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.
Explain the employer relationship when payroll is handled separately
A Saanich applicant should identify what the offer, payroll records and relevant agreements each establish rather than assume the payer’s name answers every TN question. The decision to make before the border is which organization signs the TN support letter. When a clinic directs the work but a professional employer organization issues the pay, the applicant must decide whether to ask the clinic to sign and explain the payroll agent, or to rely on the PEO’s paperwork alone and risk a letter that describes no supervision.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Establish the actual profession
- Reconcile the organizations
- Use the correct procedure
- Hypothetical example: a physiotherapist paid through a professional employer organization
- Sequence the letter, the licence and the entry
Keep citizenship separate from payroll and Canadian residence
A Saanich resident may be paid through a Canadian or US organization without satisfying the TN principal nationality requirement. Use actual citizenship facts. The decision for a permanent resident is whether to wait for Canadian citizenship, which requires its own physical-presence days and processing time, or to pursue an employer-sponsored category now on its own conditions. The two tracks can run in parallel, but neither is advanced by the fact that a Canadian institution pays the salary.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the nationality required
- Assess alternatives through their own facts
- Review the household individually
- Hypothetical example: a research associate with a permanent resident card
- Separate passport, employer and corporate facts
Establish enterprise nationality across the actual owners
A Saanich investor with multiple citizenships should explain the company’s ownership rather than select a passport without considering the enterprise. A sound review matches citizenship proof to ownership and control documents before calling any money E-2 capital. Hypothetical example: a custom climbing-hold manufacturer is 52 percent owned by the applicant’s French sibling and 48 percent by the applicant, who has Canadian and French citizenship. The applicant plans to rely on French nationality and run the company under a signed operating agreement. The decision is whether that agreement grants real operational authority despite the minority interest. Passports, the share register, manager appointment, and operating agreement answer it; a family assurance does not. If the sibling holds exclusive control, the applicant should change the plan rather than describe a passive interest as management.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Map relevant nationality
- Read the directing rights
- Complete the capital and business review
Explain the manager’s real work through the launch period
A Saanich company should describe launch troubleshooting and operational support accurately while establishing the proposed role’s primarily managerial or executive character. The concrete decision is whether to file with a lease that only commences after approval and a support plan built on contractors, or to delay filing until the premises are signed and at least the first employee offers are documented. That choice sets what the extension officer will be able to verify at month twelve.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify actual duties and support
- Apply the new-office conditions
- Complete the international record
- Hypothetical example: a dental laboratory’s conditional lease and contractor plan
- Which record decides each point
Compare a supported managerial role with ownership-based direction
A Saanich applicant should distinguish authority exercised for a qualifying employer group from authority derived through personal investment in an enterprise. The decision that matters is the time horizon. An L-1A transfer through the employer’s group is capped at seven years and depends on the group continuing to operate on both sides of the border, while an E-2 investment can be renewed as long as the business qualifies but offers no direct path to permanent residence. Choose according to what the applicant intends to be doing in year eight.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Assess the L-1 proposal
- Assess the E-2 proposal
- Compare effective responsibilities
- Hypothetical example: a clinic chain’s clinical director, transferred or invested
- Compare group support with personal exposure
Separate funding entitlement from family immigration eligibility
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.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Check actual work permission
- Review individual relationships and dates
- Budget actual included applicants
- Hypothetical example: shared rental proceeds, one investor and a son over 21
- Records that settle each person’s position
Separate a right to property proceeds from a government gift commitment
A Saanich applicant should identify which funds they are actually entitled to use, then compare the distinct investor and gift frameworks without assuming a financial settlement decides immigration eligibility. The comparison works only after each dollar is assigned to one route and matched to the document proving availability. Hypothetical example: a forensic-audio equipment supplier has signed a sale agreement but receives only a refundable deposit until regulatory clearance. The owner must decide whether to use other traced funds for EB-5, wait for closing, or make a separate Gold Card payment. The agreement, escrow terms, bank statements, and clearance record show whether the proceeds can be used. A headline price or broker’s assurance does not convert a contingent amount into EB-5 capital or a government gift.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Trace the EB-5 contribution
- Identify what Gold Card requires
- Keep residence and private rights distinct