TN Visa when income is from X, and employment is at Y

I have a strange situation - wondering if anyone has any ideas.

USA Company X is offering to give me money to go work at USA Company Y. Company Y is happy to have me there for free. I fit the requirements for a TN Visa Classification, but Company X does not want to say they are my employer, so they are reticent to help with a TN Visa.

Has anyone heard of a situation where Company Y could say they are my employer for a TN Visa Application, while indicating funds are coming from a secondary source?

Same with me. Work for company Y where company X is paying me however the TN letter is issued by company Y where i am currently working.

Thanks

You can be subcontracted if you're on TN-1, e.g. say you work for an accountancy company as a temp CPA and they can send you to work for a company that they are subcontracted to.

But there must be some sort of formal business relationship between the companies, you cannot be sponsored by company A and then be directly employed by company B.

Hello Steven i have a follow up questions. I am in the same boat.
Company A has hired me and i am working for company B. The TN Letter i get is for company B.

Their is a formal relationship between Company A and B.
Question is that can the visa officer ask me to prove this relationship and if so what can i do to prove this. I am positively sure that neither company A or B would provide me tax documentation or provide me information as to how much business they do with each other?

Thanks

Well if your employer is still company B and they sponsored you for the TN-1, that's all that matters. It's legal to be subcontracted. However if you are directly employed by company A (i.e. you get a W-2 from them as well as company B) then they need to sponsor you for TN-1 as well. You can have another TN-1 added on by having them file an I-129 for you.

Basically it boils down to who is paying you, because that is typically your principal employer. If company A pays company B for your services and you work for company B and you don't directly receive payment from company A then you're subcontracted. The work must fall within the job description of your TN-1.