IN THIS GUIDE · A land surveyor whose American title describes managing crews rather than surveying
Start with the TN eligibility and application overview
The Appendix 2 credential and the state practice licence answer different questions
One decision belongs to an immigration officer and a different decision belongs to a state surveying board, and confusing them wastes months. The officer asks whether Priya personally meets the Land Surveyor entry's stated rule and whether the American position consists of that profession's work. The board asks whether she may lawfully determine boundaries and seal plats within its jurisdiction, which typically involves an application for registration by comity, evaluation of her academic record, and in many states an examination on that state's own statutes and case law. Admission in TN status grants no professional authority whatsoever. Where the job genuinely requires sealed work, the registration application should be started long before travel, and where it does not, the offer letter must describe the supervised role honestly rather than implying an authority she has not yet obtained.
Operations management is not land surveying, however senior the title sounds
Read the offered duties against the profession rather than against seniority. Dispatching field crews, maintaining GNSS receivers and total stations, negotiating with subcontractors, approving timesheets and reviewing aerial imagery for coverage gaps are the administration of a survey business. Retracement analysis, weighing conflicting evidence of an original boundary, designing a control network, resolving a riparian limit and preparing the plan that records the conclusion are land surveying. An adjudicator compares described activity with the listed profession, not with an internal title, and a position that fills four days a week with fleet and personnel work will not become professional because a fifth day includes fieldwork. The honest fix belongs to the employer: decide which of the two jobs is being filled, then describe that one.
The Ontario professional corporation cannot follow her across the line
TN does not permit self-employment in the United States, and Priya currently bills her Ontario practice's work through her own professional corporation. If the American company proposes that she keep invoicing rather than be placed on payroll, or that she incorporate in the state and contract with the firm, the arrangement fails whatever her qualifications. She must be employed by, or engaged under contract to, a U.S. entity that directs her work. Any equity she is offered in that entity has to be disclosed and examined, because a controlling stake tends to indicate that she is working for herself. Procedure follows citizenship: a Canadian may seek admission at a land border or preclearance without a visa stamp, or the employer may file Form I-129, while a Mexican citizen in the same job would ordinarily go through the visa process.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.
- USCIS: TN NAFTA Professionals
- U.S. Department of State: USMCA professional workers
- Department of State: 9 FAM 402.17, TN and TD guidance
- eCFR: 8 CFR 214.6, Citizens of Canada or Mexico seeking temporary entry as business persons
- USTR: Agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada
- USCIS: Form G-1055, Fee Schedule