Tagged: TN NAFTA

TN’s Management Consultant Profession

The Management Consultant is one of the most scrutinized professions in the TN roster for several reasons. Why? Because it is a category that is probably the highest used category by applicants across all industries. And why is that?  Here are 3 reasons:

1. Does not require a post-secondary degree or professional designation. In lieu it requires at least of industry professional experience. This opens it up for many candidates who may not have the formal education credentials.

2. It does not specify the industry so it covers pretty much all industries – geology, technology, finance, you name it! Another words, if your category does not fit into any of the other ones, guess which one is the default option?

3. Most professionals today provide some sort of consulting service whether it is internal or external or both. No matter how you look at it or think about it, you can pretty much argue that any professional is a “consultant”. The vagueness of the term “consulting” in this category opens it up for interpretation. Combine this with the non-specific industry factor (see above #2), you get the ultimate “catch all” category.

So what is the takeaway? If you are applying under this category, make sure you have your paperwork and story together.  Good luck.

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 NAFTA Professionals List

Although this list has not changed much, it’s worth mentioning this link that seem to be more “official”:
NAFTA Professionals List or
https://www.nafta-sec-alena.org/Default.aspx?tabid=97&ctl=SectionView&mid=1588&sid=8fd98e3e-4495-43a8-ba47-4a6955d6b5db&language=en-US#Ap1603.D.1

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.