Assess the family’s immigration needs separately from the employer’s relocation benefits. An eligible spouse and unmarried children under 21 may seek TD status, but a corporate relocation package does not grant it. TD does not itself authorize employment. A spouse expecting a group-company job needs an independent work-authorization assessment.
Separate benefits enrollment from immigration status
Ask the relocation team which arrangements depend on the principal being admitted and which depend on each family member’s arrival. Record citizenship and travel dates individually because visa requirements can differ within one household. If the employee travels first, plan to provide current evidence of the principal’s TN status for family members joining later.
Do not interpret health coverage, school assistance, or a moving allowance as confirmation that family immigration processing is complete. Keep benefits enrollment separate from immigration status, because the two run on entirely different tracks and a household that treats one as evidence of the other can make expensive assumptions. A company adding family members to a U.S.
benefits plan, issuing badges or arranging relocation support is administering employment; none of it confers permission for anyone to be present or to work. Establish each family member's own position independently. Ask when coverage actually begins and whether there is a gap between arrival and eligibility, since that gap is a genuine household risk in a country where the cost of covering it can be substantial.
Remember that TD status carries no permission to work, so a partner's employment requires its own separate basis assessed on their own facts.