Read the general life across the border overview
A signed offer settles the business relationship, not the immigration category. Before treating it as ready for a TN or L1 filing, check that the duties, employer relationship and credentials described actually satisfy the category's requirements, and flag any condition in the offer that still needs employer sign-off.
Compare the offer to the category's evidence needs
Read the offer against what the intended category actually requires. For a TN filing, the listed profession and duties have to match a recognized category, and the position cannot be structured as self-employment. For an L1 filing, the offer has to reflect a qualifying corporate relationship and a genuinely managerial, executive or specialized-knowledge role, not just a job title. Where the offer is silent on these points, that silence is a gap to close, not evidence the requirement is met.
Assign an owner for each open item
Unresolved conditions in an offer usually belong to different people: HR can confirm the legal employer entity and compensation, the hiring manager can confirm the actual day-to-day duties, and outside counsel or an immigration specialist can confirm whether those duties fit the category. Write down who owns each open question and when a corrected version of the offer will exist, rather than assuming the next draft will resolve it.
Separate the business decision from the immigration decision
Accepting an offer is a personal and financial decision; qualifying for a visa category is a separate legal question with its own evidence standard. Keep the signed offer and any internal notes about unresolved terms in different places, and have the actual profession or role fit reviewed independently before relying on the offer as proof that a filing will succeed.
Give every family member their own authorization line
Household planning fails most often because one person's permission is assumed to cover everyone. Write each family member on a separate line with three columns: the status they would hold, whether that status permits study, and whether it permits employment. A spouse or eligible child in TD status may generally study, but TD does not authorize employment. Eligible spouses and unmarried children under 21 may seek L-2, and a spouse in valid L-2S status is employment authorized incident to that status, while children in L-2 are not work authorized. A qualifying E dependent spouse is generally employment authorized incident to valid status, evidenced through the applicable proof, while dependent children again gain nothing on that column. Add each person's date of birth, because a child crossing twenty-one during the assignment leaves the dependent category and needs an independent basis. Hypothetical example: a veterinary radiologist's household contains a spouse intending to return to clinical work and a seventeen-year-old, and the two lines of that table produce entirely different follow-up tasks.
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.