Read the general professional work overview
A Sainte-Julie applicant may receive an offer that anticipates the required U.S. immigration outcome. Identify the genuine professional arrangement and the condition attached to its start rather than treating the offer as permission to begin. The first review should produce a short list of the offer facts, the TN professional category, the credential evidence, and the process that matches the applicant’s nationality and location. The decision is whether the employer can support the real arrangement now, not whether a conditional sentence can stand in for immigration classification.
Read the offer’s condition with the actual duties
Record the employer, professional services, compensation and intended temporary period. Hypothetical example: the employer proposes a start after the appropriate immigration process is completed. Explain the actual terms and any unresolved duties; do not replace a contingent start with a false statement that U.S. work has already begun. Hypothetical example: an optical-fibre draw-tower vibration engineer receives an offer conditional on TN classification. The employer must decide whether its letter identifies the actual professional duties and credentials before setting a date, rather than treating a general engineering title as the missing evidence.
Verify the qualification independently of the offer
A TN proposal still needs Canadian or Mexican citizenship and the prescribed qualifications for the listed profession. An employer’s condition does not waive a missing credential. Where a degree comes from an institution outside Canada, Mexico or the United States, obtain the reliable foreign-credential evaluation required for that evidence; translation performs a different function. Keep citizenship evidence, qualification evidence, and the employer letter in separate folders. A Canadian seeking admission may request TN classification from CBP; an appropriate employer petition can use Form I-129 with USCIS, while a Mexican applicant generally needs the applicable visa process. The records determine the next step.
Identify the step that would permit the work
TN cannot cover services to a U.S. entity solely owned or controlled by the applicant. Assess the real arrangement and applicable process before relying on the planned start. A conditional offer may describe the parties’ intention, but the document itself does not confer status or authorize employment. Ask who owns the U.S. recipient, who may end the assignment, and who bears its commercial risk. TN does not allow work that is, in substance, self-employment, so an offer cannot repair a control structure that makes the applicant their own U.S. employer.
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.