Read the general life across the border overview
A school place and an immigration status answer to different authorities. Admission is decided by the school or board under its own requirements; the child's permission to be present and to study comes from their status. Sort your questions into those two piles before assuming that a transfer requires an immigration step, or that nothing about the move touches status at all.
Confirm the child's status facts first
Note the child's classification, admission record and the dates on which it expires, and compare them with the principal's without assuming the dates must match. TD dependents may study and are not authorized to be employed. E and L dependent children are treated differently from qualifying dependent spouses, whose employment authorization is incident to their valid status; the children's position is a separate question, so do not read the spouse rule across to them. Record the child's date of birth as well, since age-related deadlines can arrive in the middle of an assignment.
Ask the school what it needs, in its own terms
Registration usually turns on records the school itself specifies — proof of address, previous transcripts, health records, placement testing. Collect those on the school's timetable and from the school's own instructions. There is no basis for assuming that an immigration filing accompanies each change of school; equally, do not assume that no part of the move has any bearing on status. The useful question is narrower: does anything in the new arrangement change what the child would actually be doing?
Look for the parts that involve work or a different kind of program
Hypothetical example: a family in Pointe-Claire moves a teenager to a school whose program includes a paid placement and an unpaid community component. The paid element is an employment question, not an admissions one. Unpaid activity is examined on its specifics rather than treated as automatically permitted or automatically prohibited, so describe the hours, the supervision and whether anyone else would be paid for the same work. Ask the same about a move into a postsecondary or vocational program, which is not necessarily the same thing as continuing at school. Bring the program's written description to the review rather than a summary of it.
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.