TNPath — Your TN application, step by step
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Choose your profession and application route

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Your fastest path

  1. Answer 8 stepsPreview your letter free
  2. UnlockWord letter + PDF guide
  3. Employer reviewThey check, sign and print on letterhead
  4. ApplyAt the border or your consulate appointment

This builder prepares TN documents for Canadian citizens applying at a U.S. land border or Canadian airport preclearance, and for Mexican citizens applying for a TN visa at a U.S. embassy or consulate in Mexico. Choose a profession to see the available questions. TNPath does not determine whether you qualify.

Before you start: what to have handy (about 10 minutes)
  • Your job offer or job description: title, start date, pay and schedule
  • 3 to 8 main duties, in your employer’s words if possible
  • Your credentials: exact degree, designation or licence names, issuing bodies and years
  • Employer details: legal name, U.S. address, and who will sign the letter
  • Where you’ll work: on-site, hybrid or remote, and the U.S. city
  • Travel plans: airport or land crossing, and any family coming with you

Not sure about something? Your answers save as you go, so you can come back to it. You can also add optional details like bonus, benefits and time percentages, or skip them.

Citizenship
TN profession All 63 professions on the TN list.

Healthcare & medical

Design & built environment

Business & professional

Education, research & human services

Natural resources & environment

Scientists

Which teaching role applies?
The letter uses the full list title for your role — Teacher (College), Teacher (Seminary) or Teacher (University).
Which title in the list entry is your actual job title?
The TN list entry is “Urban Planner (including Geographer)”. Your letter uses the title you pick as your profession; the requirement sentence quotes the full entry.
Which title in the list entry is your actual job title?
The TN list entry is “Sylviculturist (including Forestry Specialist)”. Your letter uses the title you pick as your profession; the requirement sentence quotes the full entry.
Which title in the list entry is your actual job title?
The TN list entry is “Range Manager/Range Conservationist”. Your letter uses the title you pick as your profession; the requirement sentence quotes the full entry.
Which title in the list entry is your actual job title?
The TN list entry is “Agriculturist (including Agronomist)”. Your letter uses the title you pick as your profession; the requirement sentence quotes the full entry.
How you’ll apply
This packet is for
Is your current TN status still valid?
Not your passport’s expiry date. Look up your most recent I-94 at i94.cbp.dhs.gov and use its “Admit Until Date”.

Your letter won’t describe you as currently in TN status. It will ask that you be admitted in TN status to work for the Company.

About you

Use your name exactly as it appears in your Canadian passport.

How should the letter refer to you after the first mention?

Your trip

Where do you plan to apply?
Have you ever been refused TN status, refused entry to the U.S., or refused a U.S. visa? optional
Used only to add a preparation section to your guide. It isn’t written into your letter or sent for AI checking.

Your credentials

Enter the credentials you hold, using the exact names on your records. The quoted entry is a reference; completing these fields does not confirm that you meet it.

What the TN list says for your profession
Which Mexican credential documents do you hold?
Spanish-language documents (transcripts, título) need certified English translations. Where are you with that?
Exactly as shown on your U.S. licence. It’s named in your letter and enclosures.

For Canadians, the licence is the practical route: the list’s degree alternative refers to a Mexican licenciatura. U.S. law also requires foreign-educated nurses to present a VisaScreen® certificate to be admitted to work. Your guide covers both.

The list names these ten disciplines.

The list accepts a degree or a state/provincial licence. Practising pharmacy in the U.S. is separate: every state licenses pharmacists. Your guide covers both.

A college diploma or certificate isn’t a bachelor’s degree, even after three years of study. If that’s your credential, leave this unticked and use the diploma option if this profession has one.

The TN list names a degree in hotel/restaurant management for this profession.

Which library degree do you hold?

The TN list entry reads: “M.L.S. or B.L.S. (for which another Baccalaureate or Licenciatura Degree was a prerequisite).” Tick the degree toggle above and add the degree itself in the degrees list, so the letter can name it.

Do you hold a bachelor’s degree in another field, completed before the B.L.S.?

Add that bachelor’s degree in the degrees list above if you’d like it named in the letter.

One point to check before you rely on this packet. The TN list entry for Librarian reads: “M.L.S. or B.L.S. (for which another Baccalaureate or Licenciatura Degree was a prerequisite).” In that wording, another bachelor’s degree is named as a prerequisite for the library degree. TNPath doesn’t assess how this applies to you — consider an independent review by a U.S. immigration lawyer.

How will you be employed?

The TN list entry covers an adjuster employed by an insurance company, or an independent claims adjuster. The letter states the one you choose.

Count claims adjustment work itself, not other insurance roles such as sales or underwriting.

The TN list requires this training on both routes: with a degree, and with three years of claims adjustment experience.

The TN list counts a post-secondary diploma only when it was issued by an accredited Canadian or U.S. institution after two or more years of post-secondary education. A shorter program doesn’t meet that definition. (The list’s “Post-Secondary Certificate” is defined as a Mexican credential.)

On this route, the list pairs the diploma with three years of experience.

USCIS guidance says the theoretical knowledge this category needs can be shown by at least two years of training in a relevant program, documented by a diploma or certificate.

The TN list names a diploma in hotel/restaurant management for this profession, paired with three years of experience in hotel/restaurant management.

The experience route is shown by statement or professional credential, usually letters from past employers or clients.

The Economist entry lists a degree only. There is no licence or experience route. USCIS guidance looks for a degree related to the position.

A degree isn’t required for this category. USCIS guidance says a diploma or certificate from at least two years of relevant training, or extensive directly related work experience, can show the theoretical knowledge. Add everything you have. You’ll name the professional you’ll support on the job step.

The Mathematician (including Statistician) entry lists a degree only. There is no licence or experience route.

A note on the TN list says “Mathematician” includes Actuary, and that an actuary must be recognized as one by a professional actuarial association or society operating in Canada, the U.S. or Mexico.

Use the exact names shown on your certificates and diplomas. TNPath doesn’t decide whether your credentials are sufficient.

The U.S. employer

These details go into the letter’s header and the company description.

Send your employer: TN explained for HR — a one-page summary written for HR teams.

Is the U.S. company you’ll work for one you own or control, or will you be self-employed with no U.S. employer?
Who is employing you?
Is your employer a post-secondary educational institution?
Write it as the company would describe itself, including its industry.

The employer’s hiring requirements

What the company itself requires for this position — separate from the TN list entry quoted in your letter. Only include what you’ve actually confirmed with the employer.

Employer hiring requirements optional
Quoted in the letter as the employer’s own statement.

You’ll confirm this with your employer before the letter is signed. The letter won’t mention employer requirements until you do.

Add company facts optional: year founded, size, website

Year founded and size go into the company paragraph (detailed letter style). The website appears under the address at the top.

Who will sign the letter

The signer is usually your hiring manager or an HR representative — someone who can confirm the details if asked.

The job

Match these to your offer letter. Your employer will confirm them.

Add more role detail (optional)
One sentence on why this position exists, in your own words. Appears in the letter only if you write it.
What the role produces. Appears in the letter only if you write it.
Is this role teaching, research, or both?
The TN list limits this category to teaching or research only. Your letter describes the role from this answer.

The professional you’ll support

The TN list says a Scientific Technician/Technologist must be seeking entry to work in direct support of professionals in the listed disciplines. Your letter names this person in its own paragraph.

Will they manage, coordinate and review your work?
Who is employing you?
One or two sentences: who you’ll advise, on what, and toward what outcome. This becomes its own paragraph in the letter.
From the consulting agreement or statement of work.
Will you have direct reports?

Where you’ll work

Work arrangement
Travel and other work sites optional

Written into the letter as “Ms. Lee may also work at …”. Leave blank if there aren’t any.

Pay and dates

Use the numbers in your offer letter. Your employer confirms them before signing.

Schedule
How is the pay stated in your offer?
$
$
How will you be paid?
Tick this if the job comes with any benefits, such as health insurance or a retirement plan. Naming them is optional.
Bonus, commission, equity or relocation optional

What you’ll actually do

List 3 to 8 main responsibilities, one per line. Start from your job description. Tap a suggestion to add it, then edit it so it matches the real job.

Write each duty as one short line that starts with an action, for example “Prepare monthly financial statements”. Don’t paste a résumé paragraph or the job ad’s “we offer” lines.

Describe teaching and/or research duties — the TN list limits this category to teaching or research only.

Suggestions (add only what’s true)

Check your answers

Check the answers used to prepare your draft letter and guide. Use Edit to change a section.

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