TD status does not authorize employment. Calling the contribution family assistance or paying through Canada does not itself establish permission for work in the United States.
Separate the spouse’s contribution from the principal’s job
An eligible spouse and unmarried children under 21 may seek TD status and may study, but the principal’s engineering authorization does not extend to a spouse’s professional services. Describe the proposed drafting, calculations or administration accurately and assess the spouse’s own status before building that work into the project schedule.
Review a child's schooling and any age-related question separately from the spouse's employment question, and clarify whether the household plans to arrive together or in stages so each person's documentation can be prepared accordingly. The remote-work question comes up constantly and the conservative reading is the one to plan around: the location of the person doing the work matters, so continuing a Canadian job from a kitchen table in the United States is not a safe workaround. Adding a second employer does not usually change dependent status directly, but any disruption to the first employer's authorization while arranging the second could indirectly affect dependents, so keep both employer relationships clearly documented and stable.