Employment Eligibility:

Ok, so you've just read my resume, cover letter, and perhaps some of my long-winded detailed work history, and you thought "wow, Thomas has a lot to offer. We could use a really smart senior engineer like him, but... doesn't it say in here somewhere that he's Canadian? Is that a US State? Is it legal to hire a Canadian?"

Unlike other foreign citizens who work in the US, Canadian (and Mexican) professionals can get a visa under a special "TN" category. "TN" stands for Trade NAFTA; these temporary visas are available as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The "TN-1" visa category is only for qualified Canadian professionals in certain fields. The requirements for getting a TN-1 visa are: - A Current proof of citizenship of Canada (passport).
- A $60 check made out to the INS.
- A university degree in a discipline appropriate to the work being offered. (Recently a course transcript has also been required).
- A job offer from a US company containing:
- The job title of the applicant, taken from INS lists. Acceptable job titles for software people are "Computer Systems Analyst" and "Software Engineer".
- The proposed salary.
- The start date.
- The term of employment (maximum 1 year, renewable indefinitely).
- That's it.

In other words, the only requirement of the employer is that the offer letter conform to certain minimal requirements. There is no delay in applying for a TN visa; the usual way is for the applicant to apply at a border crossing, with no advance notice, or at airport crossings, a fax 3 days in advance is requested. I have applied for and received several TN visas in this way, without any significant problems.

A really great website that explains TN visas is Joseph Grasmick's Canada-US Business Immigration Page.

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