Read the general life across the border overview
Birth certificates, marriage records and their certified translations answer one question: how the people in a household are related to each other. They do not answer the second question, which is what each of those people may lawfully do in the United States. Relationship evidence supports eligibility for a dependent category; permission to work, to study or to remain comes from status, and the two are proved with different documents.
Use relationship records for eligibility, status records for permission
Hypothetical example: a household arrives with translated certificates for everyone and treats the file as complete because nothing is missing from it. Sort the documents by what they actually prove. A dependent category generally reaches a spouse and unmarried children under 21, and the certificates establish exactly that much and no more. Work is a separate question with different answers by category. TD carries no employment authorization at all, and that includes remote work performed from inside the United States for an employer in Canada. A spouse in qualifying E or L status is employment-authorized incident to that status on appropriate evidence, and an employment authorization document is not universally required for them. No child obtains the spousal work benefit, whatever the certificates show.
Keep age and authorized stay distinct from school records
Age and authorized stay are the two facts translated records are most often read as settling, and they settle neither. Study is generally permitted while TD, E or L status is maintained, but an enrolment letter does not lengthen an authorized stay and does not hold the dependent age limit still: a child who turns 21 leaves the category regardless of where the school year has reached. An employer’s invitation letter carries the same limitation. Read each person’s admission record and status expiry, then read the activity proposed for them, and treat any document that describes intentions rather than decisions as background material.
Read immigrant family rules without a generic household promise
The immigrant side runs on its own rules, and a certified translation does not shorten them. Derivatives already found eligible on an EB-5 case accompany the principal without a further principal investment being funded for them, and any protection under the Child Status Protection Act depends on actual dates and on visa availability rather than on family intention. For immigrant visa entry the principal must be admitted before or together with the derivative relatives, so the order of travel is not a matter of preference. Under the Gold Card framework each joining spouse and each unmarried child under 21 carries a separate US$15,000 processing fee and a separate US$1 million gift, in corporate cases as well, which is why the programme recommends naming them at the outset. The phrase family included describes a brochure, not a decision.
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: 2026-09-08. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.