Short answer
General information, not legal advice. TNPath provides general educational information and document-automation tools. It is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice, eligibility opinions or case-specific strategy. Only the officer who reviews an application decides whether it succeeds; for complex situations, consider an independent review by a U.S. immigration lawyer.
For a Canadian applying at the border, there is no sponsorship petition for your client to file: no petition, registration, Labor Condition Application or lottery for that route. The employer supports the application instead with a job offer and a signed support letter, and your candidate applies in person at a port of entry or airport preclearance. TNPath is the tool the candidate uses to prepare the letter draft; the employer reviews it, corrects anything that is not accurate, prints it on company letterhead and signs it.
Why TN matters to a placement
TN is a U.S. work classification created by the USMCA trade agreement. It lets a Canadian citizen work in the United States for a U.S. employer in one of 63 listed professions (accountants, engineers, nurses, computer systems analysts and others), for up to three years at a time. Your candidate applies in person at a U.S. port of entry or airport preclearance; a government officer decides on the spot.
For a recruiter, the practical points are the ones that usually stall a cross-border placement:
- No sponsorship petition at the border. Nothing is filed with the government in advance for a border application, and there is no lottery to enter and no Labor Condition Application.
- Border timing. Time to start is days — the application is decided when your candidate applies — rather than the months a cap-subject petition route can take.
- No government fee for your client. The employer pays no government fee for a border application. Your candidate pays CBP $50 for the TN, plus $30 for the I-94 at a land port of entry ($50 total at airport preclearance).
- Room to renew. Admission is in three-year increments, with no fixed total, so a placement is not working against a single short deadline.
| Topic | TN | H-1B |
|---|---|---|
| Lottery | None | Annual registration lottery |
| Employer petition | None at the border | Required, with a Labor Condition Application |
| Fees your client pays | None for a border application | Several thousand dollars in USCIS fees |
| Time to start | Days — decided when your candidate applies | Months — cap cases generally start October 1 |
| Renewals | Three-year increments, no fixed total | Generally six years in total |
The detailed comparison is in TN vs H-1B for employers, and the petition question is answered in full in Does a TN visa require employer sponsorship?
The page to hand your client
TN explained for HR is a free one-page summary written for HR teams and hiring managers, designed to print or save as a PDF on one page. It covers what TN is, what the employer is asked to do — review a support letter that describes the job, its duties, its length and the pay, correct anything that is not accurate, print it on company letterhead and sign it — and what the employer is not asked to do: no petition to file with USCIS, no lottery to enter, no Labor Condition Application, no government fee to pay for a border application, and no account to create.
Send that link when a client’s first question is what TN will ask of them. For the full picture, the TN visa for employers hub walks through what the company provides, what happens at the border, the optional USCIS route, and length of stay and renewals. The For employers page explains, step by step, how reviewing a draft letter prepared with TNPath works.
Free tools
These tools are free and need no account. Candidates can use them before anything reaches your desk, and you can use them to answer a client’s first questions:
- TN visa cost calculator: work out the $50 TN fee and the $30 I-94 fee at land ports, including a spouse and children in TD status.
- TN visa document checklist generator: choose a profession and credential route to build the document checklist for a TN application.
- TN support letter checker: paste a TN employer support letter and check, in the browser, whether it mentions the five items 8 CFR 214.6(d)(3) lists: profession, duties, length of stay, credentials and pay. The checker reports mentions only — it does not assess whether the content is sufficient.
How your candidates use TNPath
TNPath is the candidate’s tool, not the employer’s and not yours. The flow is:
- The candidate answers a structured questionnaire about the job offer and their own credentials in the TNPath builder, and previews the result free.
- TNPath assembles an editable Word draft of the employer support letter — covering the TN profession, the duties, the expected length of stay, the candidate’s qualifications and the pay arrangements — plus a personalised PDF packet guide with a document checklist for their profession and port-of-entry preparation notes.
- The candidate pays $99 USD, one time, to unlock the Word letter and PDF guide. No subscription. The employer pays nothing and creates no account, and government fees are separate.
- The candidate sends the draft to the employer. The employer reviews every factual statement — TNPath does not verify facts, and the candidate may have made mistakes — edits freely, prints the final version on company letterhead and signs it.
- The candidate presents the signed letter and their credentials to a CBP officer in person at a port of entry or preclearance. The officer decides the application.
You can see what a finished draft looks like in the sample packet, which uses a fictional applicant and company. Questions about the tool itself are welcome at [email protected].
Your referral link, in plain terms
Add a short code to any TNPath link you share, in this form:
tnpath.com/?ref=rc-<your-short-name>
Replace <your-short-name> with a short name for your agency — for example, tnpath.com/?ref=rc-northstar. A valid code is lowercase letters, digits and hyphens only, up to 32 characters; anything else is ignored. The code works on any TNPath address, not just the home page: a guide, the employers page or the builder.
What happens with it is deliberately narrow:
- The browser keeps the code for that browser session only — in session storage, never in a cookie and never in permanent storage. Close the session and it is gone.
- Three counts, and only those three, are recorded with the code itself as their page label: landing on the site, starting the builder, and completing a purchase.
- The counts are anonymous daily totals, the same pipeline as every other count on the site. No individual visitor history is kept, and nothing about the candidate is attached to the code.
- Reporting respects the site’s opt-outs: Do Not Track, Global Privacy Control and the opt-out on the Privacy page turn it off.
That is the whole arrangement. There is no commission, revenue share or referral fee, and TNPath promises none: the counts exist only so the program can see which partners send candidates who go on to buy. The Privacy page describes the referrer-code counting in full.
Common questions
Do we have to sponsor a TN candidate?
No, not in the petition sense for a Canadian applying at the border. Your client provides a job offer and a signed support letter, and nothing is filed with the government in advance. The optional Form I-129 route is the only employer filing, and it is used in specific situations described in the sponsorship guide.
What does the client employer actually have to do?
Offer the job, review and sign the support letter on company letterhead, and employ the person once they are admitted. Nothing is filed with the government for a border application. Your candidate presents the letter and their credentials when they apply.
Is there a commission or revenue share for recruiters?
No. TNPath pays no commission, revenue share or referral fee, and taking part costs nothing. The referral link exists only so aggregate counts can show which partners send candidates who go on to buy — it is not a payment arrangement.
What is recorded when someone uses our link?
Only anonymous daily counts. If the link carries a valid code, three counts — landing on the site, starting the builder, and completing a purchase — are recorded with the code itself as the page label. The code is kept in the browser for that session only, in session storage, never in a cookie or permanent storage, and no individual visitor history is kept.
Who decides whether a candidate’s application succeeds?
The CBP officer who reviews the application at the port of entry or preclearance decides a border application. On the optional Form I-129 route, USCIS decides the petition first. TNPath provides general information and document tools, not decisions.
Sources
Last reviewed October 19, 2026. General information, not legal advice. Rules and fees change; confirm with official sources before you rely on them.