Andy J. Semotiuk
US and Canadian
Immigration Lawyer

The article reviews these options moving from the quickest, easiest and cheapest through to the options that take the longest time, are the hardest to take advantage of and cost the most. If you are in a hurry to move to the United States or Canada you will first want to get a non-immigrant work visa and later apply for permanent resident status. Indeed, in most employment-based or business/investment-based applications for permanent residence this two-step approach is best whether you are headed to the US or Canada. While this article is focused on business or executives in North America headed south-bound or north-bound, much of what is presented remains the same for professionals and executives from other parts of the world traveling to North America. To be certain of your status you should always consult an immigration lawyer about your specific circumstances before traveling.

1. Quickest, Easiest and Cheapest Visas

If your intention is merely to “do business” in the United States or Canada, that is to say, you do not plan to do any “hands-on” work, then your first and best option is a business visitor visa. As a business visitor to the U.S. or Canada you can attend meetings, sign contracts, inspect facilities, review budgets and financial statements, attend conferences, participate as a director in corporate board meetings, attend trade shows, make purchases of goods and services, and travel freely throughout the country, usually for up to six months without applying to any consulate but merely presenting your passport at the border when traveling to the U.S. or Canada. While you can do all these things, you cannot do “hands-on” work. So, for example, you cannot answer phones, type letters, handle customer complaints, make retail sales, etc., like an employee of a company would. For more details on these visas read our article on How to Visit the United States or Canada by clicking here. If you need help with this kind of visa email us and we will get back to you.

2.Second Quickest, Easiest and Cheapest Visas

If you are a professional or an executive and your profession is listed in the NAFTA free trade agreement, so long as you have the credentials required by the agreement for the profession involved, you can get an immediate one year (renewable indefinitely in one year increments) work visa. The key to such visas are a job offer from an employer seeking to hire you in the relevant occupation as is evidenced by an originally signed letter to that effect, a copy of your degree or other credentials satisfying the NAFTA requirements, a passport proving citizenship in a NAFTA country and a payment of the relevant fee. For more details on these visas read our article on Canadian and Mexican NAFTA TN Professional Workers and our checklist for TN visa application at US port of entry. Keep in mind that the requirements for these visas are pretty much the same whether you are headed to the United States or Canada so what is written about American TN visas basically applies for Canada and even for Mexico for that matter.If you email us, we will send you more details about these visas.

3.Third Quickest, Easiest and Cheapest Visas

If you are an executive or manager of a company that has a parent, affiliate or branch office in the United States or Canada and you have worked for your company for at least a year in the last three years, you are eligible to get an inter-corporate transferee work visa to move from your home country to that affiliated office to take a job as an executive or manager there. The key here is that your home operation must be big enough that it will continue doing business following your departure. If your target entity is a new start up, you will likely only get an initial visa for two years, otherwise you first visa will be a three year visa. It will be renewable for a further three years up to seven years maximum. Fore more details about this visa see our article The L-1 Intra-Corporate Transferee Visa. Bear in mind that since these are under NAFTA the Canadian rules are very similar to the American rules. Also, these visas are ideal for applying for permanent resident status since one can have the dual intent of going to work temporarily as an inter-corporate transferee as well as the intent to stay permanently if one’s application for permanent residence is approved. This differs from the rules for previous work visas discussed. If you email us we will send you more details about these L-1 Inter-Corporate Transferee visas.

4.Fourth Quickest, Easiest and Cheapest Visas

Although some immigration attorneys will argue with me on this, my view is the NAFTA investor option, referred to as the E-2 visa in the U.S. is the next choice. The key requirement here is an investment of say, $200,000, into the target country.The steps are that you You incorporate a company, open an office and set up a phone and fax in your desired location.. You open a bank account in the name of your company.You deposit the funds in that account.You register the company with the income tax department. And finally, you prepare a business plan with five year projections of income and expenses.With all these documents and details worked out you make an application for the visa through the Consulate of the target country nearest to where you live. Thus, for example, if you live in Edmonton and you are after a NAFTA E-2 investor visa to move to Phoenix, you would apply at the US Consulate in Vancouver. Initial visas for new companies are issued for two years and can then be renewed in three-year increments for as long as the company remains in business. For more details on this visa email us.

5.Fifth Quickest, Easiest and Cheapest Visas

This is where things get more complicated. In the United States, when there is no cap on the quota the H1B visa is best. To be eligible for an H1B visa you must have the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree in some specialized area (for example, not just a BA but an engineering degree or a BA in geography,) and the job you are being offered requires not less than a person with that degree to do it. For executives who do not have a bachelor’s degree, you can engage an evaluator who may be able to provide an evaluation of your work experience that equates it to an American bachelor’s degree.Usually three years of work experience in a specialized field is the equivalent of one year of an American bachelor’s degree.So if you have been working as a manager or executive for 12 years you probably qualify. With this visa the employer must not only offer you a job, but he or she must also pay you what the Department of Labor determines is the prevailing wage rate as set by regular wage surveys that Department publishes.The first step is therefore to obtain the approval of the Department of Labor for a Labor Condition Application (LCA) which certifies that you are being offered the prevailing wage and that there are no labor strikes or lockouts affecting your employer company. Following Department of Labor approval the employer must apply to the US Citizenship and Immigration service for you as an employee. The cost is several thousand dollars in government processing fees. The visa, if issued is for three years (assuming no visa cap which has been a problem for this visa for the last two years). It can be renewed for another three years and longer where an application for permanent residence has been filed. Timing is a few weeks to several months. For more details email us.

As for Canada, usually a similar process is involved. One applies to service Canada (also called Human Resources and Skills Development Canada HRSDC) for a labor market opinion (LMO). There is also a prevailing wage requirement here. The LMO certifies that there are no Canadian workers ready, willing and able to take this job. Following the LMO a work permit application must be filed usually at a Canadian Consulate outside Canada.

Timing on such applications runs a few months but the government fees are minimal. However like the H1B visa in the United States, in Canada the employer must show that he or she undertook Canadian recruitment efforts to get the LMO. For more details on these work visas email us.

6. Other Non-immigrant Work Visas

By now we have pretty much covered the main options available to professionals and executives.The rest of the visas that can be obtained cover a wide range of more specialized areas such as entertainers, religious workers, persons of extraordinary ability, journalists, government and military officials, etc. These are visas that are beyond the scope of this overview but if you have a question about any of these areas email us.

Immigrant Visas

Unlike the non-immigrant visas, when it comes to immigrant visas, quickness and ease do not always follow the lowest cost in the short run.Since I believe a quick and easy approach can often be the cheapest in the long run, I will go with that approach.

1.Quickest and Easiest Immigrant Visas

Probably the best immigrant visas for the United States and Canada are the investor visas. In the case of the United States, (with the one exception of a multinational executive transferring as an inter-corporate transferee which we will talk about later) the investor approach is the quickest and best.

The U.S. requirements that are easiest to comply with are that
	the investor invests approximately $575,000 with a regional economic development organization approved by the US Citizenship and Immigration Service. The reality of the requirements is that the investment will be for a minimum of about four years. However, the investment will earn income. Assuming everything works out normally the investment is placed in some office building development or other project with companies that have
pretty sold reputation. Since the U.S. government is involved in approving the investment vehicles involved there is some measure of security in the investment although caveat emptor still is the guiding principle.

For placing this investment (not to be confused with the NAFTA E-2 investment of only say $ 200,000 which is a non-immigrant temporary vehicle) the investor gets a greencard and permanent resident status within about a year. The greencard is two-year conditional greencard, conditional on the investor maintaining the investment for two years. But then the condition is removed and the greencard becomes the regular greencard others hold. For more details details email us.

As for Canada, the investment program is also very attractive. Under the Federal program the investor must be worth $800,000 in net equity and invest $400,000 with the Canadian government for a period of five years, interest free.At the end of the five years the money is returned. The government guarantees the investment. Creative bank programs have made it possible to borrow the investment and effectively almost “buy” permanent residence for about $110,000. For more details email us.

2.Second Best Immigrant Visas

For the United States, as mentioned previously, the next best immigrant visas are the inter-corporate multinational transferees. Within about one year such an executive can get a greencard.If however, there is a start-up involved, then one year must expire before the executive can make the greencard application. Email us for details.

For Canada the second best immigrant visa is usually the Skilled Worker Program.To qualify the applicant usually needs to speak English or French, have a bachelor’s degree or trade diplomas, have worked for more than four years, be under 50 years old and be married to a spouse with a degree or trade diploma. Sponsorship by an employer in such cases may not be required.However, applicants can qualify by way of a job offer under a Provincial Nominee Program. email us for details.

3.Final Immigrant Options

Again there are a variety of other options for both the U.S. and Canada. Most involve a Labor Certification component where the Department of Labor or Services Canada test the job offer to see if local workers can be found before the offer is approved. Then the employer must apply to Canada Citizenship and Immigration for permanent status. Such applications usually take significant effort, take years to complete and cost thousands of dollars. For more details email us.

We hope this overview of US and Canadian immigration for professionals and managers is helpful to you.If you have other questions contact us.

Here are four questions for you:

• Do you have an immigration problem?
• Are you confused about what to do?
• Are you overwhelmed by all the paperwork?
• Do you find it hard to get a straight answer from immigration officials?

If so, we need to talk.
Contact me by arranging a consultation on this page.

I work with executives and cross-border couples to get through immigration problems to obtain work permits and permanent resident status (green cards/maple leaf cards). Unlike almost all other immigration advisers I am a member of the bar, and actually practice immigration law, in both the United States and Canada. In the last 30 years I have handled over 10,000 legal cases gaining more experience with each case to help my next clients. I solve immigration problems for clients so they save precious time, avoid extra effort and make more money.

Andy J. Semotiuk