Government charges are small and are published in the USCIS fee schedule, Form G-1055, for a petition, or collected at the port when a Canadian citizen applies in person. The recurring expense in a seasonal arrangement is preparation: a fresh letter, a review of the described duties and, occasionally, a second attempt after a refusal.
Budget for the repetition, not for the fee
Applying in person is inexpensive at the moment of decision, and a petition filed on Form I-129 carries the USCIS fee plus premium processing where the employer wants certainty about timing. Those amounts change periodically, so the fee schedule is the only figure worth quoting to anyone. The costs that accumulate around them are the ones a seasonal pattern multiplies.
Each winter's letter takes employer time and, sensibly, an adviser's review. A transcript ordered once may need reordering if it is misplaced. Any document not in English requires a complete certified translation.
Travel to a port on a date that turns out to be premature is money spent for nothing. And a refusal recorded because a stale letter no longer matched the work is expensive in a way that appears on no schedule, because every later arrival has to answer for it.
- 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: USMCA Chapter 16, Temporary Entry for Business Persons
- USCIS: Form G-1055, Fee Schedule