Read the general life across the border overview
Petit-Saguenay families should assess each person’s work authorization, derivative eligibility and actual funding role separately. A first review should list each family member’s proposed U.S. activity, relationship to the principal, age, marital status, and present immigration document. Hypothetical example: The spouse of a wind-turbine maintenance planner wants to take paid safety-training work while a teenage child helps with the family business. The decision is whether either activity is authorized for that person, rather than whether the family shares the principal’s plan. The family should decide in advance who will work, study, travel, or merely accompany the principal, and then preserve the documents for that individual role. An informal expectation that a relative will help can become an immigration issue when the assistance looks like regular productive work.
Establish work permission independently of family support
TD does not permit employment, including consulting. Qualifying E and L spouses may work incident to appropriate status with required evidence, but children do not receive the spouse’s work rights. Providing investment funds, helping with inspections or sharing an employer does not itself authorize the family member’s US activity. Separate unpaid family support from services that generate revenue, fill a role, or are presented to customers as work. Keep status evidence for each person and confirm the employer, activity, and start date before accepting an assignment. A spouse’s own work authorization does not automatically extend to a child, a parent, or another relative travelling with the household.
Separate derivative evidence from jobs and tax assumptions
Eligible children generally must be unmarried and under 21, with individual CSPA analysis; immigrant-visa derivatives enter with or after the principal. Investor, spouse and children are excluded as qualifying EB-5 workers. Gold Card adds US$1 million and US$15,000 nonrefundable processing for each eligible included spouse or child, including corporate cases, without creating a blanket family tax exemption. For an immigrant case, document the family relationship and examine each derivative’s eligibility at the relevant stage rather than relying on a shared application. EB-5 capital must stay at risk and the required jobs cannot be supplied by the investor’s immediate family. For Gold Card, an included family member’s fee and gift do not remove admissibility, availability, or age-related requirements.
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.