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.
Have the employer account for every material part of a mixed job
For a Strait Shores applicant offered both professional and routine tasks, prepare a duty record that the employer can confirm. The objective is to assess the real position, not produce a shorter description that leaves inconvenient work unassigned.
List the main deliverables, who requests them and what the applicant must do to produce them. Identify recurring operating or administrative responsibilities as well as professional work. Do not invent percentages where no reliable basis exists. TN needs a Canadian or Mexican citizen performing prearranged activity in a listed USMCA profession with that profession’s qualifications; a persuasive title cannot make the actual duties disappear.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Describe the work in observable terms
- Connect the duty record with the employment arrangement
- Document a real redesign of the role if one occurs
Keep citizenship distinct from professional experience
A Strait Shores resident’s Canadian permanent residence and experience do not establish the nationality required for a principal TN case.
TN requires Canadian or Mexican citizenship. Residence and employer support do not supply that condition, and a pending citizenship process is not complete.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify citizenship already held
- Evaluate another route independently
- Assess each household member
Distinguish enterprise nationality from one investor’s share percentage
A Strait Shores applicant should explain the full national ownership and the actual development-and-direction rights rather than rely on a single percentage.
At least 50% of the enterprise must be owned by nationals of the relevant treaty country. Identify actual ownership and avoid misattributing pooled funds or interests.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Map the relevant owners
- Read authority separately
- Retain the capital and business tests
Document the owner’s work separately from distributions
For a Strait Shores owner-manager, a distribution record answers a financial question. Build the L-1 account from the services actually performed abroad, the planned U.S. responsibilities and the organizations that will continue operating during the transfer.
Identify a continuous full-time qualifying year abroad within the relevant three years and describe the decisions, responsibilities and organization involved. Exclude days in the United States from that foreign-year count; brief trips do not automatically break continuity. Ownership and investment income cannot substitute for proof of employment. A new-office L-1A requires that foreign year specifically in a managerial or executive capacity; ordinary L-1A may also rely on qualifying specialized-knowledge employment. For an owner or major stockholder, address the temporary nature of the U.S. services and the assignment abroad that follows, rather than leaving the later plan unstated.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Reconstruct the foreign role from contemporaneous work evidence
- Explain how the new operation will support the proposed position
- Follow the operating responsibilities after the owner leaves
Compare the work relationship with the investment rights
A Strait Shores applicant who owns shares and works for the business should prepare two accounts: how the proposed employment transfer qualifies, and how an investor would develop and direct the enterprise. A distribution or share certificate cannot answer both.
Identify the foreign employer, the U.S. organization and the qualifying parent, subsidiary, affiliate or branch connection. Establish the required qualifying foreign employment and the actual managerial, executive or specialized-knowledge work proposed. Use work records to show service instead of assuming that being an owner proves employment. If the applicant’s authority or duties are unclear, a larger investment does not resolve that L-1 evidence gap.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Describe the transfer as an employment arrangement
- Describe the investment as a set of enforceable rights and commitments
- Choose the evidence gaps that must be resolved before proceeding
Classify each relative’s role before using a family payroll record
A Strait Shores family involved in a business should identify why each relative appears in the documents. Being an intended immigrant, an authorized worker and a qualifying EB-5 employee are separate questions, even when the same person appears in all three discussions.
For every person counted toward an EB-5 proposal, identify the actual job, immigration category and relationship to the investor. The investor, spouse, sons and daughters are excluded from qualifying employees regardless of the children’s age. Do not expand that rule into a blanket exclusion of every other relative. A nonimmigrant’s permission to work also does not make that person a qualifying EB-5 employee. Keep the employment-count explanation separate from the household application list.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Make the employment count without relying on family labels
- Check permission before allocating the family’s business work
- Reconcile the travel list with the payment list
Compare a changing employee roster with a proposed corporate gift
A Strait Shores investor may need to resolve two very different changes: turnover in an EB-5 enterprise or a new employer offering to fund Gold Card. Identify the decision each change actually requires before treating either proposal as a simpler route.
For EB-5, map departing and replacement workers to the underlying positions. Ten eligible full-time jobs are needed for each investor under the applicable direct or regional-centre method; two names appearing successively in one role are not automatically two jobs. Review the investor’s management or policy-making participation as well as lawful funding origin, transfer history and investment risk. Current capital levels are US$1,050,000 normally and US$800,000 for qualifying TEA or infrastructure investments; scheduled statutory adjustment begins on January 1, 2027.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Count qualifying positions through the turnover record
- Identify the government arrangement behind the new payer
- Keep the remaining immigration decisions separate