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.
Otonabee-South Monaghan TN guide: assembling a veterinarian's file in the right order
Hypothetical example: an Otonabee-South Monaghan large-animal veterinarian is recruited by a United States dairy veterinary practice. Appendix 2 accepts a D.V.M., D.M.V. or Doctor en Veterinaria degree, or a state/provincial licence, while the destination state’s licence is separately required to practise there. Citizenship evidence, the qualifying credential, the practice licence and the employer letter each follow their own current timeline.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Start with the licence, because it is the slowest
- Then the degree and the citizenship evidence
- The employer letter goes last, and describes the work
Otonabee-South Monaghan guide: when the spouse with the job offer is not the citizen
Hypothetical example: an Otonabee-South Monaghan dairy farm's herd manager is a Brazilian citizen and a Canadian permanent resident; his wife, a Canadian citizen, keeps the books for two local businesses. The United States offer is his. Because permanent residence does not create TN eligibility and Brazil is not an E-2 treaty country, the household's realistic options run through her, not him. That reverses who is planning what, and it changes the honest answer the family should hear first: the person with the offer may not be able to accept it.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Sort the routes by each person's nationality first
- Identify who can actually be the principal
- Be honest about the outcome nobody wants to say
Otonabee-South Monaghan E-2 guide: what counts when the equipment is leased
Hypothetical example: an Otonabee-South Monaghan agricultural-services operator wants to start a United States custom crop-application business where the aircraft, the applicator equipment and the hangar would all be leased rather than bought. Very little of the money buys an asset, which makes the investment look small on a balance sheet. The file has to be built instead around what has been irrevocably committed and cannot be recovered, and around whether an enterprise with a low entry cost can still generate more than a minimal living.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Committed is the test, not purchased
- Read the lease for its immigration content
- Address marginality directly, since leasing lowers the entry cost
Otonabee-South Monaghan L-1 guide: premises evidence for a first American subsidiary
Hypothetical example: an Otonabee-South Monaghan manufacturer of livestock handling equipment forms a first United States subsidiary and sends its production manager to run it as an executive. A new-office L-1A petition is approved for one year only, and two requirements decide it: sufficient physical premises actually secured, and evidence that the enterprise will support an executive or managerial role within that year. Both are evidentiary questions, and both are far easier to satisfy if they are planned before the subsidiary is incorporated.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Sufficient physical premises means secured, and specific
- Show the business can support an executive within one year
- Plan the extension before the first year begins
Otonabee-South Monaghan guide: who keeps the Canadian company running
Hypothetical example: an Otonabee-South Monaghan agricultural drainage and tile-installation contractor is owned by two working partners, and both want to move to the United States. That single fact decides more than any comparison of paperwork or cost. An L-1 transfer requires the Canadian entity to keep doing business alongside the American one, so somebody has to stay or be hired; a treaty investment route imposes no such requirement but demands capital irrevocably committed and genuine control of the American enterprise.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- L-1 needs a living company on both sides
- E-2 releases the Canadian side but demands capital and control
- Decide the question the partnership is actually asking
Otonabee-South Monaghan family guide: the spouse who wants to keep working
Hypothetical example: an Otonabee-South Monaghan household plans a move on TN status, and the spouse is a registered early childhood educator who intends to keep working. TD permits residence and study but not employment, and no version of the application changes that. The household has three real options — the spouse qualifying in her own right, an employer sponsoring her, or the family choosing a principal classification whose dependants may work — and each requires its own qualification and its own timetable.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Understand what TD does and does not give
- The three routes to a working spouse
- Put the children's dates on the same page
Otonabee-South Monaghan guide: when the money arrives decides the route
Hypothetical example: the retiring Otonabee-South Monaghan dairy couple hold part of their farm's price under a vendor take-back mortgage payable over seven years. Comparing EB-5 with the Gold Card on price alone misses the point for this household. The deciding differences are when each route requires the money to actually exist in an account, how long it must stay committed afterwards, and whether any of it can ever come back. Read both against the payment schedule.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- EB-5 asks for capital now and keeps it invested for years
- The Gold Card is a gift, and a gift is gone
- Test each against the payment schedule and the downside