Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Working In the USA? (If not Born in the USA)

Phanuthier · 08-23-2010, 06:00 PM

TN Visa requires sponsorship from your employer first. Once you have received your job offer, your company will contact an immigration lawyer to put together a package. You then show up to US Customs and they will decided then and there whether they will grant you a TN Visa. TN Visa is valid up to 3 years, though it can be renewed.

If you plan on moving towards a green card, you have to be on an H1B.

H1B's are not really that easy to attain, they are attained through a lottery and you must have proof of employment first. The application process can take up to 4-6 months, and thats assuming you employer is willing to wait that long to see if you will be approved or not. You better be pretty damn good for an employer to do that for you.

Basically outside of permanent residency, you need a job offer letter in hand before you go anywhere. TN Visa is the easiest.

For companies that hire entrepreneurs... most VC's hire out of MBA schools, so can you see where they came from. Problem is there are a lot of really good MBA schools in the USA and you are competing against Wharton or GSB or Haas. The 2 main center's as far as I know are California, and East Coast, it seems most of the stuff happens there. Use SF or NY as a base would be my best guess, and find a place to stay (sublet? find a room on craigslist) so you can use a USA address as said above. Companies will probably want you to interview in person for such a big investment.

For me, I'm a Canadian working on TN Visa down in SF Bay Area (Santa Clara, CA) as a design engineer in th semiconductor industry. It was the biggest nightmare in the world to get in, and my employer spent a lot of money on some platinum package thing to hire me through Berry Appleman & Leiden as the immigration attorney (sounds like C_I does it too; big companies will usually have their go-to law firm to take care of the paperwork). BA&L as well as my employer want me to move to H1B pretty soon here to move over to Greencard. I'm not too sure exactly what they can do to get me the H1B and Green Card, but said they are confident they can do it.

08-23-2010, 06:00 PM	#12
Phanuthier Franchise Player Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Silicon Valley Exp:	TN Visa requires sponsorship from your employer first. Once you have received your job offer, your company will contact an immigration lawyer to put together a package. You then show up to US Customs and they will decided then and there whether they will grant you a TN Visa. TN Visa is valid up to 3 years, though it can be renewed. If you plan on moving towards a green card, you have to be on an H1B. H1B's are not really that easy to attain, they are attained through a lottery and you must have proof of employment first. The application process can take up to 4-6 months, and thats assuming you employer is willing to wait that long to see if you will be approved or not. You better be pretty damn good for an employer to do that for you. Basically outside of permanent residency, you need a job offer letter in hand before you go anywhere. TN Visa is the easiest. For companies that hire entrepreneurs... most VC's hire out of MBA schools, so can you see where they came from. Problem is there are a lot of really good MBA schools in the USA and you are competing against Wharton or GSB or Haas. The 2 main center's as far as I know are California, and East Coast, it seems most of the stuff happens there. Use SF or NY as a base would be my best guess, and find a place to stay (sublet? find a room on craigslist) so you can use a USA address as said above. Companies will probably want you to interview in person for such a big investment. For me, I'm a Canadian working on TN Visa down in SF Bay Area (Santa Clara, CA) as a design engineer in th semiconductor industry. It was the biggest nightmare in the world to get in, and my employer spent a lot of money on some platinum package thing to hire me through Berry Appleman & Leiden as the immigration attorney (sounds like C_I does it too; big companies will usually have their go-to law firm to take care of the paperwork). BA&L as well as my employer want me to move to H1B pretty soon here to move over to Greencard. I'm not too sure exactly what they can do to get me the H1B and Green Card, but said they are confident they can do it. __________________ "With a coach and a player, sometimes there's just so much respect there that it's boils over" -Taylor Hall Last edited by Phanuthier; 08-23-2010 at 06:26 PM.