TN on Previous Overstay and Waiver

[johnny_gurkha]

I have a couple of companies willing to offer me employment and write the required offer of employment letter. I have a 4 year bachelor degree in computer science from a US college. However, I ended up accruing overstay while waiting for change of status from F1(OPT) to H1 (small company lawyer sent the application after my status had expired). So although my H1 petition was approved, I wasn't given AOS and later was handed a reentry bar.

So, subsequently I applied for a waiver and have been going back to US as a visitor for the last couple of years. Every time I cross I show them the waiver and recently they haven't been grilling as much (still secondary inspection) but in August I'd to go to NYC for a meeting and they really grilled me at the airport for not having a letter from my Employer for the meeting etc. Understandably, they're wary of previous status violators. It's irrelevant whether it was on purpose or due to ignorance.

My questions is when I apply for TN status at the border, with waiver in hand, could I be denied entry because of my previous overstay with everything else being in order? Also, with a CS degree could I quality under Software Engineer (a border agent might not see things the way we do). Would I be grilled on specifics of the job if I enter as System Analyst (I've heard this one leads to lots of questions).

 

[nelsona]

Admissibility on TN is the same as on B2. Your waiver clears the path. The one incident you had should not affect you. Besides on TN you are allowed to live in US.

Now, as to CS and engineering, yes, that could pose a problem, and would for any petitioner. You quite simply are not an engineer. You may have to get an H1.

You may want to look into your H1 eligibility. Once awarded an H1 -- even if you never used it -- , you are entitled to 6 years on H1 without being susceptible to quotas or waiting periods, so try to get TN, but if that fails, you should beable to use your old H1 approval to get the next one almost immediately. I would contact a good H1 specialist on this (whether or not you get TN this time or not).