IN THIS GUIDE · A professional project with a defined end date
Start with the TN eligibility and application overview
Connect the end date to actual work
Describe the professional assignment and its anticipated completion point instead of relying on a date printed in a contract. Identify deliverables and explain why the requested period corresponds to the work. A hypothetical implementation project may have a final handover milestone, but the existence of that milestone does not determine its TN profession. Assess the duties and credentials separately so that a finite schedule does not obscure an unsuitable occupational category.
Identify who offers the assignment
If a client, staffing organization and employer are involved, clarify each party’s role and the specific position that has already been arranged. Do not treat a promise to find placements later as a confirmed project. Ask who directs the activities and pays the employee, and reconcile the descriptions across relevant documents. Any ownership or self-employment issue needs its own review. Calling the arrangement a project or contract does not resolve its immigration character.
Plan for changes without assuming continuing permission
Projects can finish early, run late or change their required expertise. Ask the employer to identify who will notify you when the scope or dates change. Keep the expected assignment end distinct from the period actually authorized in immigration records. A contractual extension does not itself extend status or authorize a different employer’s work. Seek review before acting on a material change rather than assuming the original project approval follows every later assignment.
Build a realistic completion plan
Discuss handover, departure planning and the employer’s expectations at completion. Explain the temporary purpose truthfully, including any circumstances that require individualized immigration advice. Do not invent commitments abroad or use a fixed-term document to conceal a different intended arrangement. The aim is a coherent description of the proposed stay supported by the actual assignment. Personal housing and travel decisions should remain consistent with the uncertainties that exist when the project is first offered.
Separate the project's end from your assignment's end
A contract end date and the end of an individual's involvement are frequently different, and conflating them produces a description that will not survive a question. Establish both. Some assignments finish well before the project does, once a defined phase is complete; others continue through to closeout and beyond into a warranty or defects period. Ask which phases the person is engaged for and what the deliverable is at the end of each. Hypothetical example: a geologist engaged for site characterization may complete their work in the first months of a multi-year programme, and describing the assignment as running to the project's completion would misstate it. Where the answer is that nobody has decided, that is worth knowing before the assignment is characterized in a document, since an end date nobody can explain tends to attract the attention it was meant to deflect.
Identify the employer rather than the site
Project work commonly involves several organizations at one location — a client, a main contractor, subcontractors, specialist consultants — and the question of who employs the individual is answered by the arrangement rather than by where the work happens. Establish which entity is the U.S. employer, whether it exists and in what form, and who at that entity would be responsible for the person. Then check how the person would be paid and under what arrangement, since project engagements are often structured through personal service companies, agencies or consultancy contracts. This matters directly, because self-employment is not permitted under TN and an arrangement in which an individual invoices through a company they control is a different proposition from employment. Resolve the structure before anyone drafts a letter describing it.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.