IN THIS GUIDE · An engineer whose American job exists for eleven weeks a year and then disappears
Seasonal shape is allowed; an unsupported period is not
Nothing in the category requires a job to last all year. Admission is granted for a period not exceeding three years, and there is no rule that the requested period has to be filled with continuous work. What must hold true is that a genuine American employer needs professional engineering performed during the period requested, that Eero is a Canadian citizen, and that the Engineer entry's own credential rule is satisfied. The risk in a seasonal file lies in over-reaching: asking for three years because it is available, when the operator can only describe eleven weeks of lay-up engineering, invites an officer to ask what he would be doing for the remaining thirty-three months. A period matched to describable work is a stronger request than the longest one on offer.
Each winter is a new decision by a new officer
As a Canadian citizen he needs no visa stamp; he may present himself with his documents at a port of entry or a preclearance facility, or the American operator may file Form I-129 and have the approval presented on arrival. Either way, admission is decided at the border on the day, and an admission granted last January binds nobody this January. That has a practical consequence people find irritating: the parchment, the transcript, the provincial licence certificate, the proof of citizenship and a current letter travel with him every single season, not just the first. If the scope of the lay-up changes, the letter changes with it before he sets out.
The months between seasons are where the employment relationship gets tested
The category admits an employee, or a person under contract to an American entity that controls the work; it does not admit somebody who has set up in business for themselves across the border. When a lay-up runs short, the natural improvisation is a retainer paid to Eero's own Ontario consulting corporation to keep him available, and that arrangement is exactly the one that undoes an otherwise clean file. If he holds or is offered any equity in the American operator, that interest is disclosed and examined for whether what he really has is employment or a business of his own. Performing productive work for the American company remotely from Thunder Bay before any admission raises a separate question about when the employment began and under what authority.
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: USMCA Chapter 16, Temporary Entry for Business Persons
- USCIS: Form G-1055, Fee Schedule