Hello,
I am a US citizen (but also Canadian by birth) and have an S corp computer consulting company in the US with just my boyfriend and myself as employees. For the past 6 years, my boyfriend, a Canadian, has been using TN visas for work authorization with the company. Prior to that, he was on an H1-B visa but decided to go the TN route because it was cheaper and seemed to be an OK alternative.
In May, he made his annual trip to Canada for visa renewal but was denied because he was told his post-secondary education was insufficient. He does not have an undergraduate degree but did have a computer certificate course but it was for less than 2 years. He does however have about 20 years of programming experience and also validation from an educational analysis firm which states that his certificate course plus experience is equivalent to a bachelors degree. The border crossing where he attempted to renew claimed that post secondary education MUST be 2 years regardless of experience and that his previous TN visas had been issued in error.
Given that my boyfriend has lived in the US for close to 9 years, he needed to try to get back just to "get his stuff" and return to Canada. He purchased a return ticket to Canada and attempted to cross the day following the TN refusal. He was honest about what had happened the previous day but was again denied entry because there wasn't sufficient proof of his "residency" in Canada.
We contacted a lawyer in Canada who advised that we should proceed with another H1-B applicationk, which we have done. Given that the H1-B quota has been filled for this year, we knew that we wouldn't get approval for this visa until the fall but the lawyer said that once we receive notice that INS has received the application, my boyfriend should try to come across again as a visitor and just wait for the H1-B to come through.
We have received notifcation of INS's receipt of the application but are a bit nervous about having him attempt entry again for fear that he may be denied entry permanently. We have thought of trying to contact US immigration at a border crossing just to pose the situation to them but don't want to have additional black strikes against his name as a result of just a query.
Does anyone have any thoughts/ideas of what we should do?
Thanks very much...
I am a US citizen (but also Canadian by birth) and have an S corp computer consulting company in the US with just my boyfriend and myself as employees. For the past 6 years, my boyfriend, a Canadian, has been using TN visas for work authorization with the company. Prior to that, he was on an H1-B visa but decided to go the TN route because it was cheaper and seemed to be an OK alternative.
In May, he made his annual trip to Canada for visa renewal but was denied because he was told his post-secondary education was insufficient. He does not have an undergraduate degree but did have a computer certificate course but it was for less than 2 years. He does however have about 20 years of programming experience and also validation from an educational analysis firm which states that his certificate course plus experience is equivalent to a bachelors degree. The border crossing where he attempted to renew claimed that post secondary education MUST be 2 years regardless of experience and that his previous TN visas had been issued in error.
Given that my boyfriend has lived in the US for close to 9 years, he needed to try to get back just to "get his stuff" and return to Canada. He purchased a return ticket to Canada and attempted to cross the day following the TN refusal. He was honest about what had happened the previous day but was again denied entry because there wasn't sufficient proof of his "residency" in Canada.
We contacted a lawyer in Canada who advised that we should proceed with another H1-B applicationk, which we have done. Given that the H1-B quota has been filled for this year, we knew that we wouldn't get approval for this visa until the fall but the lawyer said that once we receive notice that INS has received the application, my boyfriend should try to come across again as a visitor and just wait for the H1-B to come through.
We have received notifcation of INS's receipt of the application but are a bit nervous about having him attempt entry again for fear that he may be denied entry permanently. We have thought of trying to contact US immigration at a border crossing just to pose the situation to them but don't want to have additional black strikes against his name as a result of just a query.
Does anyone have any thoughts/ideas of what we should do?
Thanks very much...