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.
TN documents for a social worker role
The social worker entry lists a baccalaureate or licenciatura degree without prescribing the diploma's title. Document a substantive connection between the education and the proposed professional social-work duties. Assess any state licensing requirement separately; the job title alone does not establish either TN eligibility or permission to practise. Two conditions apply alongside the credential. The employment must be prearranged with a United States employer or entity, because the category does not permit an applicant to provide services for their own account, and the applicant must be a citizen of Canada or Mexico. Admission may be requested at a port of entry or through a petition, and the same requirements apply either way.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Assess the education and social-work duties together
- Check for state licensing overlap separately
- Document duties that match the profession
How a household weighs temporary status against a permanent residence plan
A household comparing a temporary US visa route with a longer-term permanent residence plan is really comparing two different kinds of status with different requirements, timelines and dependent rules. Canadian permanent residence held by a household member does not carry over as a qualifying status in either the temporary or the permanent US route; each has to be evaluated on its own terms. The nationality point deserves stating separately because it decides cases outright. TN is available only to citizens of Canada or Mexico, and E-2 requires nationality of a treaty country; Canadian permanent residence supplies neither, however long it has been held. The L categories turn on the employment relationship rather than nationality, so a household can find that its members have genuinely different options.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the temporary route's requirements from the household's assumptions
- Understand what a permanent route actually requires
- Plan the sequence rather than assuming one leads to the other
How to compare a temporary work plan against a permanent one
A temporary work category and a permanent immigration path answer different questions and run on different timelines. Comparing them for a household means separating what each family member is authorized to do under each path, not just comparing which one seems faster. It is worth being explicit about what E-2 does not do. The category requires treaty nationality, a substantial investment irrevocably committed and at risk in a real and active enterprise that is not marginal, and an investor who develops and directs it. It confers no permanent residence, and continuing to hold it depends on those conditions continuing to be true rather than on time served.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Compare authorization, not just labels
- Separate eligibility from sequencing
- Plan for the least certain member first
Weighing a temporary L1 transfer against a permanent plan
A household preparing for a transfer under this category should treat it as a temporary work authorization tied to a specific qualifying role, not as a step that automatically leads anywhere permanent. Comparing the temporary and permanent paths side by side, rather than blending them, keeps expectations aligned with what each actually requires. The temporary nature of the category is defined rather than approximate, and the limits belong in the household's planning from the start. L-1A permits a maximum period of stay of seven years and L-1B five, and where the United States entity is new the initial admission is limited to one year. Those are the real boundaries of the plan, and no separate permanent process changes them.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Keep the temporary filing focused on its own requirements
- Understand the spouse's authorization separately
- Treat any permanent path as a separate, later process
Comparing L1 and E2 for temporary and permanent household plans
A household weighing a temporary stay against a longer-term settlement should compare L1 and E2 on their own terms rather than assuming one leads more directly to permanence. Neither category guarantees a particular outcome, and the honest comparison is about structure and evidence, not speed. The two categories differ in what has to keep being true. L-1A allows a maximum period of stay of seven years and L-1B five, and both depend on the qualifying corporate relationship continuing. E-2 has no equivalent maximum but requires treaty ownership, capital that remains at risk and the investor's control to persist throughout. A household should know which of those it can influence.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Compare what each category actually authorizes
- Compare the family's dependent arrangements
- Separate the temporary filing from any future permanent plan
How to compare a temporary plan against a permanent one
A household weighing a temporary work category against a permanent immigrant route should assess each family member separately, since spousal work authorization, dependent status and the underlying category eligibility do not transfer automatically from one plan to the other. Build the comparison around each person's actual status question, not one household-wide assumption. Ages belong in that assessment alongside status. Dependent classifications generally extend to a spouse and unmarried children under twenty-one, so a child's birthday is a fixed boundary that no amount of preparation moves, and it frequently turns out to be the earliest hard date in the whole household plan.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Assess the primary applicant's category fit first
- Check each dependent's status separately
- Weigh timing honestly, without assuming a date
Comparing EB-5 and Gold Card for a household weighing temporary and permanent plans
A household weighing a temporary work-based stay against a permanent investment route needs to understand that EB-5 and Gold Card are both immigrant, not temporary, paths, and they differ mainly in structure and cost rather than in how quickly either resolves. EB-5 requires a $800,000 targeted or infrastructure, or $1.05 million standard, at-risk investment tied to ten qualifying jobs. Gold Card requires a $1 million contribution plus $15,000 per person, on top of separate EB-1 or EB-2 eligibility. Because both are immigrant routes, the comparison is between two structures rather than between speed and permanence. EB-5 places capital at risk in a new commercial enterprise and depends on that enterprise creating qualifying jobs, with conditional residence followed by a petition to remove conditions. The payment route involves money paid by the applicant to the United States government and returns nothing.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the temporary and permanent tracks
- Plan for every family member individually
- Keep expectations bounded by risk