Read the general pathway comparison overview
Hypothetical example: the owner of a custom millwork and stair-parts shop near Roxton Pond holds one hundred per cent of the Canadian company and wants to open a United States operation. She is weighing a transfer against a personal investment. One fact settles most of it: she bought the business nine months ago, so she has not completed the continuous year of qualifying employment abroad that a transfer requires within the preceding three years.
The transfer route asks about the last three years
Before anything is said about duties or structure, the chronology has to work. One continuous year of qualifying employment with the qualifying organization abroad, within the three years before the petition, is a threshold rather than a factor to be weighed. Sole ownership does not by itself defeat a transfer, though it does invite questions about whether a genuine employment relationship exists, and those are better answered in the petition than in a response to a request for evidence. Where the year is simply not there yet, the honest options are to wait until it is, or to look at a route that does not require it. Waiting has a cost the owner can calculate; filing early has a cost nobody can, because a refusal becomes part of the permanent record.
The treaty route asks about money and control
A treaty-investor analysis begins with nationality, requires at least fifty per cent treaty-national ownership, and then asks whether capital has been irrevocably committed and put at risk, whether the amount is substantial relative to this enterprise, whether the business is real, operating and more than marginal, and whether the applicant will develop and direct it. For a sole owner the control element is usually straightforward. The hard parts are committing funds before applying, which many owners resist for sound commercial reasons, and showing the venture will produce more than a marginal living once it is running.
Compare the ceilings and the family consequences
Eligibility narrows the field; consequences should decide it. A transfer in the managerial or executive classification is capped at seven years, and the specialized-knowledge classification at five, with earlier time counting toward both. A treaty-investor status can be renewed while the enterprise and the qualifications hold, but offers no direct path to permanent residence. Spouses are employment-authorized in both dependent categories. Write both timelines on one page, mark the single fact that is hardest to prove in each, and take corporate and tax advice alongside the immigration analysis before the structure is fixed.
What else is on your mind?
Does being a business owner or director qualify me for L-1A?What employment history should an L-1 transfer review cover?What makes a new-office L-1A case different?How should an owner compare L-1 and E-2?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.