On January 1, 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement ("NAFTA") went into effect between the United States, Canada and Mexico. NAFTA modeled on the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement ("FTA"). The purpose of NAFTA, in part, is to facilitate the free movement of people between the signatory countries. Specifically, NAFTA permits into the United States, Canada and Mexico the temporary entry of four categories of business visitors:

• Business visitors (B-1 visas);
• Treaty traders (E-1 visas) and treaty investors (E-2 visas);
• Intra-company transferees (L-1 visas); and
• Professionals (TN visas).

While this free movement of personnel has been accomplished for Canadian nationals, Mexican nationals have significant limitations on their use of certain NAFTA immigration provisions, primarily the TN, or "Trade NAFTA", visa provisions.

The specific provisions for NAFTA will not be addressed here. Instead, the provisions are outlined in the U.S. immigration links (above), and in the Canadian immigration pages.