Read the general life across the border overview
An L’Île-Perrot household may stagger its move around existing commitments. A family itinerary should identify each person’s eligibility and admission documents rather than assuming that the principal’s first entry resolves every later arrival. Households move in pieces for ordinary reasons — a school term, a notice period, a house that has not sold. Each of those is a private arrangement, and none of them changes what a relative must hold in order to arrive on their own date.
Check the relationship, age and intended dependent category
TD, E and L dependent planning generally concerns the qualifying spouse and unmarried children under 21. Record each person’s actual citizenship and documents; a relative does not automatically share a Canadian principal’s visa exemption. For immigrant cases, examine any CSPA age protection individually rather than applying it as a general freeze of temporary dependent status.
Plan work and study using the actual status held
TD dependents cannot work on that status. Qualifying E and L spouses may be employment-authorized incident to valid status with the appropriate evidence; an EAD is not universally mandatory. Children do not gain work authorization solely through E or L dependent status. Study is possible while the applicable dependent status is maintained, but enrollment does not extend that status.
Reconcile each arrival with the current principal record
Before a later trip, review the principal’s actual situation, the intended category and the arriving relative’s evidence. After admission, check the authorized stay recorded for that individual. Hypothetical example: a child’s school term begins after the principal’s move; the school date is a planning constraint, not a substitute for dependent eligibility or an extension of the authorized stay.
A ticket is a contract of carriage; admission is decided on arrival
Booking travel secures transport and nothing beyond it. Every person is examined on their own documents when they present themselves, and the period authorised for one traveller says nothing about another’s, even where the itinerary was bought in a single transaction. Build the household plan around what each person will hold on their own arrival date rather than around a booking reference. Check afterwards what was actually recorded for each individual, since families that assume matching admissions often discover months later that two members hold different end dates and only one of them was watching the calendar.
A custody order settles who decides; it does not settle who may travel
Family-law arrangements allocate decision-making and time between parents, and they are read at a border for a narrower purpose: whether a child travelling with one parent has the other’s consent. Carry the order or agreement together with a signed consent letter naming the accompanying adult and the dates concerned. The dependent category asks its own questions about the relationship and the child’s age under the applicable rules, and a change of guardianship, an adoption or a marriage can move a person out of one category without moving them into another. Raise any of these before booking rather than at the counter.
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.