TN Visa for Canadian Citizens: Border Filing and Extensions

A Canadian citizen can get a TN visa for Canadian citizens by showing up at a U.S. port of entry or preclearance facility with a job offer in one of the professions listed under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the credentials that profession requires, and a detailed support letter from the U.S. employer. A Customs and Border Protection officer reviews the package on the spot and, if satisfied, issues an I-94 record granting up to three years of work authorization the same day.¹ The category traces back to the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement and carried over unchanged into the USMCA.

Who Qualifies

Three things have to line up. You must be a Canadian citizen, not just a permanent resident of Canada. You must have a prearranged job offer from a U.S. employer. And that job must fall within the USMCA professions list, with credentials to match.²

The list contains more than 60 occupations, including accountants, engineers, computer systems analysts, registered nurses, pharmacologists, and architects. Most require at least a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent from a recognized institution. A few accept alternatives; scientific technicians, for example, can qualify with a postsecondary diploma plus relevant work experience.³ If the profession needs a state license to practice in the U.S., such as nursing or engineering, you need that license in hand before you apply.

Self-employment is not allowed. The regulations treat you as self-employed if you’ll be providing services to a company you own or control, so setting up a U.S. entity and applying to work for it is a dead end. You need a real employer-employee relationship with a separate U.S. business.² The work can be full-time or part-time.

What to Bring

Start with your Canadian passport. Add original diplomas and transcripts for every relevant degree; photocopies alone don’t satisfy border officers, who routinely ask to inspect originals. If your profession requires U.S. state licensure, include proof of current licensure.

The centerpiece of the file is a support letter from the U.S. employer. It needs to cover:

The job title, matching a profession on the USMCA list exactly.
A detailed description of duties, concrete enough to show the work is professional-level.
The anticipated duration of employment, up to three years.
Salary or hourly rate.
A description of the employer’s business and how the position fits into it.

The duties section is where most applications fail. “Will perform engineering tasks” gives the officer nothing to evaluate. The letter has to spell out, in specific terms, what professional work you’ll do and why it takes someone with your credentials. Officers compare your listed duties against the regulatory definition of the profession, and a mismatch means denial.

Applying at the Border

Most Canadian applicants use this route, and it’s the biggest procedural edge Canadians have over almost every other work-visa category. You appear at a CBP-designated port of entry or a preclearance facility at a Canadian airport with your full documentation package. An officer reviews it on the spot, typically within an hour, though busy periods run longer.⁴

You’ll pay the I-94 arrival record fee, which rose to $30 in late 2025.⁵ If approved, the officer issues an I-94 reflecting your TN status and authorized period of stay, and you’re cleared to start work.

Filing Through USCIS Instead

The employer can also file Form I-129 (Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker) directly with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.⁶ This makes sense when the employer prefers to handle everything internally, when you’re already in the U.S. and need to change or extend status, or when you’d rather not gamble on a same-day border decision.

The I-129 filing fee for a TN petition is $1,015, with a reduced rate of $510 for qualifying small employers and nonprofits.⁷ Standard processing runs several weeks to several months depending on the service center. An employer who needs a faster answer can request premium processing by filing Form I-907, which guarantees USCIS action within 15 business days.⁸ The premium processing fee for I-129 TN petitions rose to $2,965 effective March 1, 2026.⁹

How Long You Can Stay and How to Extend

Initial admission can cover up to three years.¹ When that period nears its end, you have two options.

Your employer can file a new Form I-129 with USCIS while you stay in the country. The filing must reach USCIS before your current I-94 expires; letting it lapse creates a gap in authorized stay that causes serious problems. Each extension can run up to three years.²

Or you can leave the United States and apply for a fresh three-year period at a port of entry with an updated employer letter and the same supporting documents. Many TN holders prefer this because it avoids the I-129 fee and the wait.

There is no cap on total time in TN status. The regulations explicitly set no limit, as long as you keep working in a qualifying profession for a U.S. employer and maintain status.² The longer you stay, though, the more scrutiny you may draw about whether your presence remains temporary.

If You’re Denied at the Border

A CBP officer’s denial at a port of entry cannot be formally appealed. You can turn around and reapply, but resubmitting the same package rarely works. The common denial reasons are a job description that doesn’t clearly match the USMCA profession, missing or insufficient academic credentials, and an employer letter that fails to establish the professional nature of the work.

Ask the officer to explain the specific reason. That answer is your roadmap for the next attempt, whether that means a more detailed support letter, additional credential documentation, or having the employer file through USCIS, where review tends to be more deliberate. A TN denial does not bar you from entering the U.S. for other purposes, such as tourism under visitor status.

If You Lose Your Job

Losing your job doesn’t drop you out of status immediately. Federal regulations grant a discretionary grace period of up to 60 days after your last day of employment, or until your I-94 expires, whichever comes first.¹⁰ The clock starts the day after your final paid workday.

You cannot work during the grace period. You can use it to find a new employer willing to file an I-129 for you, apply to change to a different nonimmigrant status, or prepare to leave. If a new employer files an I-129 before your status expires, you’re protected while that petition is pending. You get one grace period per authorized petition validity period; it can’t be stacked by cycling through short jobs.¹⁰

Bringing Your Spouse and Children

Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 can accompany you in TD (Trade Dependent) status. They don’t have to be Canadian citizens themselves; TD status rides on the family relationship, not their nationality.

Canadian family members can apply for TD at the same port of entry where you apply for TN, bringing proof of your TN status, proof of the family relationship (marriage certificate or birth certificate), and valid passports. Non-Canadian family members need to obtain a TD visa from a U.S. embassy or consulate before entering.

TD dependents cannot work in the United States. Employment is prohibited entirely.¹¹ A spouse who wants to work needs to qualify for their own independent work visa. TD dependents may, however, study in the U.S. One timing rule catches people off guard: dependents cannot enter before your initial TN entry. They can arrive with you or after you, but not before.

If family members are already in the U.S. on a different status, they can request a change to TD by filing Form I-539 with USCIS. That application has to reach USCIS before their current status expires to avoid unlawful presence issues.

The Green Card Problem

TN status requires you to intend to leave the U.S. when your authorized stay ends. Unlike H-1B holders, who can openly pursue permanent residency while working (what immigration law calls “dual intent”), TN holders must maintain nonimmigrant intent. Every extension and every re-entry is, in effect, a fresh certification that you plan to return to Canada.

This creates real tension for TN professionals who have built a life in the U.S. and want to stay. Filing an I-140 immigrant petition, the formal first step toward a green card, declares immigrant intent. Once that’s on record, CBP officers and USCIS adjudicators can challenge your TN status at the next border crossing or extension. People have been refused re-entry after an approved I-140 surfaced during inspection.

The common workaround is transitioning to H-1B before pursuing the green card, because H-1B allows dual intent. The H-1B lottery makes this uncertain, but for those who can secure a slot it remains the cleanest path from TN to permanent residency.

If you’ve filed an adjustment of status application (Form I-485) while in TN status, do not leave the country until you have an approved advance parole document. Departing after filing I-485 without advance parole causes USCIS to deny the adjustment application.

Taxes Once You’re Working

Working in the U.S. on TN status means owing U.S. taxes on U.S.-sourced income. How much of your worldwide income the IRS can tax depends on whether you’re a resident alien or nonresident alien for tax purposes.

The IRS uses the substantial presence test. You’re treated as a U.S. tax resident if you were physically present at least 31 days during the current year and your weighted three-year day count reaches 183 or more. The formula counts all days present in the current year, one-third of the days in the prior year, and one-sixth of the days two years back.¹² A full-time TN worker will almost certainly meet the test within the first year or two.

Days spent commuting from Canada don’t count toward the test if you regularly commute across the border on more than 75 percent of your workdays.¹² That mostly matters for TN professionals living in border cities like Windsor or Vancouver.

Two escape valves exist even if you meet the test. First, if you were present fewer than 183 days during the calendar year, you may claim the closer connection exception on Form 8840, provided you maintained a tax home in Canada for the entire year and haven’t applied for a green card.¹³ Second, TN holders who meet the substantial presence test but are also tax residents of Canada can invoke the Canada-U.S. tax treaty’s tiebreaker provision by filing Form 8833 with a Form 1040-NR.

Regardless of tax residency classification, your U.S. employer will withhold FICA taxes. Unlike F-1 or J-1 holders, TN workers have no general FICA exemption. That’s 6.2 percent for Social Security on the first $184,500 of wages in 2026 and 1.45 percent for Medicare on all wages, with an additional 0.9 percent Medicare surtax on earnings above certain thresholds.¹⁴

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. TN USMCA Professionals
2
eCFR. 8 CFR 214.6 – Citizens of Canada or Mexico Seeking Temporary Entry Under USMCA to Engage in Business Activities at a Professional Level
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 2 Part P Chapter 6 – Requirements for Specific Occupations
4
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Traveling on a TN or L1 Visa from Canada
5
USAGov. Form I-94 Arrival-Departure Record for U.S. Visitors
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1055 Fee Schedule
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. How Do I Request Premium Processing
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS to Increase Premium Processing Fees
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Options for Nonimmigrant Workers Following Termination of Employment
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 2 Part P Chapter 5 – Other Factors to Consider
12
Internal Revenue Service. Substantial Presence Test
13
Internal Revenue Service. Closer Connection Exception to the Substantial Presence Test
14
Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base