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.
Which document decides a veterinarian's TN: the licence or the degree
Hypothetical example: a Saint-Maurice veterinarian has an offer from a U.S. large-animal practice that wants her to start before the state board has issued her licence. Veterinarian is a listed TN profession with two credential routes, a D.V.M. or equivalent degree, or a state or provincial licence. Her Quebec degree satisfies the TN credential on its own, so the question at the border is answered by the diploma; the question at the clinic, whether she can lawfully treat animals, is answered by the state licence. Keep the two apart and sequence them.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Present the route the documents actually support
- Write the practice letter so it describes employment, not partnership
- Assemble the port-of-entry package around the two gates
Routes that ignore Canadian citizenship, and the one route that requires it
Hypothetical example: a Saint-Maurice permanent resident works as operations coordinator for a transport company and is a citizen of a country that is neither a USMCA party nor an E-2 treaty country. TN is closed to him because it requires Canadian or Mexican citizenship, and E-2 is closed because it requires treaty nationality. What remains open does not depend on citizenship at all: an L-1 transfer through his employer's U.S. affiliate, or an EB-5 investment. The PR card is proof of where he may live, not of any U.S. eligibility.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Sort the categories by what they test
- Look at the employer before looking at the passport
- Treat future citizenship as a date, not a plan
Buying a seasonal U.S. campground: how the E-2 rules read a business that earns for five months
Hypothetical example: a Saint-Maurice seasonal tourism operator wants to buy a campground and RV park in a U.S. state, run it from May to October and winter in Canada. The E-2 conditions do not change for a seasonal enterprise, but they are applied to its real figures: the investment must be substantial relative to the cost of that business, the operation must be more than marginal on an annual basis, the land is part of the enterprise only because it is used in it, and the buyer must actually direct the business, not merely own the site.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the land from the business the land supports
- Prove marginality on a full year, not on August
- Commit the funds and keep control in the buyer's hands
Opening a first U.S. terminal: what the one-year new-office approval actually tests
Hypothetical example: a Saint-Maurice trucking company wants to open a U.S. terminal and send its operations manager to run it. Because the U.S. entity has been doing business for one year or less, this is a new-office L-1A petition: approval is for one year, the company must show that premises are secured, and it must show that within a year the U.S. operation will support a managerial position. The manager still needs one continuous year of qualifying employment abroad in a managerial or executive capacity within the three years before filing, the entities must have a qualifying ownership relationship, and the Canadian company must remain actively doing business.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Secure the premises before the petition, not after
- Show that the terminal will support a manager within twelve months
- Plan the extension from the day of approval
One fabrication shop, two ways into the United States: transfer through a subsidiary or invest personally
Hypothetical example: the owner of a Saint-Maurice welding and fabrication shop wants to establish a U.S. operation and be present to run it. He could have his company form a U.S. subsidiary and transfer himself as its manager under L-1A, or he could invest personally in a U.S. business and apply for E-2. The facts that decide it are different: L-1A turns on his year of employment with the Canadian company and on the corporate relationship, while E-2 turns on his Canadian nationality, funds at risk and control. Compare them fact by fact.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- L-1A: the company is the applicant, and the owner is its employee
- E-2: the owner is the investor, and the money must already be at risk
- Choose by the fact that is weakest, not by the label that sounds better
When the transferee's spouse is a dental hygienist and the child is nineteen
Hypothetical example: a Saint-Maurice agri-food technician is being transferred to a U.S. affiliate on L-1B for up to three years. His spouse is a dental hygienist who wants to keep working, and their child is nineteen and finishing school. Each person's rights follow their own status: the spouse is employment-authorized incident to L-2 status but still needs a state hygiene licence; the child may study on L-2 but cannot work and will lose derivative status at twenty-one. Plan for three people, not for one transfer.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The spouse: immigration says yes, the state board says not yet
- The child: two years of derivative status and then a decision
- The principal: keep the family calendar tied to the L-1B calendar
Selling a truck fleet: an at-risk EB-5 investment or a Gold Card gift
Hypothetical example: a Saint-Maurice trucking-company owner is selling his fleet and wants to use part of the proceeds to move his family to the United States permanently. EB-5 requires him to place qualifying capital at risk in a job-creating enterprise, document its lawful source and sustain it through a two-year conditional period. The Gold Card, under its current official framework, is a gift to the U.S. government plus a processing fee, not an investment and not a conventional visa category. The money answers different questions under each, and only the official terms describe the second.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- EB-5: the money must work and can be lost
- Gold Card: the money is a gift and the terms are on the official page
- Compare the questions each route asks of the same proceeds