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WEST VANCOUVER · E-2 FIELD GUIDE

Should the distribution be taken before or after the immigration advice?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

Take the advice first. Once money has moved, its characterization is largely fixed by the records created at the time, and restructuring afterwards is expensive and looks retrospective. A short delay to confirm the corporate authority, the tax treatment and the intended ownership of the U.S. enterprise usually costs far less than unwinding a transfer.

Sequence the corporate steps ahead of the commercial ones

Put the structuring decisions, board approvals and tax confirmations before signing a lease, paying a deposit or making an offer on a U.S. business. Fiscal year ends, dividend declaration dates and accounting deadlines may constrain when a distribution can sensibly be made, so gather those dates early.

If the company's position changes while an application is pending — a lost contract, a shareholder dispute, a revised valuation — tell the adviser rather than waiting. There is one constraint that regularly forces this sequence and is easy to miss: the source company's own calendar. A dividend may need to follow a year end, a valuation may be required before a share purchase, and an accountant may be unavailable in a filing season.

Gather those dates in the first conversation and place the corporate steps against them, then put the commercial commitments afterwards. A lease signed before the distribution can be made is a commitment funded by hope, and the pressure it creates tends to produce exactly the hasty characterisation the sequence was designed to avoid.