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.
A South Frontenac land surveyor's TN file turns on one licence and one letter
Land Surveyor is a listed USMCA profession whose credential rule is a state, provincial or federal licence, or a licenciatura degree. An Ontario licence satisfies the immigration rule; a New York surveying licence is a separate practice requirement the employer must plan for. The port-of-entry file therefore needs the Ontario licence, proof of Canadian citizenship and an employer letter that describes surveying work and names the credential relied on. Everything else is supporting material. Hypothetical example: a Canadian urban planner receives an offer to prepare zoning and development analyses for a U.S. planning consultancy. The central decision is whether the proposed duties are planning work and whether the employer can describe them precisely. A current passport, the qualifying academic record, and a signed employer letter each answer a different eligibility question; do not substitute a general résumé for any of them.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Put the licence at the front of the file
- Draft the employer letter around the profession's own words
- Disclose ownership and choose the filing route
When neither spouse in a South Frontenac household fits TN, the reasons are different
A Canadian citizen whose trade is not on the USMCA list and a Canadian permanent resident whose profession is on it are both outside TN, but for opposite reasons: one has the citizenship and not the profession, the other has the profession and not the citizenship. Sorting out which fact blocks which person is the first step, because the remedies are different and one of them may lie in a nationality the household has not considered. Hypothetical example: a Canadian permanent resident who works as an audiologist receives a U.S. offer while her Canadian-citizen spouse has no offer of their own. The immediate decision is whether the citizen spouse can become the principal under a qualifying category, whether the permanent resident should wait for citizenship, or whether the household should remain apart for a period. Canadian residence and professional skill do not answer the nationality requirement.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Name the blocking fact for each person
- Check whether another nationality changes the analysis
- Keep the citizenship timeline honest
How much a South Frontenac buyer must commit to a U.S. fabrication shop before E-2 calls it substantial
There is no minimum dollar figure. Substantiality is a proportion of the total cost of buying or establishing the enterprise, weighted so that smaller businesses require a higher proportion. For a welding and fabrication shop in upstate New York with a total cost in the low hundreds of thousands, an investor should expect to have committed most of that cost from lawful personal funds before applying, and to show the remainder is genuinely at risk. Hypothetical example: a Canadian industrial-refrigeration technician plans to purchase a cold-storage maintenance company and must choose between buying only equipment or acquiring contracts, staff, and operating authority. That choice changes the total enterprise cost and the evidence of a real operating business. The investment must be committed, exposed to commercial loss, and sufficient for the chosen enterprise; an unspent reserve described in a business plan does not itself establish those facts.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Establish the total cost before arguing about the proportion
- Count only money that is committed and at risk
- Show the shop is more than a wage for its owner
A South Frontenac drilling contractor opening a U.S. branch has to decide what kind of office it is opening
A well-drilling and geothermal contractor that wants to send its owner-manager to start work in New York State faces the new-office rules: the petition is approved for one year, the U.S. operation must have secured physical premises, and the plan must show that within that year the business will support a managerial or executive role. Whether the U.S. presence is a registered branch of the Canadian company or a separate subsidiary changes the documents, not the tests. Hypothetical example: a Canadian truck-scale service company wants to open a U.S. operation and send its service director to establish it. The owner must decide whether to secure a suitable service yard before filing or postpone the petition until premises and initial contracts exist. A new-office L-1 approval is initially limited to one year, and the extension record must show a functioning business that can support a managerial or executive role rather than a sole technician doing field calls.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Choose branch or subsidiary for business reasons and document accordingly
- Secure premises that fit a drilling operation
- Prove the manager will manage within a year
A South Frontenac minority owner choosing between the company's subsidiary and her own investment
A thirty percent owner who manages a propane and heating service company can go to the United States two ways: the company opens a subsidiary and transfers her as its manager under L-1A, or she personally invests in a U.S. business she will direct under E-2. The first depends on the corporate relationship and her year of managerial employment; the second depends on her Canadian nationality, her own committed capital and her control. They are not interchangeable, and the ownership percentages decide more than her preference does. Hypothetical example: the operations manager of a Canadian specialty-coffee roastery is considering a U.S. expansion. She must decide whether the Canadian company will own and operate the new location, pointing toward an L-1 transfer, or whether she will invest personal capital and control a separate enterprise, pointing toward E-2. The documents must follow that choice: corporate ownership and qualifying employment for L-1, personal funds, treaty nationality, and control for E-2.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Under L-1, the company's ownership matters, not hers
- Under E-2, her own money and her own control decide it
- Let the timeline and the exit decide
When a South Frontenac nurse takes the TN job, her husband's business and her son's schooling follow different rules
The principal's TN status settles her own work and nothing else. Her husband may accompany her in TD status but cannot work, including for his own Ontario company from a U.S. address. Her nineteen-year-old son may study in TD status but ages out at 21 and would then need his own status. Each of those facts has a date attached, and the household plan should be built from those dates rather than from the start of her contract. Hypothetical example: a Canadian horticulturist enters TN status while her spouse operates a mobile bicycle-repair business and their child is nearing the dependent age limit. The family must decide whether the spouse will perform work only outside the United States, obtain an independent category, or remain in Canada. It must also choose a school or status plan for the child before the birthday deadline. Those decisions are separate from the principal's job offer.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The spouse's activity, not his income, is what TD restricts
- The son's clock runs regardless of the plan
- Sequence the household around the slowest person
A retired South Frontenac farm couple comparing what they keep under EB-5 and what they give under the Gold Card
The two routes differ first in what happens to the money. EB-5 capital is invested in a commercial enterprise, stays at risk and may be returned if the project succeeds, with residence depending on ten jobs being created. The Gold Card, on the official page checked September 7, 2026, involves a nonrefundable US$15,000 processing fee and, after vetting, a US$1 million gift to the U.S. government that is not returned, followed by the EB-1 or EB-2 categories. Neither guarantees residence, and the two should never be described as versions of the same thing.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Compare the fate of the money before the immigration mechanics
- Compare what each route asks them to prove
- Decide on the family and the reversibility