No. TD status permits residence and study but authorizes no employment of any kind, and remote work for Canadian clients performed while physically in the United States is still work. He would need his own status permitting employment, obtained on his own facts.
Where the work is done, not who pays for it
Households routinely assume that a remote arrangement escapes the restriction because the clients, the invoices and the bank account all remain in Canada. The location of the person doing the work is what matters, so a drafting practice operated from a house in an American county is employment in the United States and TD does not permit it. Three related points shape the planning.
The relationship has to be a legally recognized marriage, because a common-law partner is not a spouse for derivative purposes and would need an independent route. A child ceases to qualify as a derivative on turning twenty-one, so a household with a teenager should map that birthday against the intended stay now rather than at a renewal. And the restriction is category-specific rather than universal: spouses in L-2 and E-2 status are employment-authorized incident to that status, which is why a family with a second earner sometimes finds that the household's route should be chosen around the spouse rather than around the principal.
Study is open to him throughout, and the children may attend school.
- 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