QUESTION: I live in USA under TD visa. I got a job offer and would like to
convert my TD to TN visa. How would that be possible?
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david ingram replies: Unless you have a Professional degree as explained
below, you might have to get an H1B if you are skilled without a degree.
However, your having an H1 can cause problems with your wife's TN. Consult
competent help if this arises.
I will be away now until about Sept 3rd so do not expect an answer from me
if you write back.
The following comes from my 1991 Border book. - You can also find it and
more by going to www.centa.com and clicking on "Entering the US" in the box
marked Features (the second from the top on the right hand side of the home
page.
On December 8, 1993, President Clinton signed the NAFTA Agreement, which
took effect on January 1, 1994 under 101(a)(15).
TD - Spouse or Child of NAFTA Professional under 214(e)(2) (TN holder)
TN - NAFTA Professional - (North America Free Trade Agreement) PROFESSIONAL
BUSINESS PERSON
A professional is defined as a person with a minimum of a bachelor's degree,
who applies for a position, which requires a degree as its minimum
entry-level requirement unless otherwise specified.
This is the one we heard about in the news. To meet this classification
which is unique to Canadians, you must have a bone fide job offer and all
licenses and degrees in place for your profession.
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CHECK LIST for the TN Visa
* An applicant for admission must establish Canadian citizenship
* The applicant must be entering the United States to engage in a
profession or occupation at a professional level under NAFTA
* The applicant must be in possession of an offer or contract of
employment from a United States employer stating:
1) The professional activity to be engaged in
2) Purpose of entry
3) Remuneration
4) That the position is temporary in nature and will not exceed
one year (although it can be renewed)
* The applicant must provide documentation of his or her educational degree
or professional qualifications
* The applicant must meet all licensing requirements
* Employment need not be full-time
* Permanent residence abroad is not a prerequisite
* Maximum period of admission of a TN is one year
* TN dependants accompanying the principal TN will be admitted under the
"TD" classification for the same amount of time as the principal
* A $56 U.S. fee is required ($85.00 for renewal by mail)
* TN applicants are not permitted to enter as a professional to participate
in any way to circumvent a strike
* SELF EMPLOYMENT IS NOT PERMISSIBLE
The following is a partial list of some who qualify under a TN Visa. Please
note that extensive experience can equal a degree in many cases. All need a
Bachelor or Baccalaureate degree unless otherwise noted. In some cases, 3 or
4 years of practical work in a discipline can count for one year of a
University degree. Therefore if the University BA requires 3 years, you
need 9 or 12 years of work experience to qualify.
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* Accountants - RIA or SIA or CPA or CGA or CMA or CA
** Actuaries (this is one of two classifications added since 1989)
* Agriculturalists
* Agronomists
* Animal Breeders
* Animal Scientists
* Apiculturist
* Architects - BA or state / provincial license
* Astronomers
* Biochemists
* Biologists
* Botanists
* Chemists
* Computer Systems Analyst - BA or Post-secondary Diploma or Post-secondary
certificate and three years of practical experience. This does not get you
to the USA, if your job is programming a computer. An Analyst might spend a
day a month working on some modifications (in a testing mode for instance),
but they better not be thought of as a "programmer" within the company.
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**** Computer Software Engineer *** This is NOT here as an approved
occupation. However, Jackie Bednarz (US head of the NAFTA Section 16
Working group in Washington stated specifically that if a recognized
University was to offer the degree, she would consider computer software
engineers under the ENGINEER classification when a recognized University
granted the degree. My understanding is that SFU and McGill are now
granting such degrees and that the Professional Engineers of British
Columbia have recognized graduates as members of their professional society.
Note that TC and TN's were being granted for this category on a sporadic
basis until the INS realized that no such "official" degree existed.
Jackie Bednarz also pointed out (She was part of the original negotiating
team when the original FTA (Free Trade Agreement) was being negotiated in
1985, 86, 87 and 88, there was no such thing as the INTERNET, "web masters"
and "web sites". When negotiating the job titles, no thought was given to
the computer revolution, other than the computer system analyst designation,
which at the time meant a main frame analyst for a $1,000,000 computer.
(Thanks to Stuart Lynne and Richard Pitt) (www.fireplug.net), the CEN-TA
Group was an official member of the internet as far back as 1986 and thanks
to Bill Gates himself (he told me to use Microsoft Xenix as my operating
system) and Radio Shack Model 16 computers, CEN-TA was using "email" between
offices in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver as early as 1983.
As another aside, Stuart Lynne and Richard Pitt went on to found WIMSEY, the
FIRST ISP in CANADA. Bill Gates became quite famous as well.
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* Dairy Scientists
* Dentists - DDS, DMD, or state / provincial license
* Dental Technicians
* Dietician
* Disaster Relief Insurance Claim Specialists - (claims adjuster employed by
an insurance company located in the territory of a party or an independent
claims adjuster) - BA and successful completion of training in the
appropriate areas of insurance adjustment pertaining to disaster relief
claims; or, three years experience in claims adjustment and successful
completion of training in the appropriate areas of insurance adjustment
pertaining to disaster relief claims
* Doctors - (see physician further on)
* Economists
* Engineers - BA or state / provincial licensing
* Entomologists
* Epidemiologists
* Forester - BA or state / provincial licensing
* Geneticists
* Geochemist
* Geologist
* Geophysicists (including Oceanographer in the United States)
* Graphic Designer - BA or post-secondary diploma and three years
experience.
* Hotel Managers - BA in hotel / restaurant management; or,
post-secondary diploma or post-secondary certificate in hotel / restaurant
management and three years experience in hotel / restaurant management
* Horticulturist
* Industrial Designer - BA or post-secondary diploma or post-secondary
certificate and three years experience
* Interior Designer - BA or post-secondary diploma or post-secondary
certificate and three years experience
* Journalist BA plus three years experience - (This category is no longer
valid and has been left in to explain the circumstances. As I understand it,
journalists in general took it as an insult that they had to have a BA
degree, because, "most, if not all," of the best known journalists do not
have a BA degree.)
* Land Surveyor - BA or state / provincial licenses
* Landscape Architect
* Lawyer (including notary in the Province of Quebec) - LLB, JD, LLL, BCL
degree (five years); or membership in a state or provincial bar
* Librarians - MLS or BLS (for which another BA was a prerequisite)
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* Management Consultants - BA; or equivalent professional experience as
established by statement or professional credential attesting to five years
experience as a management consultant, or five years experience in a field
of specialty relating to the consulting agreement. I must make it clear
here. A Management Consultant is NOT a manager. The surest way to lose
your management consultant renewal is to show up at the border with a
business card with the title General Manager, Western Region, or Human
Resources Manager, or, or, or. A management consultant could consult with
the actual sales manager about sales techniques or about selling into
Canada. A management consultant could be advising the actual human
resources manager in hiring techniques or even suggesting that one candidate
is a better fit than another one. A management consultant can do market
research, gather and assemble data and write a report to give to the
manager. This is likely the hardest TN visa to get but is also a very
important one when it comes to serving the needs of the US company.
Note that the management consultant does NOT need a degree, just five years
experience. This is the perfect job description for the person with 23
years of job experience who has never gone through the formal process of
getting a university degree in the discipline.
* Mathematician (including statistician)
* Medical Laboratory Technologist (Canada) / Medical Technologist (U.S.) -
BA; or post-secondary diploma or post-secondary certificate and three years
experience
* Meteorologist
* Nutritionist
* Occupational Therapist - BA; or state / provincial license
* Organic Chemist
* Pharmacologist (Pharmacist) - BA; or state / provincial license
* Physician - (teaching or research only), MD or state /provincial license.
To work as MD, a doctor must pass his MLE (medical licensing exam), which
has three, parts written over a year. After passing, he or she would enter
the U.S. under an H-1A.
* Physicist (including oceanographer in Canada)
* Physiotherapist/Physical Therapist - BA; or state /provincial license
* Plant Breeder
** Plant Pathologists (This is one of two professions added since 1989)
* Poultry Scientist
* Professional (most recognized professions)
* Psychologists - state / provincial license
* Range Conservationist
* Recreational Therapist
* Registered Nurse - state / provincial license
* Research Assistant (working in post-secondary educational institution)
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- * Scientific Technician - Possession of: (a) theoretical knowledge of any
of the disciplines: agricultural sciences, astronomy, biology, chemistry,
engineering, forestry, geology, geophysics, meteorology, or physics; and (b)
the ability to solve practical problems in any of those disciplines, or the
ability to apply principles of any of those disciplines to basic or applied
research.
* Social Worker
* Soil Scientist
* Sylviculturist
* Teacher (College, Seminary, or University) (Post Secondary level only)
* Technical Publication Writer - BA, or post-secondary diploma or
post-secondary certificate, and three years experience
* Urban Planner (including geographer)
* Veterinarian
* Vocational Counsellor
* Zoologist
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SUBJECT TO CHANGE
This list is subject to change at any time. When talking to Dennis Olsen
about updating the rules, I mentioned a nurse who had found out that nurses
could go south instantly in the late 1970's. She got a job offer from a
Hawaii hospital, came back to Vancouver, quit her job, sold her house,
kicked out her husband, gave away the dogs and showed up at the airport to
move to Hawaii, only to find out that they had closed the quota for nurses.
And then, as I was writing this exact section of the book in March, 1995, I
received a call from a Doctor who had a job offer from the U.S., sold his
house and Canadian practice, only to be told that he did not qualify when he
showed up at the border because although a practicing family physician in
Canada and fully qualified to go south with a Green Card (a resident alien
immigrant visa), he did not qualify as a TN (can only teach or do research)
and he did not qualify as an H-1B because he had not written an MLE. This
medical licensing exam is written in three stages over a one year timetable.
I guess he has to sue his immigration attorney in Los Angeles. This
attorney knew he did not have his MLE, but charged him significant monies
and told him he could get in now!
Remember, NONE of the foregoing confers permanent status. For permanent
status, you must still stand in some sort of line. However, it seems to be
true that if you are in the U.S. as a TN or as a L-1, your line moves much
faster than if you start from out of the country.
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W A R N I N G
March 8, 1995 - When a Canadian leaves Canada to move to the U.S., there is
a departure tax. This means that all of the Canadian's assets are deemed
"to have been sold" at fair market value the day before he or she leaves. If
there are "paper profits," tax is due on this paper profit although a bond
may be posted. The United States did not have this departure tax because the
U.S. citizen has to keep on filing U.S. FEDERAL INCOME TAX RETURNS while out
of the country for as long as they remain a U.S. citizen. If they gave up
their citizenship, they could own a million dollars worth of assets that
they had paid a dollar for and their "paper profit" would have just
disappeared into the mist. Section 352 of the new Legal Immigrant and
Illegal Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 states that the U.S. Citizen
who gives up their citizenship to avoid U.S. income taxation is also banned
from ever returning to the U.S. for any purpose.
======================
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