TD does not authorize employment. A small or informal role in the project does not create permission.
Describe all intended work
Include remote and family-business activity while physically in the United States. Children may study while maintaining status but do not gain work permission solely through TD. Hypothetical example: a Canadian urban-forestry consultant accepts a temporary U.S.
assignment and her spouse plans to sell digital artwork online from their rental apartment while their teenager enrolls in school. The family review should list each person’s nationality, relationship, age, travel dates, study plan, and every paid or self-directed activity that may occur after arrival. The principal’s TN materials do not answer the dependent’s employment question.
TD status may support accompanying or following to join the TN principal, but it does not itself permit employment, including remote work physically carried out in the United States. A child may attend school while maintaining the appropriate status, yet school enrollment does not create work authorization or extend a period of admission. The records that settle the family analysis include passports, marriage and birth certificates, admission records, the principal’s status evidence, and a factual description of the proposed activity.
Sequence the inquiry before housing, school, or work commitments: confirm the principal’s route, identify each dependent’s intended actions, then decide whether another status or a change in plans is needed. Trouble often starts when remote income is treated as irrelevant because the client is abroad. Physical location and actual work matter.
Keep any later employment proposal separate from family travel planning and obtain an individual assessment before it begins.