Read the general life across the border overview
Dependent statuses are not interchangeable. A TD spouse accompanying a TN professional may live and study in the United States but has no employment authorisation. An L-2 spouse accompanying an L-1 transferee is employment-authorised incident to that status. Children under twenty-one are derivatives in both, may study in both, and may work in neither. Choosing the principal's route therefore decides what the second adult can do.
Two households, one difference
Hypothetical example: the Lachapelle-Nkemdirim family leaves Saint-Joachim-de-Shefford with one parent on TN and the other intending to find work, a daughter of seventeen and a son of twenty. The working parent's plan does not survive contact with TD status, which permits study and not employment. Had the same household moved on an L-1 transfer, the accompanying spouse would have been able to work incident to status. That single difference is often worth more to a family's finances than the difference between the two principals' salaries, and it is decided at the point the principal's category is chosen rather than afterwards.
Every person needs their own line
Derivative status covers presence, not activity, and each person's intentions have to be tested separately. The seventeen-year-old may attend school as a dependant. The twenty-year-old may also attend, but has a birthday inside the plan: derivative eligibility ends at twenty-one, and after that he needs a basis of his own, most often a student status that takes months to arrange. A dependant who wants to work at any age needs an independent route, whether that is a listed profession in her own right or a category with its own authorisation. Age, marital status and intended activity are three separate facts and each of them can change the answer.
Sequence the family alongside the principal
Families usually prepare the principal's case first and then discover the household questions late, when the options have narrowed. Reverse it. Set out every member's age at the intended travel date and at the likely renewal, note what each one wants to do, and identify who needs something the derivative status will not provide. Then gather the civil documents early, since certificates and certified translations take longer to obtain than anyone expects. Where a spouse's ability to work is decisive for the move, that fact should be part of choosing the principal's route, not a constraint discovered after the offer has been accepted.
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.