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ONE DECISION AT A TIME

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.

FIELD GUIDES · SAINTE-ANNE-DES-PLAINES

Seven decisions, answered before you prepare.

01

Documenting the discipline behind a scientific technician offer

A scientific technician or technologist listing is read against its own stated requirements, not against the job title the employer chose. Before ordering translations or an evaluation, gather the records that show which listed discipline the proposed work belongs to, what you personally know of that discipline, and which professional you would be supporting. Ask the person reviewing the file what each record is meant to establish. TN also requires Canadian or Mexican citizenship, prearranged qualifying professional employment and temporary entry. The applicant must work in direct support of professionals in the listed disciplines; routine supervision alone does not establish that relationship.

WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS

  • Name the discipline before naming the documents
  • Your own knowledge, not your supervisor's
  • Order translations and evaluations for a stated purpose

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02

An old visa foil does not describe your citizenship today

An expired visa foil in a former passport records a decision made about a different set of facts. If your citizenships and travel documents have changed more than once, the useful preparation is a dated account of what you hold now and what you held then. Canadian permanent residence is a status rather than a citizenship, and an older stamp does not open a new category. The first decision is which present citizenship, not residence history, supplies the proposed route. Make one dated identity table before collecting supporting documents, because an old visa can otherwise distract from the current legal question.

WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS

  • Write the sequence, not the summary
  • Read the old foil for what it is
  • Check your account against the records, then ask about steps

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03

Reading a refundable lease deposit before calling it invested capital

A refundable security deposit under a commercial lease is not automatically part of a qualifying E-2 investment, and it is not automatically excluded either. What decides the question is the actual agreement: who holds the money, what it secures, and on what conditions it comes back. Gather the document and the payment record before describing the amount as committed capital.

WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS

  • Collect the terms, not the number
  • Keep the funding categories apart
  • Explain what the premises do for the business

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04

Testing a managerial claim when the back office sits outside the company

Outsourcing accounting or administration to a U.S. provider can take real work off a founder's desk. It does not by itself answer what a new-office file has to address: what the applicant would actually do, and how the L-1A operation will meet the requirement to support a managerial or executive role within one year of approval. Describe the arrangement and the duties as two separate things. The first review should separately test the qualifying relationship, the applicant’s twelve continuous months of full-time foreign employment during the preceding three years, and the launch plan. A vendor agreement cannot substitute for any of those threshold records.

WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS

  • Put the outsourced scope in writing
  • Write an honest week for the applicant
  • Plan the evidence for a new-office extension

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05

Disclosing an ownership change that happens mid-application

When shares move while an application is pending, two assumptions are easy to make and both are wrong: that the change automatically ends the matter, and that nothing needs to be said. Assemble the documents showing the structure before and after, with dates, and put the accurate picture in front of the person handling the filing. The route choice depends on which fact survives the transaction: a qualifying corporate relationship and prior employment for L-1, or treaty nationality, investment, and operating control for E-2. Make that comparison before deciding whether to close, amend, or disclose.

WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS

  • Record the change as a dated sequence
  • Ask what each route reads from that structure
  • Prepare the disclosure and the open questions

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06

When a child's passport application is still pending

A household does not receive one visa together. Each person is examined under the category and the documents that apply to them, and a child may hold a citizenship no one else in the family holds. While a passport application is outstanding, the useful work is to record what exists today, what each person intends to do, and which commitments depend on a document that has not been issued.

WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS

  • One line per person, with documents
  • Match intended activities to the status each person would hold
  • Sequence the commitments around the missing document

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07

Funding a gift by selling an existing investment

Selling a holding to fund a Gold Card gift creates two records to prepare: the disposal itself, and the path the proceeds take afterwards. It also invites a comparison that deserves care, because an EB-5 investment and a Gold Card gift are different financial commitments, and neither produces permanent residence through payment alone.

Start from the sale agreement rather than the headline valuation. Subtract debt repaid at closing, professional fees, taxes payable and any amount held back or payable later. Hypothetical example: an investor living in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines sells a minority stake with part of the price due a year after closing, so the money actually available on the day is smaller than the figure discussed. List the other costs the plan carries, including those attaching to family members, before deciding what is left.

WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS

  • Work from net proceeds
  • Document the source and the path
  • Compare the commitments before you sell

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