I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

I may be able to share my experience here since I went through multiple TN1s.

You'll satisfy the citizenship requirements but will have difficulty proving significant ties to Canada if you don't have a bank account, car, home or family still in Canada.

Typically speaking you'd have some of these ties if you were a resident of Canada but it doesn't really follow as a hard requirement.

As long as you satisfy the border officer that you have the intent to return home to Canada after finishing your contract, you will most likely receive a TN1. It becomes easier if you're a current resident.

You're getting downvoted because this isn't something that Peter is claiming to be an expert in. He's an attorney, not an economist.

I am 100% not a lawyer, so understand that.

But having gotten a few TNs at the border, they've never really asked about residency.

With your degree, a letter from the employer highlighting the constraints (role, salary), they ask you some questions and that's it.

If you are young, the border guards might get stuffy that you make 2x their salary, I found that to be the case.

The Mexican border officials I found have no clue about NAFTA/TN, it's literally a trade violation, it's really odd I guess they don't process many Visas but you'd think it would be 'in the book' somewhere.

So if you go to the US/Can border with the right paperwork, my experience (not legal opinion) has indicated you'd be fine.

I'm a Canadian hired on a TN Visa for a California start up, I start in mid-December and plan to fly into California to obtain my Visa at that time and then fly back to work remotely from Canada. Is there anything about the TN that prevents me from working outside of the States?

I'm a US citizen who has been working in Chile for a US company for several years. My wife of 12 years is Russian and has had a green card since 2000. She grew up in New York. She came here with me for my work, and due to COVID was unable to return to the US to renew her green card before it expired in April.

The company I work for is being acquired, and we are preparing to move back to the US. The consulate here said that because she has been away for more than a year, and because "staying with my US husband who was working for a US company in Chile" doesn't count as extenuating circumstances, her LPR status no longer applies, and she has to refile the IR1 from zero.

We've started that process, but having to stay in Chile for another 12+ months while they sort it out is at odds with needing to return to the US and perform my job for the new company. The consulate here isn't very friendly towards her (literally telling her she could have just divorced me and moved back to the US if she wanted to remain an LPR). We didn't have a problem returning after we lived in Poland for 3 years from 2008-2011 (also for my work), and your statement of, "...and even there really isn't a restriction..." caught my attention.

Is there some magic incantation or specific words she can say to the consulate here to grant her permission to return with me to the US and get her green card reinstated from within the US? My employer is being super cool about this, but it's clear that my role (Director of Community and Evangelism) will be executed better from _within_ the US.

If this constitutes legal advice you can't give in this forum, I'm perfectly willing to retain you to discuss it further. We're literally sitting in our house in Chile, bags packed, movers on standby, waiting for them to say she can return to the country where she's lived since she was 9.