IN THIS GUIDE · A veterinarian whose American offer is a partnership rather than a job
Start with the TN eligibility and application overview
Her credential settles the person, and settles nothing else
Appendix 2 states a qualification rule for each occupation it lists, and for Veterinarian that rule is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree or a state or provincial licence. Elise holds the degree and the Quebec permit, so the personal half of the test is finished before the file is even opened. What remains is entirely about the American position: whether it is genuinely a veterinary position, and whether it is employment. Two further points are often confused with eligibility and are not the same thing. Practising on animals in an American state requires that state's own veterinary licence, which is a professional-regulation matter the practice and the state board decide. And admission depends on the position offered, so a credential that would open one role does not open a different one at the same address.
Why the fifteen percent is the live issue
Self-employment in the United States is not available under this category. The applicant must be employed by, or engaged under contract to, an American entity that directs and controls the work performed. A minority interest in the practice does not by itself make Elise self-employed, but it invites the officer to ask who actually controls her working day, who can discipline or dismiss her, and whether the practice is in substance her own business operating under another name. Any interest she is offered should be disclosed rather than left out of the letter, because a shareholding discovered later reads as concealment even when it was innocent. The safer arrangement is a clean employment relationship first, with any equity discussion deferred until an adviser has reviewed how it would be characterised.
The Quebec corporation she is not giving up
Elise expects to keep a small interest in the Quebec clinic she helped build, and that interest is not itself a problem. Holding shares in a Canadian company, receiving dividends from it, or remaining a director are Canadian activities and do not amount to working for yourself in the United States. The line is crossed when the American work is invoiced through the Canadian company, or when the Canadian company is presented as the entity supplying her services to American clients. That structure makes the Canadian corporation the employer, leaves no American employer directing her, and is the single most common way a well-qualified applicant loses an otherwise straightforward case. Continuing Canadian income should be documented separately from the American engagement rather than blended into it.
Where the application is made, and what the officer will be reading
As a Canadian citizen Elise does not need a visa for this category. She may present herself with her documents at a land port of entry or at a preclearance facility in a Canadian airport, or her American employer may instead file Form I-129 with USCIS and have her present the approval at the border. A Mexican citizen in the same position would ordinarily obtain a visa through a consular post before travelling. Admission is granted for a period not exceeding three years and is tied to the employment described, with extensions possible. Whichever route is used, the decision rests on documents read in a few minutes, so the letter, the credential and the proof of citizenship should tell one consistent story without needing to be explained aloud.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.