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.
Checking the credential route for a TN occupational therapist
An occupational therapist post raises a question specific to that profession, not a general one. The regulation sets a credential requirement for each listed TN profession, and the requirement attached to one profession does not carry over to another. Read the entry that applies, then confirm with the person reviewing the file which documents that entry actually calls for.
Locate the entry and read its credential wording as issued. Some entries in the TN appendix are satisfied by a licence, some by a degree, and some set out alternatives; do not reuse the requirement a colleague in a different profession remembers. Note the exact phrasing, the documents you already hold, and the gaps between them. Where the wording seems ambiguous to you, ask the reviewer to confirm it against the regulation and the Foreign Affairs Manual rather than adopting a paraphrase found somewhere else. The occupational-therapist entry permits a baccalaureate or licenciatura degree, or a state/provincial licence. TN also requires Canadian or Mexican citizenship, prearranged qualifying professional employment and temporary entry.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Read the profession entry before ordering documents
- A membership card and a diploma answer different questions
- Keep practice permission on its own track
- Order the requests so the slowest one starts first
When a recruiter reads a card expiry as the end of your status
A permanent resident card and permanent resident status are two different things: the card is a document with a printed expiry, while status is a matter of Canadian law and of IRCC. A recruiter's reading of that date should not set your plan. Separate what you are, what you hold, and what a U.S. category actually requires.
Write the card's expiry, the passport's expiry and each citizenship you hold on three separate lines. IRCC states that permanent resident status does not end merely because the card expires. Address any separate status, renewal or travel question with IRCC or a qualified Canadian adviser rather than inferring the answer from the card date. Keep renewal, residency-obligation and return-travel questions on that Canadian list, noting whom you asked and when, so they are not silently folded into the U.S. analysis.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the document from the status
- Take the recruiter's assumption out of the eligibility test
- Ask what each route needs from you
- Withdrawing from a process is the step someone else controls
When damage to the premises interrupts an E-2 opening plan
Damage to the premises before opening raises three questions that should not be merged: what the repairs cost, where the money comes from, and when the enterprise can actually operate. An E-2 review considers qualifying treaty nationality, a substantial investment committed and at risk, and a real, operating, non-marginal enterprise. Insurance proceeds and investor capital are not interchangeable in that account. The investor’s ability to develop and direct the enterprise must also be established.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Track repair costs and their funding separately
- Describe readiness in operating terms
- Read payment conditions in the revised repair plan
- Repairs finish on the contractor's schedule, not on the file's
When the first-year forecast rests on a single customer contract
A new-office plan whose revenue rests on one signed customer needs an explanation, not a larger number. The initial review looks at the qualifying corporate relationship, one continuous year of qualifying foreign employment within the relevant three-year period, sufficient physical premises, and, for L-1A, an operation that must support a managerial or executive role within one year of approval. No revenue formula replaces that.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Show what the forecast actually rests on
- Explain the capacity to deliver
- Record changes instead of rewriting the plan
- Premises are secured before the plan is written, not after
When a partner's naturalization is pending during the comparison
Compare the two routes on the facts as they stand today. E-2 turns on the treaty nationality of the investor and the qualifying nationality of the enterprise; L-1 turns on the corporate relationship, the qualifying employment and the proposed role. A citizenship application in progress is not a nationality held, and an expected passport fills no column in the ownership record.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Record nationality and ownership as of a date
- Ask what would change, and when
- Compare the applicant's own role and the household
- Restructuring ownership is the move that cannot be made quietly
When the spouse's start date arrives before the principal's decision
One spouse has a signed offer with a start date; the principal applicant's case has not been decided. An offer is not permission to work, and the second employer's calendar does not create one. Build a single dated map of what each person holds, what has been requested, and which date would actually create permission for each of them.
Write one line per event: offer signed, proposed start, filing submitted, any approval issued, planned admission, and the dependent's own record. Filing, petition approval, visa issuance, admission and effective work authorization are separate events, and there is no universal rule allowing work to begin simply because something is pending. Ask which of these dates, for this person, is the one that matters, and mark every entry that is still an expectation rather than a decided fact.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Put every date in one list
- Check where the spouse's permission would come from
- Say out loud what is unresolved
- Which of the two employers can move a date, and which cannot
Read the escrow release conditions before the funds leave
An escrow agreement decides when money leaves the account, and that moment is often earlier than an investor assumes. Read the release conditions before signing, not when a transfer notice arrives. EB-5 involves capital at risk, a lawful source and path of funds, and qualifying job creation; the official Gold Card FAQ describes a different arrangement altogether.
Hypothetical example: an investor living in Saint-Eustache believes the money stays in escrow until an immigration decision, while the agreement releases it on filing or on a construction milestone. Identify the trigger, who gives the release instruction, what happens on denial or withdrawal, and which fees are deducted first. Terms described as refundable are not all equivalent, and a guaranteed return is inconsistent with the at-risk requirement — read the document rather than letting the label decide.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Find the release trigger
- Keep at-risk capital and a gift apart
- Line the dates up with the family's decisions
- The careful reading belongs to the signature, not to the release notice