The college teacher category, which also covers seminary and university teachers, requires a baccalaureate or licenciatura degree and covers post-secondary teaching only; it is not a route for K-12 teaching positions. Part-time teaching appointments, common in post-secondary hiring, are allowed under this category as well as full-time ones. Three conditions apply alongside the credential and the level of instruction. The employment must be prearranged with the institution rather than arranged by the applicant for their own account, since self-employment is not permitted; the applicant must be a citizen of Canada or Mexico; and the qualification relied on must be the one the entry specifies. A Canadian citizen may request admission at a port of entry or preclearance without a visa, or the employer may file Form I-129; a Mexican citizen ordinarily applies for a TN visa before travelling.
Confirm the position is post-secondary
Gather the appointment letter or contract from the college, university, or seminary describing the course load, department, and rank. A position at a K-12 school, regardless of the applicant's degree, does not fit this category. Ask the department for the appointment letter rather than the offer email, since the letter usually states the rank, the term dates and the courses while the email states only that a decision has been made. Where the institution operates several divisions, confirm which one is making the appointment: a continuing education arm, a professional development centre and a degree-granting faculty can sit inside one organisation and are not interchangeable for this purpose. Collect the academic calendar showing the term as well, since it establishes the period the appointment covers.
Address a part-time or per-course teaching arrangement clearly
An applicant is offered a one-course-per-term adjunct appointment rather than a full-time faculty position. Part-time arrangements can qualify, but the appointment letter should still describe a genuine, prearranged teaching assignment with defined courses, hours, and an academic term, rather than an open-ended or informal understanding. Hypothetical example: a lecturer is offered one statistics course per term for the coming academic year, renewable by mutual agreement. The arrangement can fit, but the documentation has to describe something definite: the course codes, the contact hours, the term dates and the person who supervises the appointment. A first review would ask the department to convert an informal understanding into a letter with those particulars, and would check that nothing in the wording suggests the lecturer is engaging students on their own account or invoicing as a contractor.
Gather the degree and, where relevant, field-match documentation
Collect the degree transcript relevant to the teaching subject, and, if earned outside Canada, Mexico, or the U.S., a credentials evaluation. Where the degree field and the teaching subject differ, ask the institution to confirm how the appointment relates to the applicant's academic background. Where the teaching subject and the degree field are not obviously the same, ask the institution to explain the connection in the appointment letter itself, since the department is better placed than anyone to say why this person teaches this subject. A publication record, prior teaching in the field or a graduate specialisation can all support that explanation. Keep the credential documents in their own part of the file, separate from the appointment papers, because the two answer different questions and a reviewer reads them for different reasons.
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.