Start with the TN eligibility and application overview
Explain the actual professional engagement
Canadian or Mexican citizenship, a listed USMCA profession and that profession’s qualifications are central TN requirements. Identify the substantive duties, remuneration, duration and employer. A familiar project address cannot turn an unlisted job into a qualifying profession.
Keep locations in their proper context
Describe the actual arrangement without assuming each address creates a separate employer or that every location is interchangeable. Sole or controlling ownership of the US enterprise receiving services raises prohibited self-employment. Canadians generally may seek TN admission without a TN visa; Mexicans generally need the visa process. Use an employer petition where appropriate to the facts. A Canadian citizen may apply at a designated port of entry or preclearance station, or a U.S. employer may file Form I-129 with USCIS; the Canadian does not need a TN visa stamp.
Temporary work and credential review
TN is for qualifying temporary professional activity. Degrees from institutions outside Canada, Mexico and the United States require a reliable foreign-credential evaluation. Any licence needed to practise in the United States is a separate issue from the listed TN qualification. A foreign business interest alone is not a blanket bar; the self-employment concern described here concerns the US enterprise receiving services.
Hypothetical example: an occupational therapist visiting patients in three states
Hypothetical example: a Colwood occupational therapist is hired by a US home-health agency whose letter gives the agency’s head office in one state, while her caseload will be patients’ homes across that state and two neighbouring ones. Occupational Therapist is a listed profession, qualified by a degree or a state or provincial licence, and her Canadian degree and provincial registration answer that part. What goes wrong is everything the head-office address hides. Each state where she treats patients requires its own occupational-therapy licence, and she must also present a health-care worker certification from an approved organization at the port of entry, because occupational therapy is among the health occupations covered by that regulation. A letter naming only the head office reads as if the work happens there; an officer who learns at renewal that she practised in three states without licences in two of them will treat the earlier file as inaccurate. The letter should list the states of practice, the licence status in each and the agency as the employer paying her.
What the reviewer asks for first
The certification and the licences come before the letter in importance, because without them the profession cannot be practised lawfully at all. Then the letter: employer, professional duties, pay, duration and, for a multi-state caseload, the locations. Then the degree and registration. Confirm she holds no ownership in the agency. A degree from outside Canada, Mexico or the United States would need a credential evaluation in addition, not instead of, the state licences.
Sequence the licences against the start date
Apply for the licence in the primary state first and, in parallel, the certification screening, since both can take months; ask the agency whether the caseload can begin in one state while the other licences are pending, and have the letter describe that phased arrangement honestly. A Canadian citizen may present the file at a port of entry or the agency may petition. Her spouse and children in TD status may study but may not work in the United States. Keep a running record of where she actually practised, by month and state, from the first day. At renewal the officer may compare the earlier letter with the caseload, and a therapist who can show that every visit fell within a licensed state, with the licence numbers and their effective dates, turns the multi-state arrangement from a liability into an ordinary fact of home-health work.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.