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Dependants are admitted on the strength of a relationship, and schools, clinics and landlords all ask for the same underlying documents in slightly different forms. This guide covers what a dependant file should contain, what study is permitted in each dependent status, and the points at which a school registrar’s paperwork question and an immigration condition are not the same question at all.
Study is permitted, and it is not a student status
A child holding TD, L-2 or E-2 dependent status may attend school, from kindergarten through university, without converting to a student classification, for as long as the underlying status is maintained. That permission is easy to misread in two directions. It does not extend the status: a degree programme running past the parent’s authorised stay creates no additional time, and finishing a school year is not a recognised reason to remain. Nor does it pause the age limit, which confines these categories to a spouse and to unmarried children under twenty-one and ends dependent eligibility on that birthday whatever the enrolment. Families whose plans genuinely outlast the parent’s status should examine an independent student classification before the dependent one lapses, since that route needs acceptance by an approved institution and a filing of its own. Adult dependants face the same rule with fewer options. Permission to study is also not permission to work: no dependent category authorises employment for children, so campus jobs open to students are unavailable on that basis.
The documents a dependant file actually contains
Build the file around proving relationship and identity rather than around any single institution’s checklist. That means each person’s passport, a marriage certificate for a spouse, and long-form birth certificates naming both parents for children, with certified translations wherever the original is not in English. Where names differ across documents because of marriage, adoption or a legal change, include the instrument that explains the difference rather than obtaining a reissued document that quietly conceals it. Keep the admission record for every family member, since those records show the status and its expiry and are what a registrar or a state licensing office will eventually be shown. Custody orders matter when one parent is not travelling. Schools may additionally ask for immunisation records and proof of residence within the district, which are local requirements unrelated to immigration status, and a registrar’s unfamiliarity with a dependent classification is a customer-service problem rather than evidence that a child cannot enrol.
Where a household plan and a status calendar diverge
Hypothetical example: a Valemount family relocates on a treaty-investor status with two school-age children and a spouse who intends to work. The spouse’s authorisation is incident to valid status and needs no separate card, while the children may enrol but may never take a job. Had the household moved on a TD basis instead, the spouse could not have worked at all, including remotely from a U.S. address for a Canadian employer. Their dependent status expires on the twenty-first birthday even mid-programme, so a child arriving at nineteen should have the next step identified before departure rather than during a final term. The parents’ own basis runs on its own clock: a treaty investment renews while the enterprise still qualifies but confers no path to permanent residence, and a transfer household is bounded by the principal’s seven-year or five-year ceiling. Where the family’s real goal is to stay, the residence question needs a separate plan filed on its own merits — a Canadian permanent resident card is neither Canadian citizenship nor any form of U.S. status, and no dependent category ripens into one through time. On the immigrant side the sequence is fixed, the principal being admitted before or together with the derivative relatives; eligible derivatives in an investor case accompany without any additional qualifying investment of their own, and whether a child still counts as one is decided by the real petition and visa-availability dates rather than by an expected closing or graduation. Under the Gold Card framework each eligible joining spouse or unmarried child under twenty-one carries a US$15,000 non-refundable processing fee and a US$1 million gift, so relatives are best named from the outset rather than added later.
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: 2026-09-08. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.
- Department of State — USMCA professionals
- USCIS — L-1A executives and managers
- Department of State — Treaty investors
- USCIS — EB-5 program
- INA 203 — Immigrant investor requirements
- Official Gold Card program
- Executive Order 14351
- USCIS — employment authorization for certain spouses
- Department of State — after the immigrant visa interview