Read the general professional work overview
Hypothetical example: an accountant at a Coalhurst bookkeeping firm is offered a position described as operations controller at an American distributor. Accountant appears among the listed professions, and its qualification rule is a Baccalaureate or Licenciatura Degree, or C.P.A., C.A., C.G.A. or C.M.A.; operations controller does not appear anywhere, because job titles are not what the list contains. The document work is therefore about duties and about getting the employer to describe them in terms the list recognises.
Match the work to an entry, then use that entry's language
Read the appendix entry for the profession and note exactly how it is described and what qualification it demands. Then read the employer's draft letter. If the duties are accounting work — preparing financial statements, managing the general ledger, overseeing audit preparation, applying accounting standards — the letter should say so in those words rather than in the company's internal vocabulary. Ask for the change before signature. Employers are usually willing, because they have no attachment to the title, but they will not know it matters unless somebody tells them.
Watch for duties that quietly move the role off the list
The same offer often includes responsibilities that are not accounting at all: purchasing, warehouse supervision, staff scheduling, information systems. A role that is mostly those things is not the listed profession however the salary is set. Ask the employer for an approximate breakdown by proportion, and read it honestly. Where the split is genuinely marginal, that is a conversation to have with an adviser before travel rather than a question to discover at a border counter, and it may point toward a different category altogether. Ask also whether the reporting line changes after the first months, because a role that becomes supervisory later is a different question than the one being answered now.
Assemble the qualification the entry actually requires
Each listed profession has its own rule, and some accept a licence or a professional designation where others require a degree. Establish which applies, then gather the degree parchment and transcripts, the designation certificate with its current standing, and any credential evaluation obtained. Certified translations accompany anything not in English. Keep the whole set scanned, with one copy at home in Coalhurst and another with the employer, and expect to present them in the order the questions are asked rather than the order they were collected. Bring the originals rather than photocopies wherever a document exists in original form, and know which body issued each one in case its standing is queried.
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.