Read the general professional work overview
Hypothetical example: Célestine is a dietitian in East Ferris with a Canadian degree and eight years in clinical practice, offered a hospital post across the border. Dietitian appears in USMCA Appendix 2, and the entry is met by a baccalaureate degree or by a state or provincial licence. Her degree answers the immigration question. It does not answer the state's, and the state's is the one that decides whether she may lawfully perform the job at all.
Two questions that look like one
The immigration question is whether Célestine's credential matches the Appendix 2 entry for her profession. The regulatory question is whether the state where the hospital sits will let her practise. They are decided by different bodies, on different evidence, on different timetables, and a favourable answer to one says nothing about the other. Where the state requires a licence or registration to perform the duties, a TN admission creates no permission to work unlicensed; it authorizes the status for work she must separately be entitled to do. The practical consequence is a sequencing rule: open the board file first, because boards verify foreign credentials on their own schedule and rarely on anybody else's.
Assemble the credential evidence the way the entry reads
The Appendix 2 entry names the acceptable routes, and the file should follow whichever one she is using rather than presenting everything at once. For a degree route: the parchment, the transcript and, where the education was obtained outside Canada, the United States or Mexico, an evaluation from a recognized service. For a licence route: the current certificate of registration, showing its status and expiry. Where an entry accepts a diploma plus a stated number of years of experience, that experience needs dated employer letters describing the duties actually performed, not a résumé. Certified translations are required for anything not in English, and originals should travel with her rather than sit in a file at home.
Describe the engagement so nothing has to be inferred
The support letter is what an officer reads first and what a thin file most often lacks. It should identify the U.S. employer or contracting entity by legal name, state Célestine's Canadian citizenship, name the profession in the Appendix 2 wording, and set out duties a stranger could picture: which patient populations, which clinical responsibilities, whose supervision. It should give the period requested, the salary and the reporting line, and it should avoid describing her as a consultant, since TN does not permit self-employment in the United States. If the assignment changes before she travels, reissue the letter rather than explaining the discrepancy at the border.
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: 2026-09-08. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.