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.
Asphodel-Norwood TN guide: when the degree name does not match the profession
Hypothetical example: an Asphodel-Norwood land surveyor holds a bachelor's degree in geomatics engineering technology and an Ontario surveyor's licence, and has been hired by an American engineering firm. Appendix 2 names Land Surveyor, but the parchment does not use that word. The file has to connect the credential to the entry explicitly, because an officer reading a degree title alone may not make the connection.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Quote the entry and then answer it
- Have the university explain the programme, not just certify the degree
- Make the employer describe surveying work
Asphodel-Norwood guide: proving a citizenship you already hold
Hypothetical example: an Asphodel-Norwood tool-and-die machinist was born abroad to a Canadian parent, has lived here since childhood, and travels on a British passport because he has never applied for a Canadian one. He is very probably a Canadian citizen already, and has been since birth. For TN purposes that is the whole question, because the classification asks for citizenship rather than residence. The obstacle here is documentary rather than legal, and it is the kind of obstacle that takes months to clear.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Citizenship and permanent residence are separate facts
- Get the proof before the offer, because it takes months
- Do not present a foreign passport and hope
Asphodel-Norwood E-2 guide: tracing treaty nationality through a holding company
Hypothetical example: three Asphodel-Norwood partners plan to buy an American commercial landscaping company through a Canadian holding company in which one shareholder, holding forty-five percent, is a Chinese citizen resident in Canada. The enterprise's treaty nationality is determined by the nationality of the individuals who ultimately own it, traced through every corporate layer. That makes this structure something to check before the purchase agreement is signed rather than after, because a proportion that falls on the wrong side of half is very difficult to fix afterwards.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The enterprise must be at least half owned by treaty nationals
- Residence in Canada is not nationality
- Lock the structure with the shareholders' agreement
Asphodel-Norwood L-1 guide: choosing L-1A or L-1B for a new subsidiary
Hypothetical example: an Asphodel-Norwood specialty food manufacturer is forming its first American subsidiary and has two candidates: the sales director who would run it, and the production supervisor who understands its proprietary process. New-office petitions exist for both L-1A and L-1B, but they ask different questions, require different evidence, and set a different test for what the first year has to produce. Choosing the candidate before reading both sets of requirements is the common mistake, and it is avoidable.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Both new-office routes exist; they ask different questions
- Choose by the honest description of the first year
- Both are approved for one year, and both are judged on results
Asphodel-Norwood guide: which route survives a ten-year plan
Hypothetical example: an Asphodel-Norwood tool-and-die owner intends to build an American operation and stay with it for a decade. Both L-1 and E-2 could start that plan, but they end differently: L-1A is capped at seven years and L-1B at five, while E-2 can be renewed indefinitely so long as the enterprise qualifies and offers no direct route to permanent residence.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The L classifications have hard ceilings
- E-2 renews indefinitely but leads nowhere by itself
- Decide what the tenth year is supposed to look like
Asphodel-Norwood family guide: when the immigration definition of family is narrower than yours
Hypothetical example: an Asphodel-Norwood couple have lived together for eleven years without marrying, and one of them has a child from an earlier relationship whom both raise. Derivative status depends on legal definitions of spouse and child that are considerably narrower than everyday usage, and neither definition bends to the practical reality of a family. Households discover this very late unless somebody asks early, and by then the available answers may cost a year.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- A common-law partner is not a spouse for derivative status
- A stepchild qualifies only if the marriage happened before the child turned eighteen
- Then apply the ordinary dependant limits to everyone who qualifies
Asphodel-Norwood guide: what each route looks like if it goes wrong
Hypothetical example: an Asphodel-Norwood family compares EB-5 with the Gold Card by asking a question most comparisons skip: what does each look like in the bad case? EB-5 can fail at several distinct points, and some of those failures are recoverable while others end the plan and the capital together. A gift to the U.S. government has a simpler downside and a less forgiving one, because there is no asset left to sell and nothing to recover.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Map the EB-5 failure points individually
- Understand what capital at risk actually means for the family
- The gift has one downside and it is total