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.
Charlottetown TN guide: compare the job offer with the household’s real needs
A TN assessment should establish the actual professional offer while leaving family permission as a separate question. A commercially attractive job does not automatically authorize every household member’s intended activity. The document decision is not simply how many pages to collect; it is whether the evidence makes one coherent professional story. Start with citizenship, the exact profession, the real employer, duties, qualifications, and the intended dates. Canadian nationals may request TN classification at an inspection location, and an employer can use Form I-129 through USCIS where appropriate. TN is not permission to run the applicant’s own U.S. business as self-employment. Hypothetical example: a public-health statistician receives a research-hospital offer while also considering a minority investment in a diagnostics start-up. Choose which arrangement is being presented, then keep the offer evidence separate from the investment documents.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Define the employment proposal accurately
- Match credentials to the actual profession
- Identify the household consequence before choosing
Charlottetown guide: record each household member’s actual citizenship
A household’s Canadian residence does not establish identical U.S. route eligibility for everyone. Record each person’s citizenship and intended activity before comparing employment, transfer, investment or residence proposals. Canadian permanent residence is an important personal fact, but it is not a single U.S. immigration category. Start a comparison by recording the principal’s citizenship, every accompanying person’s citizenship, the chosen activity, and the organization or enterprise involved. That prevents a familiar Canadian residence document from being treated as proof of TN nationality or treaty-investor eligibility. Hypothetical example: a fisheries biologist with Canadian permanent residence is offered a position by a U.S. conservation organization while their spouse is a Mexican citizen. Decide eligibility person by person before assuming the household uses one route.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate residence from the principal’s eligibility
- Assess alternative proposals on their own facts
- Build the individual process into the household plan
Charlottetown E-2 guide: test the family staffing and funding assumptions
A household acquisition plan should identify both who funds the business and who will perform its work. E-2 enterprise requirements and individual work permission need separate assessment before a family operating model is relied upon. An E-2 investment analysis should let the reader decide whether a real commercial commitment exists before funds are treated as a completed investment. Establish treaty nationality, ownership and control, lawful source, the path of funds, and the applicant’s role in developing and directing the enterprise. Money must be committed irrevocably and exposed to commercial risk, and the business may not be marginal. Hypothetical example: a maker of adaptive kitchen tools plans to buy a small U.S. workshop through escrow while retaining personal savings for the family’s first year. Decide which payments truly enter the business and which remain protected reserves.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Assign duties to actual people
- Separate capital from household spending
- Assess enterprise and status together without merging them
Charlottetown L-1 guide: plan a launch without assuming a common family timeline
A new-office proposal needs substantive role and operating evidence even when family relocation is the main practical concern. Separate the principal’s launch requirements from the status and intended activity of each accompanying person. A new-office L-1 decision asks whether the foreign and U.S. organizations, the transferee’s prior work, and the planned operation will support the stated role after launch. The person needs one continuous qualifying year with the related foreign organization during the preceding three-year period. New-office evidence should show premises and a practical path to doing business, not merely a registration certificate. Hypothetical example: a company that refurbishes industrial microscopes wants its foreign operations manager to establish a U.S. service centre. Decide whether the proposed hires and premises leave the manager directing the operation rather than repairing every instrument personally.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Describe the actual role and organization
- Apply the correct launch requirements
- Keep launch and family dates individually supported
Charlottetown guide: compare household activities without skipping route requirements
A transfer and a business purchase may both seem compatible with a household move, but their substantive requirements remain different. Compare the actual principal proposal and each family member’s activity before selecting a strategy. The practical choice between L-1 and E-2 is usually made by comparing two different factual stories, not by choosing the faster-sounding label. L-1 requires a qualifying organization relationship and prior qualifying foreign employment; E-2 requires treaty nationality, enterprise control, irrevocably committed capital at commercial risk, and a business that is not marginal. Hypothetical example: a manufacturer of ultraviolet water-testing devices can either transfer its foreign quality director to a related U.S. company or have the director buy an unrelated service business. Decide which plan is real before pooling corporate facts and personal funds.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Keep the transfer and purchase facts separate
- Assess the principal’s eligibility independently
- Compare actual dependent implications
Charlottetown family guide: make one activity plan for each person
The household may share a destination while its members need different permissions and dates. Write an individual activity plan before relying on a combined move budget or a principal applicant’s employment proposal. A family move is easier to plan when every person has an individual fact sheet: citizenship, relationship, age, intended work or study, present permission, and expected date of travel. A principal’s category does not automatically answer the spouse’s remote work or a child’s employment question. The family’s key decision is whether a shared travel plan still works if one person must arrive later or change activity. Hypothetical example: a prosthetics technician will begin a qualifying assignment, the spouse wants to teach online for a foreign school, and a nineteen-year-old plans to work in a bookstore. Decide each activity before treating the lease date as a legal deadline.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the intended relationship and activity
- Use the correct work and study distinctions
- Verify dates rather than copying the itinerary
- Respect the order of immigrant entry
Charlottetown guide: compare residence obligations without spending the household reserve on paper
A residence comparison should distinguish qualifying investment or gift obligations from money retained for household needs. A total family balance does not establish either EB-5 eligibility or the official Gold Card outcome. An EB-5 and Gold Card comparison must begin by refusing to treat all large payments alike. EB-5 requires qualifying capital at commercial risk and the required job creation, followed by conditional residence if the immigrant process succeeds. Gold Card is not a conventional visa; its stated framework involves a nonrefundable gift by an individual applicant or corporate sponsor to the U.S. government under official instructions, plus vetting and applicable immigrant-category conditions. Hypothetical example: the owner of a specialty-lens laboratory has funds for an EB-5 project and receives a private proposal describing a Gold Card payment. Decide which legal framework and which official recipient apply before moving money.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the actual EB-5 capital
- Verify Gold Card family and payer terms
- Compare the household’s remaining uncertainties
- Distinguish capital, official gifts and residence stages