Read the general life across the border overview
A family with mixed citizenships does not share one eligibility answer. Each person's route depends on that person's own nationality, status and role in the plan, so the household has to be broken into individual cases before any single strategy is chosen.
Identify the route available to the person taking the job or investment
The principal applicant's own citizenship decides which categories are even on the table. TN is limited to Canadian and Mexican citizens with a qualifying profession and credentials; a Canadian citizenship or permanent residence in another country does not extend TN eligibility to a spouse of a different nationality. An L1 route instead depends on a qualifying employment relationship abroad and a qualifying role, regardless of nationality. E2 depends on the person holding the qualifying investment being a national of a treaty country.
Determine each dependent's own status separately
A principal's approval does not by itself grant status to an accompanying family member. TD status is available to qualifying dependents of a TN principal but does not authorize employment. A qualifying spouse who obtains valid L-2 status is employment authorized incident to that status; an EAD application is optional. L-2 children do not receive that employment authorization. Check each person's classification, documents and any independent route separately.
Do not assume shared eligibility across the household
Treat the household as several individual assessments run in parallel: one for the person whose job or investment anchors the case, and one for each dependent's own status and any work authorization they want. A plan that works for one family member does not establish that it works for another, even when they will live together and travel together.
Ask what each person will actually do all day
The most practical question in a mixed-status household is not which form applies but how each person will spend their time once they arrive, because the answer exposes assumptions that paperwork hides. Take each family member in turn and ask whether they intend to work, to study, to care for children, or to continue something they already do remotely, and then check that intention against what their status would actually permit. Study is open to a spouse or eligible child holding TD status, but TD authorizes no employment at all. An L-2 spouse whose status is recorded as L-2S holds employment authorization incident to that status; L-2 children hold none. E dependants follow the same pattern: a qualifying spouse is generally employment authorized incident to valid status, on the applicable proof, while the children are not. Where someone would be permitted neither to work nor to study, that is worth confronting before the move rather than three months into it. Hypothetical example: a ballast-water systems engineer's household includes a spouse who intends to continue consulting for clients abroad, and the question of what that activity is and where it is performed is taken to counsel before the family commits, rather than treated as obviously fine.
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.