First Time applying for TN - Help! please!!

S

sarchi

New Member
Hi,

I am a CDN citizen curently in the U.S on an H4 visa (i.e spousal visa for a person whose spouse is on an H1-B visa)...and have recently accepted a job offer as a "financial analyst" in an asset/liability firm here.

I wantto go to Pearson Airport to file for a TN visa, and have yet to obtain my employment letter from my manager (hopefully tomorrow).

Here are my concerns:
1) My employer is quite willing to accomodate me in any way, so how should i go about wording the employment letter...i.e., does anyone have any online reference one can use to word their own employment letter, which is in compliance with what the officers expect at intl airports?
2) Under what category should i fit myself? I am concerned that i might be rejected if put myself under the "Economist" category, as my background is that i have a BSC Honours with a major in Stats, minor in Math and Economics. So as such, i really have no finance background.
3)Would it be better to tailor myself to fall under the mathematician/statistician category? And the only prb i see in that would be, a) wouldnt they expect a masters to fall under this category, and b) how would my job descriptions (performing leverage analysis, liquidity analysis, interest-rate anaysis and portfolio management) fall under these categories?
4) Would you guys recommend that i hire a lawyer/ ask the company if they have lawyers that deal with this?

Any advise and help will be really appreciated! Im sure someone mustv been in my shoes, and might have some helpful pointers!

Thanks a lot!!
 
I'm confused. Are in Toronto or the U.S. ? If you are in the U.S. you could just do everything by mail and pay $ 1,000 for premium processing and you would have your TN in two weeks (unless you prefer to fly to Pearson - I'm sure the cost of the ticket is less than $ 1,000 ).

Okay here's what you need.

First the letter needs to have three components:

A start date and finish date not exceeding 365 days (ie: start Nov. 1, 2007 until Oct. 31, 2008).

The name of the position from the list of occupations on the TN list.

And a very detailed job description. The description becomes semantics with respect to the job title. (eg: you cannot be a sales engineer but you can be an engineer for products to be sold).

In your case the job descrition should just relate to the degree and your background. Math is so general in nature that it seems to me that you could be anaything - ie: math background required to analyse finanacial statements etc.

I think you will be in good shape.

Tha main problem has always been someone who has a history degree but wants to go as a computer programmer - the degree has nothing to do with job. But if you had a degree in Bus. with a major in information systems then you could probably spin that into a programmer - same as your math background.

I don't think you need a lawyer, just a well written offer letter.
 
few suggestions

hi there this is in regard to TN.
well i obtained my TN recently. but got rejected first time but my employer was very cooperative to accomadate me.

this is what happened.

I am a CPA(US) and offered a position as financial analyst and was rejected since it wasnt on the NAFTA list.
And then i got to go back and request for redrafting of entire thing and more notes on job discription.
It has to be made to accountant (title has to be changed).
but when you dig deep actully financial analyst is listed but make sure your job description matches one with the NAFTA list otherwise it could be 50-50.
Be sure to address the letter to home land security.
let me know if you need any details.
cheers
 
Very informative

Hey guys!

Thank you sooo much for all your help and quick response! im really grateful~

In response to a ques, - yes, at the moment i am in U.S on an H4, but since my employers expect me to start work on Monday 29th, i dont want to go through the whole premium processing (plus its so expensive!) so i figured i might as well take a shot at going back to Canada.

The sample offer letter than was posted on the link in one of the replis was very helpful. I guess i can send that in to my manager, and he can then get a fair enough idea of what kind of lingo to use :-s....good thing is, that he is pretty accomodating and willing to state how my stats background all ties up with the job functunalities...

I was also wondering if anyone would have a link to the DOL's description of the "Economist" Job description? Heres what i was able to come up with :
http://www.careerplanner.com/DOT-Job-Descriptions/ECONOMIST.cfm

Is this link describing the position as the immigration ppl at the airport would see it? I ask this, because i can then also send this to my employer for him to get a better idea of how to word the document.

Also in the sample letter, it mentions something about Section421(e) or something to that effect....is it necessary to mention section of the NAFTA treaty? (I ask this because maybe the Economist description falls under a diff section, and i dont want my manager copy pasting smth which might be intended for Systems Analyst~)!!

Thank you again in advance for all your help. This is an awesome forum...better and more helpful than any of the lawyers iv spoken to so far, trust me!

Fingers crossed that everything goes well.!
 
sarchi said:
I was also wondering if anyone would have a link to the DOL's description of the "Economist" Job description?
Click to expand...
This is what the officer will be looking at:

http://online.onetcenter.org/link/summary/19-3011.00

- Study economic and statistical data in area of specialization, such as finance, labor, or agriculture.

- Provide advice and consultation on economic relationships to businesses, public and private agencies, and other employers.

- Compile, analyze, and report data to explain economic phenomena and forecast market trends, applying mathematical models and statistical techniques.

- Formulate recommendations, policies, or plans to solve economic problems or to interpret markets.

- Develop economic guidelines and standards and prepare points of view used in forecasting trends and formulating economic policy.

- Testify at regulatory or legislative hearings concerning the estimated effects of changes in legislation or public policy and present recommendations based on cost-benefit analyses.

- Supervise research projects and students' study projects.

- Forecast production and consumption of renewable resources and supply, consumption and depletion of non-renewable resources.

- Teach theories, principles, and methods of economics.
 
which POE is better?

Thanks again for the helpful tips!

I was thinking of going to Pearson airport and trying my luck there (plus thats more convenient for me), but iv heard from some ppl that crossing over at lewiston is better, and that they are relatively easy on TN cases?

Personally, i think its just ones luck what kind of officer one gets. But i also believe that maybe at Pearson one might have better luck, since they must process many TN cases in a day and so will know better what kind of background will fit in what category intuitively (other than the reinforcement of the employment letter), rather than crossing over at a place where they may not be too familiar with different cases, and the officers might be more "by the book"...

Does anyone have any experiences to share going in from Pearson versus Lewiston? Any thoughts?

Thanks a lot guys!
 
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