TN-1 renewal question (strange circumstance)

[Rigamortus]

Hi all, great forum you have here! I'm glad I found it.

My question for you all is this:

I want to renew my TN-1 Visa by mail as I'm in Georgia and it's expensive to travel to NB just to go through the border again. This is my first renewal.

The thing that is making me a little bit nervous is that even though this will be for the same job I was originally approved for, the border agent I had on my way down the first time did a strange thing. I believe he actually entered me into their system as a 'Computer Scientist' because my degree is in computer science... even though in my offer letter it stated I would be a software engineer (that was the best I could get from my employer at the time). I felt pretty lucky to have him approving it given the horror stories I've heard about people trying to get in as a software engineer so I kept my mouth shut.

Now that I'm going to renew, I thought it might be best to use Computer Systems Analyst as my title since I've heard they can be more nit-picky by mail. Is this going to cause problems for renewal since I was originally in their system as something else? Should I have my employer call me a Computer Scientist?

The other thing is that I kind of forgot about my visa and it expires at the end of April. I've read that you can keep working as long as they recieve the application before your old visa expires, while approval is pending. Is this still the case?

Thanks for any advice or comments in advance, they will be much appreciated.

 

[Rigamortus]

Thank you for your reply! I'm wondering if you might be able to clear a couple of small points up for me.

1. So having the INS agent mark me down as a computer scientist in the system when I originally came down won't cause any problems when I try to renew as a software engineer or computer systems analyst?

2. And is software engineer more acceptable now than it used to be? I've read that they give SE's a really hard time because they consider them just programmers. I thought the only real title to use was Computer Systems Analyst, but if Software Engineer is acceptable I'll use that, since that is really what I am.

Thanks again!