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.
Using confidential work history to support a credential review
An applicant wants to document professional experience, but past projects contain client information that cannot simply be copied into an immigration file. Start by asking what the selected TN profession actually requires. Experience is relevant in different ways across professions and is not a universal substitute for a specified degree. A first review of this problem usually ends with a short list rather than a pile of paper: the profession relied on, the credential route that profession accepts, the two or three facts the confidential reports were meant to prove, and the person at the former employer who can confirm those facts without releasing anything privileged.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the experience question first
- Request accurate evidence the employer can release
- Keep the other TN conditions separate
An American degree does not settle citizenship or present work permission
A Canadian permanent resident completed a degree in the United States and now has another U.S. opportunity. The degree, past student status and current citizenship are separate facts. Reconstruct each rather than assuming that studying in the United States creates continuing permission to return for employment. One document settles the question that matters most, and it is not the diploma: a citizenship certificate or a passport establishes citizenship, while a permanent resident card establishes something else entirely. Obtain the right one first, because the answer determines which routes are even worth examining.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Keep the education and status timelines apart
- Test nationality before choosing TN
- Use the current offer to identify next steps
An operating permit still pending when the investment file is prepared
An applicant has committed funds to a business but an operating permission remains pending. Identify what that permission allows, what the business can presently do and what depends on its issuance. An immigration filing does not itself grant permission from the authority regulating the business. Begin by writing two lists side by side: what the business may lawfully do today, and what it may do only once the permission issues. Most disputes about readiness dissolve once those lists exist, because the argument is usually about the boundary between them rather than about the facts.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Describe the permission without guessing its effect
- Connect readiness to the business evidence
- Review the consequences of delay
Explaining gaps in the foreign-employment records
The proposed transferee worked abroad, but payroll records do not cover every month in the employment narrative. Identify the missing period and the reason for the gap before treating the narrative as proven. L-1 requires a qualifying continuous year of foreign employment in the relevant three-year period; a gap in records and a gap in employment are different questions. Say out loud which of the two is missing, because the remedies are completely different. A documentary gap is filled with alternative records that already exist somewhere; an actual break in employment is a fact that has to be described accurately and analysed against the requirement rather than papered over.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Build the timeline from records that exist
- Ask what still needs to be established
- Keep the new-office showing distinct
Choosing the principal applicant when the spouses bring different facts
One spouse has the qualifying foreign-employment history, while the other would provide funds and direct a proposed investment. Build a separate factual record for each person before deciding which would be the principal applicant. A couple’s combined experience and resources do not automatically satisfy requirements that apply to an individual. Make two files, physically separate, and refuse to move a document between them. The moment a bank statement or an employment record starts serving both cases, the analysis quietly assumes what it is meant to test, and a reviewer will see the assumption before anyone in the household does.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Record what each spouse actually brings
- Compare the categories without transferring qualifications
- Compare the household consequences afterward
Planning a household that includes a U.S.-citizen child
A U.S.-citizen child does not need a dependent nonimmigrant status, while other household members may. Establish the child’s actual citizenship rather than assuming it from where the family currently lives. Then build the travel and status plan person by person instead of adding every child to the same dependent list. Start with a single sheet listing every person in the household and, beside each name, the document that proves their citizenship and the document they would travel on. Households discover surprises at this step more often than at any later one, and a surprise found now is an administrative task rather than a cancelled trip.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the basis for each person’s travel
- Keep the noncitizen household members’ conditions visible
- Coordinate practical plans without merging legal records
Keeping professional fees and household reserves outside the headline commitment
A household has identified funds for an EB-5 investment or a Gold Card gift but has not budgeted the other expenses. Prepare separate lines for the immigration commitment, professional services, government charges and living reserves. Do not assume that every payment connected with an application satisfies its investment or gift requirement. Insist on one number per payee. A single package price is the most common reason a household believes it has met a requirement it has not met, because the amount that satisfies the requirement and the amounts that pay for advice, administration and government charges are simply not the same money.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Ask what each quoted amount covers
- Test the reserve against the household plan
- Check the government instructions for each route