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.
Mackenzie TN guide: distinguish the agreed scope from the draft proposal
An offer under negotiation can support preparation without establishing every final duty. Keep the actual status of the documents clear before relying on a TN professional description.
TN requires Canadian or Mexican citizenship and qualifying temporary work in a listed profession with its prescribed qualifications. Experience replaces a degree only where the profession permits. A profession name in a draft cannot substitute for the actual duties the employer intends.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the genuine professional arrangement
- Prepare credentials and control evidence without assumptions
- Use the final facts for the applicable process
Mackenzie citizenship guide: assess the person’s present qualification to use a route
A Canadian residence status, an employer’s interest and a hoped-for citizenship change are different facts. Identify what the applicant currently holds before relying on a nationality-dependent U.S. option.
Canadian permanent residence does not itself qualify a person for TN. TN requires Canadian or Mexican citizenship, a listed profession, prescribed qualifications and qualifying temporary work. A proposed hiring date cannot turn a future nationality expectation into a current fact.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Keep residence and citizenship distinct
- Do not assume another category is automatic
- Assess household activities individually
Mackenzie E-2 guide: explain the investor’s authority when operations are delegated
An operating manager can perform genuine daily responsibilities while the investor retains specified rights. Assess the actual direction and capital arrangement rather than assuming the staffing title decides eligibility.
Relevant treaty nationals must own at least 50% of the enterprise, and the applicant must develop and direct through at least 50% ownership or other qualifying operational control. Describe the actual rights retained and delegated. Neither a shareholder title nor a manager’s contract should be treated as the entire control analysis.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the investor’s real directing rights
- Trace the lawful business commitment
- Assess the actual operating capacity
Mackenzie L-1 new-office guide: the premises and ability-to-pay file
A new-office L petition is decided largely on two evidence bundles that head offices tend to assemble last: proof that physical space has been secured, and proof that the U.S. entity can pay the transferred worker while trading begins. Board minutes, a business plan and a certificate of incorporation substitute for neither. This guide sets out what belongs in each bundle, and how the same material is read a second time when the one-year approval runs out.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Secured space, not a planned address
- Money: paying the wage while revenue is still theoretical
- What the extension asks that the first petition did not
Mackenzie business guide: how your shareholding is read by L-1 and by E-2
Owning part of the company helps one route and complicates the other. E-2 measures ownership deliberately, asking who holds the enterprise and whether the applicant can direct it. L-1 largely ignores the applicant’s equity until the transferee turns out to be an owner, at which point an extra condition appears. This guide takes a single shareholding and follows what each classification does with it.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- E-2: the percentages that actually carry weight
- L-1: ownership is mostly irrelevant, until it is not
- Choosing when you hold both cards
Mackenzie family guide: what an accompanying spouse may and may not do
Whether the partner can keep earning is usually the question that settles a move, and the answer depends entirely on which status the principal holds. A spouse admitted in L-2 or E-2 is employment-authorised as a consequence of the status itself. A spouse admitted in TD is not, and no arrangement of remote work changes that. Set out below is the distinction and the evidence each side of it rests on.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- L-2 and E-2 spouses: authorised incident to status
- TD dependants: study yes, employment no
- Working the question backwards from the household
Mackenzie investor guide: proving where the money came from
Both routes require money to move, and both ask questions about it, but the questions differ in kind. An investor petition demands a documented, lawful path for the capital from its origin into the enterprise. The Gold Card framework treats the payment as a gift and puts its weight instead on vetting the person. This guide sets out what each of those two files actually has to contain.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Investor petitions: a traceable chain from origin to enterprise
- Gold Card: vetting the person, not tracing the capital
- Two different kinds of financial risk