The actual work and qualifications control the assessment. An inspection label does not automatically rule a job out, and an engineer label does not automatically make it eligible. Identify whether the proposed work is genuinely within the listed engineering profession.
Show the decisions behind the test results
Ask which engineering methods the employee develops, what analysis is expected and what responsibility they exercise when results fail. Preserve routine duties too. The listed engineering credential is a baccalaureate or licenciatura degree, or a state/provincial licence; the applicant must also be a Canadian or Mexican citizen seeking qualifying temporary professional work. There is no universal task-percentage shortcut.
Begin with the proposed duties, not the quality-control title: identify who designs test methods, interprets failures, and recommends corrective action. Then match that work to a profession in Appendix 2 to Annex 16-A of the USMCA and verify that profession’s own minimum credential. TN also requires Canadian or Mexican citizenship and prearranged professional activity for a U.S. employer or a foreign employer; Canadian permanent residence is insufficient. The arrangement cannot be self-employment. Do not present inspection experience as automatic proof of engineering while leaving the employer’s technical decisions unexplained.
Hypothetical example: A LaSalle automotive calibration engineer is offered responsibility for creating dynamometer protocols and approving responses to anomalous readings at an American manufacturer. The employer should distinguish those judgment-based functions from merely entering measurements on a fixed worksheet, and the applicant should provide the engineering credential on which the case relies. An employer letter or contract should identify employment and supervision. If the American recipient is effectively the applicant’s own business, changing the job title or inserting a nominal supervisor would not overcome TN’s self-employment prohibition.