Read the general life across the border overview
Hypothetical example: an Erin physiotherapist moves with a husband who runs a Canadian business, a nineteen-year-old who wants summer work and a thirteen-year-old attending school. Her TN depends on her profession, qualification and US employer; TD permits the dependants to study but not work. Each person's citizenship, age, intended activity and status must be assessed separately. Hypothetical example: a Canadian environmental economist receives a U.S. offer while her spouse plans to continue a design practice, a twenty-year-old hopes for paid campus work, and their younger child will start school. They must separately decide statuses and permitted activities before the move. One principal's work authorisation does not settle the other three questions.
The principal and the spouse
Her question is whether the profession, the credential and the employer's letter line up, and whether the state licenses her to practise. His question is different and blunter: what will he do all day. If the answer is running the Erin stable remotely, the household needs advice, because dependants in TD status may not work in the United States and the treatment of remote work for a Canadian business while physically present is not clearly settled. If the answer is that he wants employment in the United States, TD does not permit it and he needs his own basis. Dependent status also ends with hers, which is a joint risk worth naming. Write the spouse's planned daily activity in concrete terms and obtain advice before relying on dependent status for it. The household must decide whether the spouse needs separately obtained work-authorised status, particularly if income depends on services performed while physically present in the United States. Do not let a vague remote-work plan become the family's unexamined assumption.
The nineteen-year-old
He can be admitted as a dependant while he is unmarried and under twenty-one, and he can attend school. He cannot take a paid summer job, which is the detail that surprises families most often. If he is starting college, changing to student status is usually the better plan, because it is his own status rather than a borrowed one, it survives a change in his mother's employment, and it does not expire on his twenty-first birthday. Student status carries its own conditions on enrolment and on any work, and those should be read before he arrives rather than in his first semester. Set a date well before the older child's dependent-status age-out date for a separate status review. The family must choose whether a student category, a work-authorised route, or departure is realistic, and it must be made before dependent eligibility ends. School admission, funding, and work rules need their own record and calendar.
The thirteen-year-old and the household calendar
Her position is the simplest: dependants may attend school, and she has years before age becomes an issue. What she brings to the planning is the calendar. School terms, the timing of the move, and whether the family travels together or in stages all interact with the principal's admission and with any licensing delay. Write the four answers on one page with dates against them, including each person's status, what they may do, and when anything expires. Households that keep that page current catch problems while they are still administrative. Maintain one household calendar with admission expirations, licence dates, school terms, passport validity, and the planned review for every dependant. The family must decide who updates it after travel or a change in employment. A shared record turns an approaching issue into a scheduled task rather than a surprise.
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.