NAFTA Professionals List: Qualifying Jobs, Degrees, and Exclusions

The NAFTA professionals list — carried into the USMCA unchanged when that agreement replaced NAFTA on July 1, 2020 — identifies roughly 60 occupations that let a citizen of Canada or Mexico work in the United States in TN nonimmigrant status.¹ The list sits in Appendix 2 of Annex 16-A of the USMCA and sorts the professions into four groups: general professions, medical and allied professions, scientists, and post-secondary teachers.² Each entry carries its own minimum credential — usually a bachelor’s or licenciatura degree, sometimes a professional license, and in a few cases an experience-based alternative.

Eligibility turns on matching both the job and the credential. A qualifying degree that doesn’t line up with a listed profession won’t work, and a listed profession won’t work without the specific credential the treaty text requires.

General Professions

This is the widest group. Where the treaty lists more than one qualifying credential, any one of them satisfies the requirement.

Accountant: bachelor’s degree, or a professional designation (CPA, CA, CGA, or CMA)
Architect: bachelor’s degree, or a state or provincial license
Computer Systems Analyst: bachelor’s degree; or a post-secondary diploma or certificate plus three years of experience
Disaster Relief Insurance Claims Adjuster: bachelor’s degree plus completion of training in disaster relief claims adjustment; or three years of claims adjustment experience plus that same training
Economist: bachelor’s degree
Engineer: bachelor’s degree, or a state or provincial license
Forester: bachelor’s degree, or a state or provincial license
Graphic Designer: bachelor’s degree; or a post-secondary diploma or certificate plus three years of experience
Hotel Manager: bachelor’s degree in hotel or restaurant management; or a post-secondary diploma or certificate in hotel or restaurant management plus three years of experience in that field
Industrial Designer: bachelor’s degree; or a post-secondary diploma or certificate plus three years of experience
Interior Designer: bachelor’s degree; or a post-secondary diploma or certificate plus three years of experience
Land Surveyor: bachelor’s degree, or a state, provincial, or federal license
Landscape Architect: bachelor’s degree
Lawyer (including Notary in the Province of Quebec): LL.B., J.D., LL.L., B.C.L., or a five-year licenciatura degree; or membership in a state or provincial bar
Librarian: M.L.S. or B.L.S., where a prior bachelor’s degree was required for admission to the program
Management Consultant: bachelor’s degree; or five years of experience as a management consultant; or five years of experience in a specialty field related to the consulting engagement
Mathematician (including Statistician): bachelor’s degree
Range Manager / Range Conservationist: bachelor’s degree
Research Assistant (at a post-secondary institution): bachelor’s degree
Scientific Technician / Technologist: theoretical knowledge in a qualifying scientific discipline, generally shown by at least two years of post-secondary training, and work in direct support of a professional in that field
Social Worker: bachelor’s degree
Sylviculturist (Forestry Specialist): bachelor’s degree
Technical Publications Writer: bachelor’s degree; or a post-secondary diploma or certificate plus three years of experience
Urban Planner (including Geographer): bachelor’s degree

Medical and Allied Professions

Medical occupations sit in their own category, and many require a professional doctoral degree or a license rather than a bachelor’s degree.

Dentist: D.D.S., D.M.D., Doctor en Odontologia, or Doctor en Cirugia Dental; or a state or provincial license
Dietitian: bachelor’s degree, or a state or provincial license
Medical Laboratory Technologist: bachelor’s degree; or a post-secondary diploma or certificate plus three years of experience
Nutritionist: bachelor’s degree
Occupational Therapist: bachelor’s degree, or a state or provincial license
Pharmacist: bachelor’s degree, or a state or provincial license
Physician (teaching or research only): M.D., Doctor en Medicina, or equivalent; or a state or provincial license
Physiotherapist / Physical Therapist: bachelor’s degree, or a state or provincial license
Psychologist: state or provincial license, or a licenciatura degree
Recreational Therapist: bachelor’s degree
Registered Nurse: state or provincial license, or a licenciatura degree
Veterinarian: D.V.M., D.M.V., or Doctor en Veterinaria; or a state or provincial license

Physicians carry the sharpest limit in this group. TN status only covers physicians entering to teach or conduct research; direct clinical practice is not covered.²

Scientists

The scientist category is the longest portion of the list. Every occupation in this group requires a bachelor’s or licenciatura degree in the relevant field, with no alternative credential pathway.²

Agriculturist (including Agronomist)
Animal Breeder
Animal Scientist
Apiculturist
Astronomer
Biochemist
Biologist
Chemist
Dairy Scientist
Entomologist
Epidemiologist
Geneticist
Geochemist
Geologist
Geophysicist (including Oceanographer)
Horticulturist
Meteorologist
Pharmacologist
Physicist (including Oceanographer)
Plant Breeder
Poultry Scientist
Soil Scientist
Zoologist

Teachers

Only post-secondary teachers qualify. Three sub-categories are listed — college, seminary, and university teachers — and each requires a bachelor’s degree. Elementary and secondary school teachers are not on the list and cannot use TN status to teach in the United States.¹

How the Credential Requirements Work

Most professions require a bachelor’s or licenciatura degree from a recognized institution, and the degree generally must relate directly to the profession. For most categories there is no way to substitute work experience for a degree.

Several general-category professions allow a post-secondary diploma or certificate combined with three years of relevant work experience: computer systems analysts, graphic designers, hotel managers, industrial designers, interior designers, medical laboratory technologists, and technical publications writers. The diploma or certificate must reflect at least two years of post-secondary education at an accredited institution in Canada or the United States, or an institution recognized by the Mexican federal or state government.³

Management consultants are the one exception where experience alone can replace both the degree and any diploma. Five years of professional experience as a management consultant, or five years in a specialty field related to the consulting engagement, fully satisfies the credential requirement.²

Scientific technicians follow their own structure. Rather than a bachelor’s degree, the technician must show theoretical knowledge through at least two years of post-secondary training and must work in direct support of a professional in a qualifying scientific or engineering field, such as biology, chemistry, engineering, geology, or physics. The supporting relationship is essential; a scientific technician cannot work independently.³

Several professions accept a state or provincial license in place of a degree, including engineers, architects, foresters, land surveyors, and several medical occupations. Where the work will be performed in a regulated field, the applicant may also need a license in the specific U.S. state where they will be working, separate from the immigration credential requirement.

Jobs and Situations the List Does Not Cover

The professions above are the entire universe of TN-eligible occupations. A job that looks similar to a listed profession but doesn’t fit its title and credential — or a role that mixes duties across several listed professions in a way that doesn’t clearly match one — falls outside the treaty. Elementary and secondary teaching is excluded, as noted. Clinical medical practice by a physician is excluded. Skilled trades, general business managers, and most information-technology roles that aren’t computer systems analysis are not on the list at all. And regardless of the profession, TN status does not allow self-employment: rendering services to a business the professional owns or controls is treated as self-employment even if the paperwork shows a separate corporate employer.⁴

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 2 Part P Chapter 1
2
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. USMCA Chapter 16 – Temporary Entry for Business Persons
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 2 Part P Chapter 6 – Requirements for Specific Occupations
4
eCFR. 8 CFR 214.6 – Citizens of Canada or Mexico Seeking Temporary Entry