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 employer is acquired while your TN offer is pending
The employer named in a TN offer is a legal entity, not a brand. If that entity is merging or being bought while your offer sits unsigned or unused, the first task is to establish which entity would actually receive your professional services, and what records show the change. TN entry depends on prearranged professional employment with an employer, so a corporate change is a fact to document rather than a formality to assume away.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the entity that would employ you
- Do not assume the offer travels with the transaction
- Raise the ownership question if the deal includes equity
When only one of your citizenships opens a category
You hold Canadian permanent residence and citizenship of two other countries. Those are three separate facts, and U.S. categories read them differently. TN concerns Canadian and Mexican citizens, so a permanent resident card does not open it, whatever your address says. One of your citizenships may matter for a treaty category. Document each nationality precisely before choosing a direction, because the route follows the documents rather than where you live.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- List each nationality with the document that proves it
- Ask which citizenship each route actually uses
- Separate the U.S. procedure from your Canadian obligations
Presenting off-season costs in an E-2 enterprise file
A seasonal enterprise earns over a concentrated part of the year and keeps paying through the rest of it. That pattern is not by itself a conclusion about E-2, in either direction. Build a full-year picture, quiet months included, so the investment and the enterprise can be assessed on real figures rather than on a peak-season summary or on an assumption that seasonality is disqualifying. The decision is not whether a seasonal business has a quiet period; it is whether the records show a real operating enterprise with enough committed, at-risk investment to carry that period and a credible path beyond marginal activity. Before signing a non-refundable purchase agreement, choose whether the forecast will be built from verified full-year results or from assumptions that need conditions and explanation. That choice determines which documents must be requested from the seller and which costs the buyer must be ready to fund.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Budget the closed months as carefully as the busy ones
- Support the forecast with records, not optimism
- Explain who runs the enterprise out of season
Testing whether an acquired U.S. company has been doing business
Buying a U.S. company that was formed years ago does not settle how an L-1 filing will be treated. The question is what the entity has actually been doing, not how old its incorporation certificate is. Gather the operating history before assuming the filing is an ordinary one, because a company that has been dormant may put the plan in new-office territory, with the consequences that follow.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Reconstruct what the entity actually did, with dates
- Prepare for new-office consequences if they apply
- Document the relationship and employment as they will be
When the founder invoiced the foreign company as a contractor
You worked for the foreign company for years and invoiced it for your services. Whether that period counts as qualifying employment for L-1 is a documentary question, and invoices alone do not establish an employment relationship. Assemble the underlying facts once, in one accurate account, then ask how L-1 and E-2 each treat them, rather than choosing a route first and describing the past to suit it.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Show how the relationship actually worked
- Test the second route on the same facts
- Decide the order of work and what stays open
Weighing a child's own student plan against dependent status
One child in the household has a study plan of their own while the parents look at temporary work status. That is two questions, not one. Prepare each person's intended activity separately, then compare what each basis would permit and require. A dependent status is not automatically the better fit simply because it follows a parent's file, and a place at a school is not a status. Make the choice on the child's own timetable rather than on a household shorthand. The family must decide whether dependent status, a separate student category, or a deferred plan best matches the child's age, school dates, permitted activity and the principal's expected status. The first review should produce a one-page comparison for each person: proposed basis, documents, earliest lawful start, end date and the event that would require the plan to change.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Write down what each person intends to do
- Compare bases rather than ranking them by convenience
- Sequence the decisions, deposits and dates
Naming an available amount when balances sit in several currencies
Money held in several currencies has no single fixed dollar value, and the number changes between the day you count it and the day you commit it. Before comparing an EB-5 investment with the Gold Card process, work out what is genuinely available after obligations, and how each pool's lawful source and path would be evidenced. Keep the actual available amount separate from exchange-rate forecasts, which do not guarantee the value on the transfer date. The comparison begins with two different commitments. EB-5 concerns qualifying capital placed at risk, lawful source and path evidence, required job creation and later conditional residence. The Gold Card is never a conventional visa; it requires a payment by the applicant to the U.S. government under the official process and still depends on the stated immigration requirements. Decide which pool of funds can be documented and committed on the relevant terms before treating either published dollar amount as a personal answer.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Count what is net and available, not what is gross
- Evidence source and path separately for each pool
- Compare each commitment using the currency snapshot