Start with the TN eligibility and application overview
The profession is listed, but the qualifying rule names a subject
Appendix 2 sets out two routes into Hotel Manager. The first is a baccalaureate or licenciatura degree in hotel or restaurant management. The second is a post-secondary diploma or post-secondary certificate in hotel or restaurant management together with three years of experience in that field. Both branches attach the same subject to the qualification, which is why a general commerce, business administration or management degree does not satisfy either branch on its own, however senior the career built on it. Marguerite's fourteen years are relevant to the second branch's experience element, but experience is only half of that branch; without the diploma or certificate in the named discipline there is nothing for the experience to attach to. Officers read this entry literally, and a persuasive résumé does not repair a credential in the wrong subject.
What actually closes a gap of this shape
There are three honest ways forward and one dishonest one. She can complete a post-secondary certificate or diploma in hotel or restaurant management, which several Canadian colleges deliver part-time, and then rely on the second branch with her existing experience. She can establish that her degree included a hotel or restaurant management major or concentration named as such on the parchment or the official transcript, which sometimes turns out to be true of hospitality streams inside a business faculty. She can look at whether the American employer would instead petition for a different classification altogether, which is a question for a licensed U.S. immigration attorney. What she cannot do is present the business degree and let the officer infer hospitality from the job history, because the inference is exactly what the rule refuses to make.
A profit share is not the problem; owning the operation is
The Michigan group has offered a base salary plus a percentage of the property's operating profit, and has floated the idea that Marguerite might also keep running the small wedding and events business she operates from Lambton Shores, serving American clients while she is there. Incentive pay from a U.S. employer is ordinary compensation and raises nothing. The events business is different, because TN does not allow a person to be self-employed in the United States: the U.S. entity has to employ or contract her and control the work she does. Any equity she is offered in the American company must be disclosed, and a stake large enough that she would effectively be working for herself invites a finding that no genuine employment relationship exists. The side business should stay in Canada, with Canadian clients, or be dealt with before she applies.
Where the application is made, and what travels with it
As a Canadian citizen Marguerite needs no visa stamp. She may present herself with her evidence at a land port of entry or at a preclearance facility in a Canadian airport and ask for TN admission on the spot, or the Michigan employer may file Form I-129 with USCIS first and she presents the approval when she travels. A Mexican citizen in the same job would ordinarily go through the visa process at a consular post instead, which is a different sequence with different timing. Admission is granted for a fixed period not exceeding three years and is tied to the employer and duties described, so a change of property, a change of role or a new employer during those three years is a fresh question rather than an internal transfer she can simply take.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.