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 settles each TN question for a Lévis technologist
A TN file for a Lévis applicant rests on four claims: Canadian citizenship, a prearranged professional position with a U.S. employer, a fit between that position and one Appendix 2 listing, and the qualification that listing names. Each claim has one document that decides it, and the guide below assigns them so nothing is proved twice and nothing is left to the officer's inference. Assemble originals, keep the letter consistent with them, and be ready to explain every page without reading from it.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Citizenship and employer: the two easy claims, done properly
- Listing fit: the claim the letter must argue, not assert
- Qualification: match the credential to the listing's exact wording
What a Lévis permanent resident can and cannot use from a Canadian household's U.S. plan
Canadian permanent residence and Canadian citizenship are different legal facts, and U.S. routes test one or the other, never the household. TN requires Canadian or Mexican citizenship, so a Lévis permanent resident cannot use it. E-2 tests treaty nationality, which is the passport the person holds, not where they live. L-1 does not test nationality at all. Record each adult's actual citizenship before assuming any route is shared.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify what each passport proves
- Sequence a pending citizenship application honestly
- Keep the Canadian obligations on the list
What secures the loan: the question that changes a Lévis E-2 investment figure
The E-2 test asks whether the investor's own money is at risk in the enterprise. Money borrowed against the investor's personal assets counts as the investor's; money borrowed against the U.S. business's own assets generally does not, because the risk sits with the business rather than the person. A Lévis buyer financing part of a purchase should therefore know what secures each dollar before the qualifying amount is calculated, and should have the path of funds documented from source to escrow.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the loans by what they are secured on
- Document the path from source to escrow without gaps
- Commit the money before the interview, but conditionally
Is a shared workshop bay premises enough for a Lévis firm's L-1A new office?
A new-office L-1A petition must show that the U.S. entity has secured sufficient physical premises to house the operation and that within one year it will support a managerial or executive role. A signed lease is the starting point, but the officer reads it for what it actually provides: exclusive space, a term long enough to matter, and a fit with the business described. A Lévis company opening a U.S. service depot should match the premises to the plan before the petition is written, not after a question arrives.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Read the lease against the business plan
- Prove capacity to support the manager within the year
- Keep the first year's evidence as it happens
One Lévis owner, two possible routes: sequencing L-1A and E-2 for the same person
A Lévis business owner who wants to open and run a U.S. operation personally may be a candidate for both L-1A, as an executive transferred from the Canadian company to its new U.S. subsidiary, and E-2, as a treaty investor developing and directing the U.S. enterprise. The routes test different facts and lead to different maximum stays, and the order in which the owner structures the U.S. entity can preserve or foreclose one of them. Decide the structure before the company is formed.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Map what the owner has that each route needs
- Notice how the entity structure decides the options
- Choose by horizon, then keep the other route documented
Planning the year a Lévis TD dependant turns 21 while the principal is still on TN
Derivative status ends at 21 in every category discussed here, and a child on TD, L-2 or E-2 dependant status does not become independent by wishing. A Lévis household with a child near that age should plan the transition eighteen months ahead: what status the child will hold, whether it allows study or work, and how the change fits the principal's own timeline. TD spouses cannot work; L-2 and E-2 spouses can, incident to status. Each person's activity, not the family's, decides the route.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Start from what each person will actually do
- Sequence the child's change of status before the birthday
- Tie the household plan to the principal's real horizon
Five questions a Lévis founder should answer before choosing between EB-5 and the Gold Card
EB-5 and the Gold Card both lead toward permanent residence for a person with significant liquid wealth, and they resemble each other in no other respect. EB-5 is a job-creating investment at risk that may be repaid; the Gold Card, per the official page, is a nonrefundable processing fee and a gift to the U.S. government, followed by processing under an existing employment-based classification. The right way to choose is to answer a short set of questions about the family, the money and the timeline, then re-read the official terms on the day of decision.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Questions about the money
- Questions about the family and the timeline
- Questions about advice and verification