Read the general eligibility basics overview
Hypothetical example: a warehouse-automation technician working in an industrial park in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures is a French citizen with Canadian permanent residence; his wife is a Canadian citizen. A U.S. integrator wants him for a year. His PR card makes him a Canadian resident, not a Canadian citizen, so TN is closed to him. His French nationality, however, is a treaty nationality for E-2 purposes, and his wife's Canadian citizenship opens TN to her. The route follows the passport, not the address.
Write each person's nationality next to each route
TN requires Canadian or Mexican citizenship; the technician's permanent-resident status, however long held, does not satisfy it, and a pending citizenship application is not citizenship until the certificate issues. E-2 requires nationality of a treaty country, and both Canada and France qualify, so the technician could be an E-2 principal on the strength of his French passport if the other conditions were met. L-1 asks nothing about nationality; it asks about a year of qualifying employment abroad within a corporate group, which does not fit an integrator hiring him from outside. The household's chart therefore shows the technician with L-1 and E-2 as the only categories worth examining, and his wife with TN available if her own occupation and degree match an Appendix 2 entry.
Test the actual offer against the routes that remain
The integrator is not his employer's affiliate, so L-1 fails on the qualifying relationship regardless of his year of service. E-2 would require him to invest substantial capital in and direct a U.S. enterprise, which a salaried offer does not involve. What remains is an honest conclusion: the offer as structured does not fit a route this site covers, and the technician should ask the integrator whether it would sponsor a petition-based category outside this site's scope, or whether the work can be done from Québec. A Canadian-citizen spouse who independently has a prearranged U.S. professional job in a listed Appendix 2 occupation and meets that occupation's qualification rule could hold TN in her own right; he would then be a TD dependant who cannot work.
Keep the Canadian obligations on the same page
A permanent resident who spends a year in the United States must watch the residency obligation attached to his Canadian status, and a French citizen has his own consular and tax considerations abroad. None of that is U.S. immigration advice, but all of it belongs on the household's planning sheet, because a U.S. year that costs Canadian permanent residence is a poor trade. If the citizenship application is close to completion, the household may reasonably decide to wait for the certificate, after which TN can be considered only if the offer is for a listed Appendix 2 profession and he meets that profession's qualification rule. Record the application date and expected decision, and treat a departure before the certificate as a decision to proceed without TN, not as a shortcut to it.
What else is on your mind?
Does Canadian permanent residence give me access to TN?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?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.