Tagged: TN Letter

Success rates of getting TN Visa at different entry points equal?

If you have the luxury of choosing your point of entry into the US while petitioning for a TN Visa, one question you may be pondering about is whether the point of entries will impact the success rate of attaining your visa.

Although it is not published (for obvious reasons) it would not be surprising that there is pattern of success rates amongst the different entry points.  Based on anecdotal data and interviews with former immigration officers, there is a clear and consistent trend.  Furthermore it is common for immigration lawyers/attorneys to advise their clients to avoid certain entry points and or to favor some over others.

Our personal experience has also supported this suspicion and we believe these are the factors that make the difference:

1. Knowledge of immigration officer. The relation to granting a TN visa is unfortunately consistent between these 2 factors ie the less knowledgeable, the lower the success rate.

2. Number of staff at the point of entry.  The larger the team, the higher the chance of success. Why? (a) Someone on the staff will likely have some experience with TN’s. and (b) The pressure to process quickly is spread out especially when there is a long line.

3. The air and water. The closer the entry is to a body of water and fresh air, the better the chance of success.  This is just a joke.

Point of entries courtesy of wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canada%E2%80%93United_States_border_crossings

Yay! I have job offer, do I qualify for a TN Visa?

Ok so you go through a bunch of interviews and you get an offer – now what?  Does it mean you qualify for a TN Visa?

These are the 2 most common situations:

1)  The employer will have their attorney (in-house or 3rd party) produce a TN letter and walk through the process of application & wish the applicant good luck.

2) Applicant take the offer letter and ensure that the job falls in the in NAFTA profession list and that she qualifies (have license/degree and or experience).  She then creates a TN letter and assembles the rest of application package (offer letter, original license/degree, transcript, resume/CV, etc.)

 

Limit On Renewals of TN Visa?

The simple answer is no. However, this visa/status is designed for “short term” work and not meant for a permanent placement so if the applicant indicates that s/he is filling a permanent and or intends to be in the job with no end date, it could be grounds for the officer to reject the application.

We have heard that some officers may reject the application after 4 or more times of renewals.

Just to clarify, prior to Oct/Nov 2013, TN visa/status was only good for one year. Now it’s good for three years.  That said, our experience has been that our team in this room has renewed our visa over 7 times (me 9) prior to 2013.

My point is this – if the officer believes the applicant has a job with no guaranteed end date, the application will likely be rejected. BUT the last time we checked, there are no companies in this world that would offer such a deal even for a CEO role of a Fortune 50 (they can be terminated too!).

Immigration attorneys or the employer legal counsel will likely advise the applicants that they could be terminated in 3 years time and that is their discretion.  The TN application letter will also clearly indicate that the role is for 3 years time.  Does this mean the company is obligated to fire you in 3 years time because of this statement in the application letter? Absolutely not.

TN Visa Rejected – Apply Under A New Category?

Tom Grayson’s TN application was just rejected because he did not meet the requirements defined under the Management Consultant profession that he applied for. Tom has over 8 years of consulting experience and a Bachelor in Computer Science.  Moreover, this was not Tom’s first TN visa application and had applied successfully under Management Consultant and Computer Systems Analyst category.

Tom’s current job can easily fall under the Computer Systems Analyst category so he contemplates on changing his application and return the next day hoping to get a different customs officer.

When he called his attorney friend about his plan, her advice to him was this.

1. It’s perfectly fine to have applied and worked under different professional categories in the past. The classification should match both the description of the job and the candidates’ qualifications.

2. To switch the category after a failed attempt, however, may raise a red flag with the officer in the second attempt.  There may be a strong case to switch the category but it should be carefully thought through.

3. Management Consultant happens to be one of the highly scrutinized categories due to the number of applicants who use this as a last resort if they do not qualify under other professions.

More on profession categories: http://canada.usembassy.gov/mobile/visas/doing-business-in-america/professions-covered-by-nafta.html

How many TN visas were issued last year?

Given Canada and Mexico’s geographic proximity to the US and that there are no limit set on the TN visa/status issued every year, one would expect that the number of TN issued every year will be ridiculously high, right?   Well yes and no.  Here’s why.

Thanks to Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA), we were able to pull up some quick stats on TN, TD, and some other visas for 2012.

In 2012, only a whopping 7,638 TN visas were issued!  How does this compare to the more well-known work visa called H1B?  For starters, the limit set on H1B (excluding exemptions) is already at 65,000 but with renewals from prior H1B holders, the total number of H1B’s issued in 2012 was 135,530.   That is almost 20 times more than TN’s!

But wait, TN visa/status is only for Mexican and Canadian citizens so if you compare the number of issued visas to the overall country population, the percentage is actually not that far off.  Not only that, the ratio of TN issued to Canadian is 3+ times more than that of H1B visas relative the population pool of countries eligible for H1B at 0.12% versus 0,004%.

2012_TN_Issued

(The break up of number of TN issued to Canada and Mexico are approximate but total is based on Bureau of Consular Affairs.)

So what does this all mean?  Not sure because I was expecting number of TN issued to be much higher given the strong business ties with the US economy, cultural similarity (Canadians), and geographic promixity to the US.

Now that the economy is picking up, maybe this will change.