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 L'Ancienne-Lorette veterinarian's TN file: sequencing the state licence and the clinic's offer
Hypothetical example: a veterinarian at a companion-animal clinic in L'Ancienne-Lorette is offered an associate position at a U.S. practice. The Appendix 2 entry for Veterinarian accepts a D.V.M., D.M.V. or Doctor en Veterinaria degree, or a state or provincial licence, so her Québec degree and order membership satisfy the credential. But U.S. practice requires a licence from the state, which is a separate professional process. The file's real problem is sequencing: the clinic wants a start date, the state board wants examinations, and TN wants a prearranged job she can lawfully perform.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the immigration credential from the practice licence
- Draft the clinic's letter around the licensing timeline
- Order the steps and the household
A naturalized citizen and a permanent-resident spouse: dating the L'Ancienne-Lorette hotel manager's passports
Hypothetical example: the operations manager of a hotel near the airport in L'Ancienne-Lorette became a Canadian citizen last year; her husband, from a country that is not a U.S. treaty partner, holds Canadian permanent residence. A U.S. hotel group has offered her a role. Her citizenship certificate date is now the most important date in the file, because a Canadian passport issued after naturalization is what makes TN available. Her husband's permanent residence makes him neither a TN candidate nor an E-2 principal, and his own route depends on his own facts.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Check what each document proves and when it began
- Test her offer against the hotel manager's actual entry
- Keep both spouses' Canadian obligations on the page
Building a U.S. catering business from nothing: what counts as committed for a L'Ancienne-Lorette founder's E-2
Hypothetical example: a caterer from L'Ancienne-Lorette who serves corporate and event clients wants to open a catering kitchen in a U.S. city rather than buy an existing business. There is no seller, no purchase price and no going concern. E-2 requires funds irrevocably committed and at risk in a real, operating, non-marginal enterprise the investor directs. For a start-up, commitment is shown by money actually spent or contractually bound on the kitchen: the lease, the equipment, the licences, the first payroll. The question is which payments count and when the enterprise becomes real enough.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Distinguish spent, bound and merely available
- Make the enterprise real before applying
- Sequence so nothing is lost if the visa is refused
Is a shared lab enough? Premises and capacity for a L'Ancienne-Lorette dental-laboratory owner's new-office L-1A
Hypothetical example: a dental-laboratory owner in L'Ancienne-Lorette wants to open a U.S. laboratory to serve American dental clinics and to run it herself for its first year. She has arranged bench space and a milling machine in a shared technical facility rather than leasing a stand-alone unit. A new-office L-1A requires secured premises sufficient for the business and evidence the operation will support a managerial or executive role within one year. Whether shared space is sufficient depends on what the plan says the laboratory will do there, and on her own year of qualifying employment and the corporate link.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Show the premises fit the business described
- Prove her own eligibility and the corporate link
- Write a first-year plan that supports a manager
One person, both doors: a L'Ancienne-Lorette bookkeeping-firm owner compares L-1A new office with E-2
Hypothetical example: the sole owner of a bookkeeping and payroll firm in L'Ancienne-Lorette, a Canadian citizen who has run it for four years, wants to open a U.S. office and work there herself. She could transfer as a manager of a new U.S. affiliate under L-1A, or invest her own funds in the U.S. office as an E-2 treaty investor. Unlike a case with two different people, here the same applicant fits both descriptions, and the choice turns on what each route demands of the Québec firm, how long each lasts, and what the family wants at the end.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- What each route asks of the Québec firm
- What each route asks of the money and the calendar
- Choose the route the facts already support
Working in the family business and turning twenty-one: a L'Ancienne-Lorette household on E-2
Hypothetical example: a L'Ancienne-Lorette couple is opening a U.S. auto-body and detailing shop under E-2 with the husband as principal investor. The wife plans to run the front office and the books; their son is twenty and wants to work in the shop while finishing a technical program. The wife's situation is straightforward: an E-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status and may work in the enterprise. The son's is not: as a derivative he may study but may not work, and on his twenty-first birthday his derivative status ends. The family plan must be built around that date.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Let the spouse work in the enterprise, with the right paperwork
- Treat the son's birthday as a hard deadline
- Decide who moves when, and what waits
Conditional for two years or classified as EB-1: how a L'Ancienne-Lorette applicant should read the two timelines
Hypothetical example: a retired airline pilot living in L'Ancienne-Lorette with investment income is deciding between a regional-center EB-5 investment and the individual Gold Card. He wants to know which leaves him in Canada longer and what he holds at the end. EB-5 leads to two years of conditional residence, then a removal-of-conditions petition; the Gold Card framework, per the official FAQ recorded September 7, 2026, leads for eligible applicants to permanent residence through an EB-1 or EB-2 classification, subject to vetting, admissibility and visa availability. The two timelines have different shapes, and neither is a date.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Draw the EB-5 timeline with its stages
- Draw the Gold Card timeline as officially described
- Ask what he holds at the end, and what he risked to get there