s net worth is different from the money available for a particular immigration process. Identify which assets are liquid, which require a sale and which are already committed elsewhere. EB-5 investment and the Gold Card gift use different mechanisms. Compare the actual required steps and evidence without assuming an expected property sale can fund either process on a promised date. Liquidity and eligibility are separate constraints, and a plan commonly fails on the first while the family is still debating the second. Establish what could be moved, and by when, before either route is compared in detail. A route that suits the household perfectly but needs funds on a date the household cannot meet is not the cheaper option; it is the one that stalls partway through.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Distinguish proceeds expected from funds received
- Compare what happens to the money
- Keep the family decision larger than the transfer
- Set capital that stays at risk against money that is paid out