Read the general life across the border overview
Hypothetical example: a Centre Wellington household includes a mechanical engineering technologist with a US offer, her husband who is a dental hygienist, a seventeen-year-old and a twenty-year-old. Each person has a different answer to the same three questions: citizenship, intended activity, and age. Writing those answers on one page shows that the technologist's TN would leave the hygienist unable to work, that the older child will age out of dependent status within a year, and that a different principal or route might serve the family better.
Citizenship and residence are separate columns
For each family member, record citizenship from the passport and Canadian status from the PR card or citizenship certificate. A Canadian-born child is a citizen; a parent may be a permanent resident. TN and E-2 principal status require Canadian citizenship, and E-2 ownership counts only Canadian-national shares; L-1, EB-5 and the Gold Card framework do not require it. A spouse who is a citizen of an E-2 treaty country other than Canada may have investor options of his own. None of this is visible from where the family lives. The column also determines which documents to obtain: a citizenship certificate for a naturalized parent, a passport renewal for a child, or a record of a foreign nationality that could open a treaty route.
Intended activity decides who needs their own route
Dependent status is not work permission for every category. A TD spouse or child may study but not work; an L-2 or E-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status, while L-2 and E-2 children are not; EB-5 derivatives receive conditional permanent residence and may work. So the hygienist husband's plan to find clinic work fails under TN, succeeds under L-1 or E-2 if the technologist could qualify for either, and would otherwise require his own category with its own employer and eligibility, plus state dental hygiene licensing. A remote job for a Canadian employer performed from US soil is still work. Each adult who intends to earn should have a route written beside their name, or an honest note that none exists yet.
Ages set the calendar
Children qualify as dependants only while unmarried and under 21 in the nonimmigrant categories, and immigrant derivative eligibility is likewise tied to age, subject to any applicable statutory age protection during processing. The twenty-year-old may age out of TD, L-2, or E-2 dependent eligibility at 21, while an EB-5 or Gold Card case requires a separate analysis of the immigrant category's age-protection rules and actual dates. His plan should therefore be made now: a student category of his own, remaining in Canada for study, or timing the family's move around his status. The seventeen-year-old has more time but should be included as the applicable route requires. Write each child's birth date and the dates of the planned filing beside it.
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.