Read the general eligibility basics overview
Canadian citizenship or permanent residence alone does not authorize U.S. employment. The U.S. classification matters: qualifying E-2 and L-2 spouses are employment authorized incident to valid spousal status, while TD status and E-2/L-2 dependent-child status do not themselves authorize work. Confirm the individual's status and acceptable evidence.
Check what the principal's category actually authorizes for dependents
Qualifying E-2 and L-2 spouses are employment authorized incident to their valid spousal status; they do not need a separate Form I-765 approval to start work. TD status itself does not authorize employment. E-2 and L-2 dependent children do not receive employment authorization from those classifications. A family member without employment authorization must establish a separate lawful basis before working; the principal's employment and the family's Canadian status do not fill that gap.
Confirm the qualifying relationship and required documents
The spouse must establish the qualifying relationship and valid U.S. spousal status. For qualifying E-2 and L-2 spouses, work authorization is incident to that status; it is not created by Canadian citizenship or by a separate mandatory EAD approval. Check the I-94 and acceptable Form I-9 evidence, including the identity document when using the I-94 as List C evidence.
Set expectations before the move, not after
If the family member's expectation of working cannot currently be supported by the category under consideration, that is worth establishing before relocation rather than after, since it changes household income planning and possibly the timeline itself. A clear answer now, even an unfavorable one, is more useful than an assumption carried into a new country.
Build a table with one row for each person
The reliable way to prevent an assumption about work authorization from surviving into a household's plans is mechanical: write a table with one row per family member and four columns, and fill it in from documents rather than from memory. The columns are the status that person would hold, whether that status permits study, whether it permits employment, and what document or record evidences the answer. The rows fill in differently and that is the point. A spouse or eligible child in TD status may generally study, but TD does not itself authorize employment. A spouse in valid L-2S status is employment authorized incident to that status, and an employment authorization document is not universally required for that purpose, while children in L-2 are not work authorized. A spouse holding a qualifying E dependent status fills the employment column the same way: authorized incident to that valid status, with the evidence column completed from the applicable proof. The children's rows do not. Add a fifth column for date of birth, because eligibility as a dependent child is limited to unmarried children under twenty-one and a birthday can change a row. Then have the table checked by someone qualified rather than treating it as settled because it looks tidy. Hypothetical example: a household moving with a customs broker completes the table and discovers that the spouse's row and the seventeen-year-old's row require entirely different follow-up, which a general conversation about the family's status had obscured for weeks.
What else is on your mind?
Does Canadian permanent residence give me access to TN?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?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.