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 occupation is not on the list: a Prince Edward County kitchen offer
Hypothetical example: a Prince Edward County sous-chef with a culinary diploma and eight years in restaurant kitchens is offered a head chef position by a US restaurant group. No amount of documentation will make this a TN case, because the classification is available only for the professions listed in the USMCA appendix and chef and cook are not among them. The useful work is to establish that quickly, then look at whether any listed profession genuinely fits the actual duties, and if not, to consider a different category or a different plan. Hypothetical example: an insurance claims examiner is offered a US role and starts collecting certificates before checking whether the actual occupation appears in the appendix. The first decision is whether the job fits a listed profession at all; if it does not, no document bundle repairs that result. Record the occupation, required credential route, citizenship evidence, employer control, and intended duties on one review sheet. That prevents a costly file built around a label rather than the work proposed.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Check the list before assembling anything
- Test whether a listed profession actually fits
- Move to the alternatives with clear eyes
Permanent residence, citizenship and nationality in a Prince Edward County household
Hypothetical example: a vineyard operations manager living in Prince Edward County holds Canadian permanent residence and remains a citizen of another country. He assumes his PR card puts him on the same footing as his Canadian-citizen colleagues for a US work move. It does not. TN classification is limited to Canadian and Mexican citizens, while treaty categories depend on his actual nationality and whether that country appears on the Department of State's treaty list. The card is irrelevant to both questions. Hypothetical example: a permanent resident who is a citizen of Peru is married to a Canadian citizen and receives an offer from a US affiliate of her employer. Her first decision is whether an intracompany transfer can proceed now or whether waiting for Canadian citizenship has a practical advantage. Make a nationality-and-status table before gathering any filing records. It should distinguish citizenship, residence, treaty nationality, and the employer relationship so that one document is not asked to prove all four things.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate residence from nationality
- Find out what his own nationality permits
- Decide whether to wait for naturalization
Escrow, deposits and what counts as at risk for a Prince Edward County buyer
Hypothetical example: a Prince Edward County couple who run a small wine-retail business agree to buy a US bottle shop and place the purchase price in escrow, to be released when the visa is issued. A properly drafted visa-contingent escrow can both protect the funds pending the decision and demonstrate commitment. Whether an escrow works depends on its binding terms—especially whether visa issuance is the sole condition for release—so those terms have to be drafted with the requirement in mind rather than repaired afterwards. Hypothetical example: a kayak-rental buyer places funds in escrow but the agreement permits withdrawal whenever financing changes. The buyer must decide whether to renegotiate the escrow terms, commit other capital, or delay the application; a bank balance is not the answer. Make a ledger of every payment, its recipient, its commercial purpose, and whether it can be recovered. That ledger lets the parties test the risk requirement before the agreement is signed rather than explaining an unsuitable arrangement afterwards.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Understand the requirement the escrow has to satisfy
- Distinguish price from committed capital
- Do not create a business that exists only on paper
The first year decides it: a Prince Edward County producer opening a US office
Hypothetical example: a Prince Edward County cider producer opens a small US sales and distribution office and transfers its director of sales operations to run it. A new-office L-1 petition of this kind is approved for one year rather than three, and the year is not a grace period; it is the evidence-gathering window for the extension. Companies that treat the approval as the finish line arrive at month eleven with a story and no records, which is where most new-office cases actually fail. Hypothetical example: a laboratory-equipment exporter signs a real lease for its first US service office but has not hired the technicians who will allow its director to manage rather than perform installations. The company must decide whether its staffing plan can mature within the first year. Create a first-year evidence calendar before filing, with premises, payroll, sales, and organization-chart milestones. A new-office approval is limited to one year, so the extension record must be built while the plan is being executed.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What the initial petition has to show
- Build the extension file from day one
- Be realistic about the plan you file
Two partners, two routes: an L-1 subsidiary or a personal E-2 from Prince Edward County
Hypothetical example: two partners run a web-development studio from Prince Edward County with a handful of remote staff. One partner wants to be in the United States to work with clients there. They can incorporate a US subsidiary and transfer him on an intracompany petition, or he can invest personally and apply as a treaty investor. The choice is not mainly about difficulty; it is about who owns what afterwards, what each spouse may do, and where each route ends. Hypothetical example: the founders of an architectural-millwork company want US sales capacity but disagree about whether the US entity should be owned by the Canadian company or by one founder personally. The concrete decision is about ownership and control before immigration paperwork begins. Put the proposed corporate structure, foreign employment history, capital commitment, and family work needs on one comparison page. It will show whether the facts support a transfer, an investment, or neither without forcing one route to imitate the other.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What each route asks of the company
- What each route does to ownership and the household
- Where each route ends
A treaty investor's household in Prince Edward County: who may work, study and stay
Hypothetical example: a Prince Edward County couple move to run a restaurant they have invested in, with a fifteen-year-old son and a nineteen-year-old daughter starting university. One parent will hold E-2 status as the investor. The other adult and both children are dependants, and the rules for them are not the same as the rules for dependants of a TN professional. Sorting out who may work, who may study and when each person's status ends is part of the investment decision, not an administrative detail afterwards. Hypothetical example: an L-1B transferee's spouse hopes to launch a freelance graphic-design practice while a twenty-year-old child plans a final year of college. The family must decide each person's status and timing separately. Build one household calendar containing employment plans, school dates, status expiries, and birthdays. That review exposes whether a dependant has work authorisation, whether a child will age out, and whether the principal category supports the household's actual financial plan.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The accompanying spouse may work
- Children may study, and their status has an end date
- Keep one calendar for the whole household
Two different processes: EB-5 steps and Gold Card terms for a Prince Edward County reader
Hypothetical example: a Prince Edward County software architect receives a lump sum from the sale of equity in a former employer and asks which of the two routes is faster. Compared properly, they are not two versions of the same thing. EB-5 is a defined immigrant process with petitions, a conditional period and a final filing to remove conditions. The Gold Card is a recent framework whose published terms rest on a gift to the U.S. government and a processing fee, and those terms should be read on the official page before any comparison is attempted. Hypothetical example: a scientific-instrument distributor can either place capital into a qualifying project or make the Gold Card payment, but needs part of the money for a child's education. The concrete decision is whether the household can accept the different loss, return, job, and residence consequences. Write two separate cash-flow models: one for capital remaining commercially at risk through the required period, and one for a payment by the applicant to the U.S. government that is not recoverable. A headline price comparison hides the essential difference.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The EB-5 sequence, step by step
- What the Gold Card framework actually describes
- Compare them on the questions that actually differ