Read the general professional work overview
A smaller employer may have less formal paperwork, but the proposed job still needs a clear factual explanation. Build a file showing the real employer, the work and the employment terms. Business size alone does not establish or remove TN eligibility, and a new position should not be described as already operating.
Identify the business precisely
Record the employer’s legal name, trading name if different, contact details and the person responsible for the offer. Ask which existing records explain the business and proposed work. Avoid supplying a large bundle of unrelated marketing material when a short, accurate description would address the relevant question more clearly.
Explain why the position exists
The employer can describe the work the new employee is expected to perform and how it fits actual operations. Distinguish tasks planned for this position from work performed by outside providers or the owner. A hypothetical future expansion should not be presented as an existing project or customer contract.
Separate professional and general duties
Small teams often share responsibilities. Have the employer describe the whole job honestly, including operational duties that might require further review. Do not remove tasks merely because they complicate the proposed category. The reviewer needs the actual balance of work before deciding whether the position is suitable for TN.
Let the owner describe the business in plain terms
Small businesses are frequently described in whatever language a website or a grant application once required, and that language rarely helps. Ask the owner to say what the business does, who its customers are, how it makes money, how many people work in it and what each of them does. Write that down as given. A short, concrete account of an eight-person operation is more credible than an expansive description that would suit a company many times its size, and it provides the context in which a new professional position becomes explicable. Where the plain account and the company's own marketing material differ substantially, note the difference before either is relied upon.
Explain the professional duties as a proportion of the whole
In a small business almost everyone does some of everything, and a description that presents a role as purely professional will not match what anyone observes. Rather than concealing the general duties, present the allocation. State which duties are professional, which are general business support, and approximately how the working time divides between them. Where the professional element predominates, showing the proportion strengthens the account by making it credible. Where it does not, the proportion is the finding, and it is better established internally than discovered through questioning. Ask the owner to confirm the split from their own knowledge rather than adopting a figure suggested by anyone else.
Date the description and revisit it
A small business changes faster than a document describing it, so record the date on which the account of the role and the operation was given, and agree to revisit it before anything is finalized. Where the business has taken on new work, lost a customer or hired someone else in the interim, the position may have shifted in ways that matter. A dated description also protects everyone involved, since it makes clear what was true when the statement was made rather than implying it remains accurate indefinitely.
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.