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.
Chase TN guide: using the diploma-and-experience branch of a profession entry
Hypothetical example: Marisol is a Canadian citizen and medical laboratory technologist at a Chase community health centre who has a U.S. hospital offer. The Appendix 2 entry accepts a baccalaureate or licenciatura degree, or a post-secondary diploma or certificate plus three years of experience. TN requires prearranged professional employment and does not permit U.S. self-employment; any ownership interest must be disclosed and assessed. A Canadian may apply at a port of entry or preclearance, or through an employer-filed Form I-129, without a TN visa stamp. TD dependants may study but may not work.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Decide which branch you are proving, then prove only that one
- Experience needs employer letters with dates and duties
- Keep the licensing question separate from the immigration question
Chase guide: what a permanent resident card cannot do, and when naturalization matters
Hypothetical example: Rosalie is a citizen of the Philippines, a permanent resident of Canada, and a lumber grader for a Chase mill. Canadian permanent residence is not Canadian citizenship, so it does not create TN eligibility; lumber grader is also not an Appendix 2 profession. Her Philippine citizenship does not close E-2, however, because the Philippines is an E-2 treaty country. Any E-2 plan must use that treaty nationality for Rosalie and at least half the enterprise and satisfy the investment, operating-business, non-marginality, and develop-and-direct requirements.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Two requirements turn on citizenship and nothing else
- What remains available depends on the employer, not the card
- Naturalization changes the answer but not the timetable
Chase E-2 guide: whether a low-cost business can clear the marginality test
Hypothetical example: Nadia is a Canadian citizen who runs a portable sawmilling operation near Chase and wants to buy a low-cost U.S. mobile milling business. E-2 requires treaty nationality for her and at least half the enterprise, funds irrevocably committed and at risk, an investment substantial relative to the total cost, a real operating non-marginal enterprise, and ownership or operational control sufficient to develop and direct it. An E-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status. There is no direct E-2 path to permanent residence. The small purchase price changes the proportionality analysis, not those governing conditions. The reader's operative choice is whether to commit enough money to make the purchase operationally credible before the application, or to negotiate a contingency that preserves capital without leaving it uncommitted. Hypothetical example: A bicycle-repair entrepreneur is buying a compact repair bay and has cash for the price but not for the opening inventory. She must decide whether the real cost includes that inventory and whether she can document its purchase. The answer affects both the amount committed and the forecast she presents.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- A cheap business raises the proportion required, not the amount
- Marginality asks about capacity, and projections must be defensible
- Build the case from documents that already exist
Chase L-1 guide: proving the manager will manage by the end of the first year
Hypothetical example: Wes owns a Chase reforestation and tree-planting services company and is opening a first United States subsidiary. A new-office L-1A petition may be approved for one year, and the difficulty is not the corporate structure but the role: in month one he will be doing nearly everything himself. This guide covers what the petition must show about the shape of the job by the time the first year ends, and what the extension will look back at.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- A new office is approved on a plan, and the plan is the evidence
- Say plainly that the first months are operational
- The extension is where the plan is tested
Chase guide: when the missing qualifying year decides the route for you
Hypothetical example: Deirdre incorporated a Chase log-scaling and forest-inventory consultancy fourteen months ago and wants to open in the United States. She is weighing an intracompany transfer against a treaty investment, but her real constraint is time: L-1 requires a continuous year of qualifying employment with the organization abroad within the previous three years, and the way she has been paid may mean that year has not yet accrued. This guide walks through the constraint before the preference. The immediate decision is whether to wait until a fully documented employment year is complete or commit capital now to a separate enterprise. Hypothetical example: A theatre-lighting company founder has worked on payroll for ten months and has an offer to buy a supplier across the border. Waiting may preserve a transfer option; buying now requires a treaty-investment record built from actual commitments, ownership and operating forecasts. Neither route is improved by describing one set of facts as the other.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Check the qualifying year before comparing anything else
- Treaty investment tests different things entirely
- The consequences after arrival differ as well
Chase family guide: when one spouse qualifies and the other's occupation is not listed
Hypothetical example: Corinne is a Canadian occupational therapist with a prearranged U.S. clinic offer; Occupational Therapist is listed and requires a baccalaureate or licenciatura degree or a state or provincial licence. She may not use TN for U.S. self-employment, and any ownership must be disclosed. As a Canadian she may apply at a port of entry or preclearance, or through employer-filed Form I-129, without a TN visa stamp. Her husband Alain, a chef in an unlisted occupation, may accompany in TD but may not work, and their daughter may study in TD only while unmarried and under 21.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The dependent category is the constraint, not the person's skill
- Compare what the same household looks like under a different route
- The nineteen-year-old needs her own plan, starting now
Chase guide: how each route treats a child who is about to turn twenty-one
Hypothetical example: Frank and Louise have sold a Chase highway motel and are considering an investor route to permanent residence. Their daughter is twenty. For them the comparison is not about money but about whether she is still eligible by the time anything is granted. The investor route has a long timeline and a statutory age calculation attached to it; the Gold Card framework states its own family terms, which must be read from the official source rather than assumed.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- The investor route has a known age problem and a known calculation
- The Gold Card framework states its own terms and they must be read
- Weigh the obligations, not only the outcome