Read the general life across the border overview
Hypothetical example: the Nakagawa-Beaulieu household in Lambton Shores is considering a move built around one job offer at a Michigan resort group. Kenji would hold the professional status. Aurélie intends to keep her Ontario consulting clients. Their son turns twenty-one in fourteen months. Aurélie's mother, who lives with them, expects to come along. Four people, one plan, and only one of them has a route that has been thought about.
Each person is measured on their own facts
Immigration status is personal, not familial. Kenji's route turns on his citizenship, whether his occupation appears in the closed list of professions, whether his credential satisfies that occupation's own rule, and whether the position genuinely consists of that professional work. Aurélie's route turns on what she intends to do, and intending to keep working is a different question from intending to accompany. Their son's turns on his age and marital status now and at each later stage. Her mother's turns on whether any status covers a parent at all. Writing the household out as four rows — name, citizenship, age, intended activity — converts a vague family plan into four specific questions, and usually reveals that at least one of them has no answer yet.
Derivative status is borrowed, and narrower than families expect
A dependent's status is derived from the principal's and lasts exactly as long as it does. What the dependant may then do varies sharply by category, and this is where households are caught out. A TD dependant may live in the United States and study, but has no work authorization of any kind, so Aurélie could not take American work and could not continue serving Ontario clients from a desk across the border. In other categories a spouse is employment-authorized incident to status and may work freely. The distinction is not a detail: for a two-income household it can decide whether the move is affordable, and it should be established before an offer is accepted rather than after a lease is signed.
The people no derivative status reaches
Two members of this household fall outside the derivative net. Their son ceases to qualify as a derivative child at twenty-one, and since the birthday falls inside the intended stay, he needs his own basis planned now — a student status if he is studying, an employment basis if he is working — arranged before rather than after the date. Aurélie's mother is not covered at all: derivative categories reach spouses and unmarried children under twenty-one, not parents, so her position depends on visitor rules or on a separate route with its own long timetable. A common-law partner would sit in the same gap, since derivative status follows a legally recognised marriage. None of these is unsolvable, but all of them take longer than the job offer will wait.
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.