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.
Osler TN guide: give translations and credential assessments different jobs
An English-language document may be a translation, an academic evaluation or an employer letter. Identify its actual purpose before assuming it establishes the whole professional case. A first review should create a document-purpose list: citizenship evidence, the employer’s detailed letter, the actual degree or licence, any evaluation, and each translation. The reader must decide whether a missing record goes to identity, the listed profession, the qualification, or the proposed temporary work; a translation cannot cure a gap in another category.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Preserve the original qualification
- Apply the relevant evaluation and translation rules
- Retain the actual TN requirements
Osler guide: do not let a document summary turn residence into citizenship
A short biography may describe a person as Canadian when the intended meaning is residence. Use the actual citizenship and immigration status in a category assessment rather than an informal label. The first review should make an individual fact sheet for every proposed principal and family member: passport nationality, Canadian status, relationship, role in the business, and intended U.S. activity. The decision is whether the person has the category-specific fact that is actually required, rather than whether a biography uses a convenient national label.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Record the precise personal facts
- Keep company-transfer and investor tests separate
- Check the wording for each intended traveller
Osler E-2 guide: annotate the funding total with actual commitments
A single balance can include freely retained money, household reserves and funds already obligated to the enterprise. Explain those components before presenting the total as investment evidence. A first review should convert the claimed total into a ledger showing source, account, recipient, date, security, and refund terms for each amount. The reader must decide whether a sum is available cash, a binding business commitment, or an expenditure already exposed to loss; only the records can resolve a hopeful budget description.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the legal and practical position of each amount
- Preserve the applicable capital conditions
- Keep the enterprise and permission questions complete
Osler L-1 guide: do not compress different foreign roles into one managerial year
A résumé may summarize several positions under a recent title. A new-office L-1A assessment needs the actual qualifying foreign managerial or executive period, not a rewritten history. A first review should produce a dated foreign-employment timeline, corporate-relationship chart, premises record, and first-year operating plan. The reader must decide whether the evidence supports a genuine managerial or executive foreign year and a U.S. operation that can support the claimed role, rather than merely a new registration and an impressive title.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the individual’s genuine roles and dates
- Assess the actual launch framework
- Retain the remaining group and capacity evidence
Osler L-1 or E-2 guide: identify which facts the business summary leaves unresolved
A company overview may describe employment, ownership and investment in one paragraph. Separate those facts before comparing the actual transfer and treaty-investor requirements. A first review should create two separate evidence columns. The L column should show the corporate connection, the person’s qualifying foreign employment, and the U.S. role; the E-2 column should show treaty nationality, ownership, capital source and commitment, control, and the operating plan. The reader then decides which incomplete fact is capable of proof before choosing a route.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Extract the employee’s real transfer evidence
- Extract the investor’s actual arrangement
- Ask about the missing evidence directly
Osler family guide: keep the household summary tied to individual records
A shared document list can help organize a move, but each person’s relationship, status and dates still require accurate evidence. Do not let the household label replace the individual case. Where one spouse holds the qualifying profession and the other holds the family's second income, the first decision is which spouse becomes the principal, because the answer determines who may work at all, what the dependant children can and cannot do, and how long each person's status lasts. Decide that before either employer is told anything.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify each person and the actual intended category
- Preserve the correct work and study rules
- Keep age and immigrant participation separate
- Respect the order of immigrant entry
- Decide which spouse is the principal before anyone resigns
Osler investor guide: distinguish an exit forecast from a government gift
A financial summary may use return and contribution language loosely. Read the actual investment or gift terms before treating money as available for later household expenses. Ask which single document would end the argument if the two routes were disputed: for EB-5 it is the source-of-funds chain and the job evidence, for Gold Card it is the official post-vetting instruction. Decide which of those you can actually produce before you sell anything.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- For EB-5, identify risk and actual rights
- For Gold Card, use the official gift description
- Keep immigration and cash timelines separate
- Distinguish capital, official gifts and residence stages
- Name the document that decides each route