Read the general life across the border overview
A Saanich household may have property proceeds or a continuing Canadian business while considering a US move. Those arrangements require their own evidence alongside status and relationship questions. The decision usually comes down to whose name goes on the enterprise and whose funds are traced into it. A couple that shares sale proceeds must decide whether to title the business to one treaty-national spouse, document a gift between spouses, or hold it jointly, and that choice shapes the source-of-funds file and each person’s status.
Check actual work permission
TD does not authorize employment. Qualifying E and L spouses may work incident to appropriate status with required evidence; children do not receive the spouse permission. A pending case does not itself authorize business management from the US.
Review individual relationships and dates
Financial agreements do not automatically decide derivative eligibility. Assess ages, relationship changes and CSPA using the actual case. Immigrant-visa derivatives enter after or with the principal.
Budget actual included applicants
Gold Card adds US$1 million and US$15,000 nonrefundable processing per eligible included spouse or child, including corporate cases. Shared property or a business balance does not waive the charges or guarantee residence. Eligible children generally must be unmarried and under 21; assess any applicable CSPA protection on the individual case facts.
Hypothetical example: shared rental proceeds, one investor and a son over 21
Hypothetical example: a Saanich couple sells a rental property they hold jointly and plans an E-2 investment in a US veterinary-supply distributor. The wife, a Canadian citizen, will be the investor and run the business. The husband holds Canadian and British citizenship and is entitled to half the proceeds. Their son is 22 and finishing a degree in Canada. The couple decides to title the US enterprise entirely to the wife so the treaty-nationality test is met without argument, and documents the husband’s share of the proceeds as a gift to her with a signed gift letter, the closing statement from the sale and the bank transfers into the account from which the investment is paid. The funds must be irrevocably committed and at risk before the application, not sitting in a reserve. The husband, as the E-2 spouse, may work incident to status once admitted in that status, in any occupation. The son is not a derivative because he is over 21, so his route, if any, depends on his own activity, and E-2 itself provides no direct path to permanent residence for any of them.
Records that settle each person’s position
The investor’s position is settled by the enterprise’s ownership documents and the traced path of funds from the property sale to the business account. The spouse’s work permission is settled by admission in E-2 dependent status and the employment authorization that attaches to it, not by the marriage certificate alone. The son’s exclusion is settled by his date of birth, and no property arrangement changes it. If the family instead considered the Gold Card, they should note that it is a gift to the U.S. government plus a processing fee under a current official framework, not a conventional visa category and not an investment in a business, and its family terms must be re-verified before any money moves.
What else is on your mind?
Is a matching job title enough for TN?Can years of experience replace a degree for TN?Can my own U.S. company employ me under TN?Can my spouse work if I hold TN status?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.