IN THIS GUIDE · TN review for an accountant offered mixed consulting and advisory work
Start with the TN eligibility and application overview
Break the role into its component tasks
List every task in the offer separately: financial statement preparation, audit work, tax compliance, versus general business advisory, strategy sessions, or client relationship management unrelated to accounting output. Ask what proportion of time each category takes and whether the accounting tasks are the substantive core of the position or a minor component attached to a broader consulting role. This separation matters because the profession's recognition depends on the accounting content of the work, not on the applicant's professional background generally.
Confirm the accounting credential fits the accounting tasks
Once the accounting-specific duties are identified, compare the applicant's designation, jurisdiction of licensure, and relevant experience against what those specific tasks require. A credential recognized for audit and financial reporting work does not automatically extend to every advisory task the employer wants performed. Note any gap between the credential held and the accounting tasks proposed, and treat general business experience as separate from the credentialed accounting work even where the applicant is skilled at both.
Decide what to do with the non-accounting portion
Where a meaningful share of the role is general consulting unrelated to accounting deliverables, discuss with the employer whether that portion can be reduced, reassigned, or reframed, since a role that is mostly non-accounting work weakens the case regardless of how strong the applicant's accounting credential is. Do not assume that describing the position as 'accounting' on paper resolves a role that in practice functions as broader consulting. This decision affects how the offer letter should be worded once duties are settled.
Turn the split into a concrete plan
Once the accounting and non-accounting tasks are separated, ask the employer to confirm which duties will actually appear in the role going forward and get that documented. Identify what credential evidence still needs collecting and set a date for that. Build family travel and budget plans around the more conservative estimate, since a role that needs restructuring before filing will take longer than one that already matches cleanly.
Write the split down and give it an owner
A mixed role is not resolved by a single conversation, because the thing being resolved keeps moving. Once the employer has itemised the position and the professional content is clear, three further steps make that clarity durable. First, get the agreed description into a document the employer has signed, rather than leaving it as the outcome of an exchange of emails, because a signed description is what anyone reviewing the position later will actually read. Second, record what was excluded and why. A note explaining that a particular advisory workstream was moved to another colleague is more useful in a year's time than a description that simply omits it, since the question that arises later is usually why the role looks different rather than what it once contained. Third, name the person responsible for comparing the actual job to that description annually, and agree what triggers a fresh review — a promotion, a reorganisation, the departure of the colleague who took the excluded work. Roles drift toward whatever the business needs, and the drift is rarely announced. Hypothetical example: a vocational counsellor's position is agreed at roughly seventy per cent professional practice, and the reorganisation that pushes it toward programme administration eighteen months later is noticed because someone had been made responsible for noticing it.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.