Read the general life across the border overview
TD status does not itself authorize employment. Qualifying L-2 and E-2 spouses are employment authorized incident to valid spousal status; their EAD applications are optional. Children in TD, L-2 or E-2 dependent status are not authorized to work by those classifications. Confirm each person's actual status and employment evidence rather than relying on the principal's job offer.
Identify which dependent category applies
A spouse or child accompanying a TN holder is in TD status; a spouse or child accompanying an L1 holder is in L2 status; a spouse or child accompanying an E2 principal holds E2 dependent status. Each of these is a distinct category with its own rules, and the family member's own paperwork, not the principal's job offer, is what establishes it.
Confirm the spouse's qualifying status and evidence
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. An unexpired Form I-94 marked E-2S or L-2S provides List C evidence of employment authorization for Form I-9 and must be paired with an acceptable List B identity document. A spouse may instead choose to apply for an EAD, but that application is optional. If a TD spouse wants to work, counsel must identify a separate legal basis; TD alone provides none.
Separate dependent study rights from work authorization
Children maintaining TD, L-2 or E-2 dependent status may attend school, including post-secondary study, without changing to student status solely for that study. Those dependent classifications do not themselves authorize a child's employment. Confirm enrolment arrangements with the school and seek advice about a separate lawful basis before work begins. Also plan for status expiry or aging out; permission to study does not extend the child's authorized stay.
Keep study and employment in different columns
A great deal of household confusion comes from treating permission to study and permission to work as a single idea, when they behave quite differently across the categories and for different people in the same family. Study and employment need their own columns because the answers diverge: a spouse or eligible child in TD status may generally study, while TD does not itself authorize employment; children in L-2 or in E dependent status may generally study but are not work authorized by those classifications; and a qualifying L-2 or E dependent spouse is generally employment authorized incident to valid spousal status, with the evidence question then being its own separate matter. Two consequences deserve stating to a family before anyone plans. A teenager who may attend school full-time is not thereby permitted to take a part-time job, and the distinction is easy to miss because the same document underpins both answers with different results. And a spouse enrolling in a course is doing something different from a spouse taking employment, so a plan that involves both should confirm each separately rather than assuming one implies the other. Write the two columns, fill them per person, and have them checked. Hypothetical example: a logistics engineer's household completes the grid and finds that the answer for the sixteen-year-old differs between the two columns, which nobody had realised while the conversation stayed at the level of the family as a whole.
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.