Read the general life across the border overview
A Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley family can have different surnames or shared assets without those facts alone deciding anyone’s US immigration permission. A family with a child close to 21 must decide the filing date around that birthday, not around the project’s subscription deadline. For immigrant routes the statutory age-protection formula can preserve the child’s place; for dependant nonimmigrant statuses nothing does, so the same child may be protected in one plan and lost in the other.
Prove relationships and actual permission
Use genuine identity and relationship records rather than infer marriage from a common surname. TD does not allow employment. Qualifying E and L spouses may work incident to appropriate status with required evidence, but children do not share that spouse permission. An expected promotion, investment closing or later admission does not authorize work today.
Identify derivatives separately from the owners of funds
Joint securities or bank balances require an accurate funding account; they do not automatically include their holders in an immigration case. Eligible children generally are unmarried and under 21, with individual CSPA review, and immigrant-visa derivatives enter with or after the principal. Gold Card charges each included eligible spouse or child US$1 million plus US$15,000 nonrefundable processing, including in corporate cases.
Run the birthday calendar before the funding calendar
Hypothetical example: a Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley couple who own a refrigerated-transport company plan a regional-center EB-5 investment; their daughter is 20 years and 8 months old. If the I-526E petition is filed before she turns 21, the Child Status Protection Act calculates her age when a visa becomes available minus the time the petition was pending; the result must remain under 21, and she generally must seek to acquire lawful permanent resident status within one year of visa availability. Filing only after the birthday ordinarily leaves her without a derivative claim under that formula, and no payment to the project changes that. Had the same family instead sent the father on an L-1A transfer to run a U.S. depot, the daughter could be an L-2 dependant only until 21; the protection formula does not apply to nonimmigrant dependants, so she would need her own status at that birthday regardless of when the petition was filed. Gold Card inclusion of a child likewise turns on actual eligibility with case-specific age analysis. The decision is therefore which route to file first, and it may be the one that protects her, even if the other is cheaper.
What each family member must document separately
The daughter needs her birth certificate, proof she is unmarried, and evidence of the filing date; the parents need the source-of-funds record for the capital and evidence of the qualifying relationship to each other. The mother, as an EB-5 derivative, obtains conditional residence with or after the principal and, unlike a TD dependant, may work once admitted as a resident; the principal must still participate in the enterprise’s management or policy and file the I-829 in the 90 days before the second anniversary. None of these documents transfers between members: a completed file for the father does not shorten the daughter’s, and a joint bank account proves funding, not relationship.
What else is on your mind?
Is a matching job title enough for TN?Can years of experience replace a degree for TN?Can my own U.S. company employ me under TN?Can my spouse work if I hold TN status?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.
- Department of State — USMCA professionals
- Department of State — 9 FAM 402.17
- USCIS — L-1A executives and managers
- 8 CFR 214.2(l)(3)(iv) and (v), 2025 edition
- Department of State — Treaty investors
- USCIS — EB-5 program
- INA 203 — Immigrant investor requirements
- Official Gold Card program
- Executive Order 14351