Read the general life across the border overview
A Magog household may share language skills, business accounts or employer benefits. Those arrangements do not give every person the same immigration permission. In a blended household the reader must decide, child by child, whether the legal relationship to the principal exists at all, because a stepchild qualifies only if the marriage creating the relationship occurred before that child turned 18. That date, not the strength of the bond, settles who can be included.
Check actual work authorization
TD does not permit employment. Qualifying E and L spouses may work incident to appropriate status with required evidence; children do not receive the spouse permission. Shared system access or a joint account does not authorize work.
Review the immigrant family facts
Assess qualifying relationships and case-specific age or CSPA questions. Immigrant-visa derivatives enter with or after the principal. A family preparation invoice does not establish eligibility or the principal’s qualifying investment.
Clarify who pays the programme additions
Gold Card adds US$1 million plus US$15,000 nonrefundable processing for each eligible included spouse or child, including corporate cases. An employer benefit may cover costs but does not waive those amounts or guarantee family approval. Eligible children generally must be unmarried and under 21; assess any applicable CSPA protection on the individual case facts.
Establish each child’s relationship before listing dependants
Hypothetical example: the operations manager of a Magog cross-border trucking firm is transferred on L-1A to run the company’s new terminal in Vermont. He married his wife four years ago; she has a daughter now aged 16 from an earlier relationship, and the couple also has a two-year-old together. The younger child is his biological child and qualifies as an L-2 dependant without argument. The stepdaughter qualifies too, but only because the marriage took place when she was 12, before her 18th birthday; had the wedding happened after that birthday, no amount of shared parenting would make her his child for immigration purposes. The file should therefore contain the marriage certificate, the stepdaughter’s birth certificate showing her mother, and, where the biological father shares custody, evidence of his consent to the move. The wife, as an L-2 spouse, is employment-authorized once admitted; the stepdaughter, as a child, is not, and will need her own status at 21.
Which document proves what, and what it cannot prove
A marriage certificate proves the spousal relationship and dates the stepchild link; it does not prove the marriage is genuine if that is questioned, so keep evidence of a shared household. A birth certificate proves parentage; a school record proves nothing about status. Custody orders decide whether the child may leave Canada, a question outside U.S. immigration law but capable of stopping the trip at the border. Because L-1A is capped at seven years, the family should note when the stepdaughter turns 21 relative to that ceiling; if she will still be studying, a student classification of her own is the plan, and the trucking firm’s relocation allowance does not extend either date.
What else is on your mind?
Is a matching job title enough for TN?Can years of experience replace a degree for TN?Can my own U.S. company employ me under TN?Can my spouse work if I hold TN status?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.