Working In the USA? (If not Born in the USA)

[KidCanada]

Hey guys,

I have just completed my undergrad (whoop-de-doo) and I was wondering if there are opportunities available for Canadians to work in the US.

I have heard various things from friends/limited internet research such as:
-You may only acquire positions in which you have skills for a position which an American could not fill.
-You can get a work Visa and work for 1-3 years.

So, I am wondering if people have additional information to add/clarify to these findings as well as experiences living and working in the US (or abroad for that matter). Was it easy to find work? What avenues did you use?

Cheers!
Nick

[Boo Radley]

It really depends on what your degree/training is.

If you are in Science/Engineering/Business you might be able to get a TN-Visa.

With an undergraduate degree it may be more difficult to demonstrate that you have specialized skills making you more qualified than an American, however, it is not unheard of.

If you have an education degree I think it is near impossible according to a friend of mine.

Also, you could look into an H1-B visa. www.usimmigrationsupport.org/h1b-work-visa.html



Radley

[valo403]

As already mentioned it is very much dependent upon your skill set and your ability to obtain employment. Moving to Vegas and grabbing a job bartending isn't an option, but if you have specialized skills there are visa's you can obtain.

Another option is to continue your education in the US. Obviously more education will help with the skill set, but it laso opens the door to the Optional Practical Training portion of your student visa, which grants you a year of post graduation work eligibility. I went this route, although I was employed at graduation and switched over to a TN Visa pretty quickly.

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Originally Posted by KidCanada

Hey guys,

I have just completed my undergrad (whoop-de-doo) and I was wondering if there are opportunities available for Canadians to work in the US.

I have heard various things from friends/limited internet research such as:
-You may only acquire positions in which you have skills for a position which an American could not fill.
-You can get a work Visa and work for 1-3 years.

So, I am wondering if people have additional information to add/clarify to these findings as well as experiences living and working in the US (or abroad for that matter). Was it easy to find work? What avenues did you use?

Cheers!
Nick

Without disclosing sensitive info, perhaps you can give us a little more info about your background and what you would like to do?

For example, if you're in a science related discipline, you can concentrate on hotspots like San Diego / San Fran. Biospace.com is not a bad site to put up a CV and browse around.

I'm sure other people may be able to chime in depending on your discipline of interest.

As for immigration matters, you're in an easier situation because of Canadian citizenship. As the previous poster noted, most technically-oriented jobs can satisfy requirements for a TN visa which is really practical.

[KidCanada]

Thanks for the info.

My education and background is business related. I have done two co-ops in finance and one more general one with the Vancouver Olympics. My degree is in Entrepreneurship. Really I am going to be searching for finance and marketing or consulting entry level positions.

[FlamesAddiction]

I know people who have done it. A good friend of mine moved to Nashville and works in a recording studio and it's not like he is so specialized that an American couldn't do the job. He just happened to really impress the people when he popped in while on holidays.

If they like you enough, they will say that you are the best person for the job.

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Originally Posted by KidCanada

Thanks for the info.

My education and background is business related. I have done two co-ops in finance and one more general one with the Vancouver Olympics. My degree is in Entrepreneurship. Really I am going to be searching for finance and marketing or consulting entry level positions.

My best advice to you would be to pick a city, preferably a larger one, where you have an acquaintance / friend that you can stay with for a couple of weeks. Once you have the geography down, you can send out resumes in advance with a *local* US address as well as job hunting by foot once you get there.

From many friends hunting for jobs within the US, they've noted that it is much much easier to find an entry level job if you're sporting a local address. Obviously the Visa situation will have to be dealt with if they're indeed interested, but an impending Visa situation plus an out-of-country address will be doubly challenging to your efforts.

If you are interested in further pursuing some education, an MBA might be a good way to get into the US. Otherwise, an internship may also be a means to impress yourself upon a potential employer. Obviously both represent cost challenges.

Congrats on graduating.

[Nufy]

For my TN Visa (I'm on my third now...) I had to be sponsored by an American Engineer who was to be my Supervisor.

It may depend on the position but for Engineering Type work (I am a Technologist) you need to be sponsored.

If you are a P.Eng I believe you qualify for a different type of Visa.

[ernie]

I believe a TN always needs to be sponsored with supporting letter from the supervisor.

I'm currently on a L1B visa (intra-company transfer for person with specialized knowledge) with green card in the works.

Visas are no longer just handed out. You typically need to demonstrate that your skill set is not available from an American citizen in the US. That is hard to do with Bachelor's degree with no significant work experience.

My advice is to marry an American.

[Jordan!]

My dad is American so I just get it automatically. I love not spending out the ass to live down here.

USA USA!

[Clever_Iggy]

I'm a Canadian working in an H1-B visa as a lawyer (and practice in, among other areas, immigration law) in California.

Feel free to IM me with some additional details re your background, education and where you want to go.

Most of the advice already posted is solid, but there are some misconceptions and erroneous comments that you should be aware of also.

[Phanuthier]

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.

[Clever_Iggy]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

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.

If you want to get onto an H1-B, the time is pretty good right now. Due to the economy, the number of applications for H1-Bs have dropped so much that they no longer have a lottery (not necessary). Basically, if you fill out the I-129 properly and get the prevailing wage set immediately, you should be able to walk right through the process. My wife got an H1-B as a teacher - she just had an employer who would play ball. Getting an H1B is fairly lucky, but as a teacher, the only way it was going to happen was in this economy.

Note: To date, ~30,000 of 65,000 spots have been taken. The application process started on April 1, 2010, so you can see how slow things are (compared to years past when USCIS would receive 200,000+ applications in the first week and shut off accepting packages in order to have a lottery).

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Clever_Iggy

If you want to get onto an H1-B, the time is pretty good right now. Due to the economy, the number of applications for H1-Bs have dropped so much that they no longer have a lottery (not necessary). Basically, if you fill out the I-129 properly and get the prevailing wage set immediately, you should be able to walk right through the process. My wife got an H1-B as a teacher - she just had an employer who would play ball. Getting an H1B is fairly lucky, but as a teacher, the only way it was going to happen was in this economy.

Note: To date, ~30,000 of 65,000 spots have been taken. The application process started on April 1, 2010, so you can see how slow things are (compared to years past when USCIS would receive 200,000+ applications in the first week and shut off accepting packages in order to have a lottery).

Thanks for the tip, no wonder they're pushing me to move over to H1B right now. What do you mean a prevailing wage? I am a salary employee.

(Also Q: What are my chances and how long to get a Greencard from the time I start an H1B? I started on TN this summer. I have a MSEE... salary employee... uh, did an internship in a big engineering company and now I'm fulltime in another big engineering company.)

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

(Also Q: What are my chances and how long to get a Greencard from the time I start an H1B? I started on TN this summer. I have a MSEE... salary employee... uh, did an internship in a big engineering company and now I'm fulltime in another big engineering company.)

My employer got me through the Green Card process in about 14 months. In their defense, I was pretty lazy at the beginning about giving them much of the info that they wanted. But once they completed the package to their satisfaction (after I begrudgingly gave them everything they wanted), I had the Green Card within 6 - 8 months. I was on an H1B during this process, a status which I moved to after multiple years of 12 month TN visa admissions.

Our people said that being on an H1B was advantageous, in their experience, for moving towards the Green Card. They had a very stringent process that they adhered to for preparing the Green Card application, and it was mostly because they had enough experience to know that it practically guaranteed them the outcome they wanted.

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

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.

I guess times have changed :-)

My TN papers included a notarized copy of my Ph.D., my transcript, and a letter that I prepared on university letterhead that my chairmen signed for me. The letter had to have certain specific keywords in it, but other than that, there were no lawyers involved in the process.

I did this for about 5 years from 2000-2005. Each time it was a 12 month admission.

[afc wimbledon]

There's going to be a huge demand for fruit pickers, domestic staff and car wash attendants in Florida and Arizona in the next year, not looking mexican will give you a huge leg up.

[Rockin' Flames]

Originally Posted by Flames Fan, Ph.D.

I guess times have changed :-)

My TN papers included a notarized copy of my Ph.D., my transcript, and a letter that I prepared on university letterhead that my chairmen signed for me. The letter had to have certain specific keywords in it, but other than that, there were no lawyers involved in the process.

I did this for about 5 years from 2000-2005. Each time it was a 12 month admission.

I moved down to the US (Texas) 1 year ago on a TN visa. I did my research and was able to avoid using a lawyer. There are some great resources out there. I relied a lot on this chat board as well as purchased a kit on how to get a TN visa and what to do to get it approved. It was only about $80 I think.

As other have said it is more difficult to get a job without a US address but I tried to put myself on the same level as everyone else (ie. I'd pay for my own flight, I don't need a relocation allowance, I can come for an interview within 1 week, etc.). I after about 2 months of sending out resumes and calling places I lined up 4 interviews which made a flight well worth it. Received 3 job offers and moved down. Recently had to change jobs to move for my wife to get a job but the second TN was just as easy.

To get the TN you just need to make sure that you fit within one of the qualified job categories, or else you will need a different kind of visa (H1B).

I love it down here, warm weather and lower cost of living.

If you want any other info feel free to PM me.

[Clever_Iggy]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

Thanks for the tip, no wonder they're pushing me to move over to H1B right now. What do you mean a prevailing wage? I am a salary employee.

(Also Q: What are my chances and how long to get a Greencard from the time I start an H1B? I started on TN this summer. I have a MSEE... salary employee... uh, did an internship in a big engineering company and now I'm fulltime in another big engineering company.)

I make salary too - prevailing wage is simply the government determined wage for your type of job in your geographical location. Your employer just needs to pay you equal to or more than the prevailing wage (prevents companies from importing cheap labor - people coming to the US willing to work for far less than the average US citizen).

As soon as you receive an H1B you can start the process to get your Greencard. The longest period in that process is the PERM process where basically your employer has to show that your skill set, experience and education cannot be filled by a US citizen. PM me for more information (the type of information that people pay a lot of money for).

[valo403]

Is there any reason my employer wouldn't be pushing me to move to an H1B? I have a fairly recent TN, so I'm good for quite a while, but it seems like it would have made more sense to go the H1B route considering where the quota is this year.