Law firm refusing to do TN

Sapientis

Sapientis

New Member
Hi guys,

Sorry that this may be a bit long but I’ll try and be concise.

I am a Canadian citizen who recently got a job offer from a US company for a Data Scientist role. This company is partnered with a large law firm, who have come back saying they cannot do a TN application for me for two reasons:
1. They think it will be “extremely challenging” to argue a Data Scientist fits under any of the TN categories
2. They had an “independent service evaluator” look at my transcripts who came back saying my degree was not relevant to the job

I replied with a successful example case posted online by another law firm. They created a two tiered approach: first establish that a Data Scientist qualifies under a Statistician TN category and second establish that the candidate’s education qualifies for a Statistician.

I provided this approach and referenced the OOH for Statistician which states: “Most statisticians have degrees in mathematics, economics, computer science, or another quantitative field”. I have a Bachelor in Business (with a minor in Computer Science) and a Masters in Analytics from Canadian universities both of which contain courses from the above list and can be argued to be from a quantitative field.

Despite showing all this the law firm simply replied with the same statement they did before.

I have contacted another immigration firm who are currently working on a second opinion but I know there are experienced people here. Do you think I’m completely off base in this scenario?

Thanks so much everyone.
 
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Kind of a weird question. If the law firm doesn’t think it will succeed it has every right not to file the application. A layperson using arguments from an online case frankly is unlikely to sway an opinion the firm has determined. I guess you can either ask the company to get legal advice elsewhere or look for a new job, unless you feel you can do the TN application yourself with what you have researched?
 
Of course, the firm still needs to sigh a letter to sponsor you. I'm not of the opinion that this is a frivolous attempt on your part, so you should press the issue.
 
Your options seem to be either;

- try to convince the employer to hire a different lawyer
- try to convince the employer to let you make your own application (either with or without a lawyer's help)

Sounds like you don't have much to lose either way
 
Would you consider crossing the boarder yourself? You can prepare material your own, since you mentioned:
"This company is partnered with a large law firm, who have come back saying they cannot do a TN application for me for two reasons:
1. They think it will be “extremely challenging” to argue a Data Scientist fits under any of the TN categories
2. They had an “independent service evaluator” look at my transcripts who came back saying my degree was not relevant to the job"

You can hire a lawyer yourself for the doc prep, as you are confident that it fits Statistician cat.
 
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