Read the general professional work overview
TN classification for physicians is restricted to teaching or research positions; it does not cover clinical work involving direct patient care. The document file has to make that scope explicit, alongside the standard M.D. or Doctor en Medicina degree, or state or provincial licensure, evidence.
Confirm the position is teaching or research, not patient care
The employer letter should describe the specific teaching or research duties, such as course instruction, supervision of trainees, or research protocols, and should not describe direct clinical responsibilities such as diagnosing or treating patients as part of routine duties. If the position combines research with any incidental patient contact, ask the employer to clarify how that is structured, since the category's own limitation governs eligibility regardless of how the job is titled.
Gather the medical credential evidence
Collect the M.D. (or Doctor en Medicina) degree documentation, or, alternatively, evidence of a state or provincial medical license. Where duties involve an academic appointment, also gather the appointment letter from the university or research institution describing rank and responsibilities.
Separate this from state medical licensing questions
A physician recruited for a clinical research role at a teaching hospital also has an informal expectation of occasional supervised patient rounds. Before finalizing documents, have the employer confirm in writing whether any patient-facing duties exist, and whether those duties would require a state medical license the applicant does not yet hold. Unresolved license questions for patient-care duties are separate from, and do not substitute for, the TN teaching-or-research limitation itself.
Write the scope limitation into the employer's own documents
The restriction is the part of this file most likely to be misunderstood by people who are not immigration specialists, and the people writing the offer letter are usually not immigration specialists. So the scope has to be visible in the employer's own paperwork rather than only in a covering explanation. Ask that the position description state affirmatively what the role consists of — teaching, research, and the activities that genuinely support them — and state as well what it does not include. Then check the surrounding documents for language that contradicts it, because institutions reuse templates and a standard clause about clinical duties, on-call obligations, or hospital privileges can appear in a letter for a role that has none of those things. Look at the job advertisement, the departmental description, the appointment letter and any handbook incorporated by reference. Where the institution genuinely needs flexibility to add other duties later, that is a conversation to have now rather than a clause to leave sitting in the file. Keep the credential evidence on a separate track, and treat state medical licensing as its own question with its own timeline, since it is governed by the licensing authority rather than by the immigration analysis. Hypothetical example: a physician joining a computational imaging research group finds the standard appointment letter contains a clinical-duties clause inherited from a different template, and having it removed takes one email and prevents a contradiction sitting at the centre of the file.
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.