TN Visa denial twice (even with USCIS pre approval)

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bob2344

New Member
Hello everyone, have a pretty complicated case here.

After accepting a job offer at company A as a software engineer the immigration lawyers and I started a case.

My Background:
Computer Science degree from university
Previous internship at company A

1st Attempt:
The lawyers applied for the Engineer category as my role would be a software engineer and they advised me to directly apply at POE (Vancouver, YVR), they said that I was qualified and that my related degree would be enough. The CBP officer denied my entry (Application withdrawn) due to the fact that I did not have an engineering degree.

2nd Attempt:
Thus my lawyers and I filed for premium processing under the same category and got a i797B Approval notice

I took this with me and got denied again due to the same reason, I did not have an engineering degree, they did not seem to care that USCIS deemed me eligible for the TN Visa (I know that i797B does not mean I am guaranteed a visa)

I am hopefully going to try for a third attempt, however it's pretty obvious that applying under engineer category won't work, thus I am thinking that CSA would be the better option. Any thoughts or concerns here?

Also curious about how the Job title affects the TN category one would apply for?

If there needs to be any clarifications, please let me know!
 
Your Degree, Job Duties and TN category should be logically connected. If it is a new job offer from another company you have not applied in the past, there is a chance for CSA TN. Is your degree from North America? what's the degree ?. Remember you are not allowed to code in CSA.
 
I would let the experts chime in, but since you did not have an engineering degree, and your job (s/w engineer) duties are more closely related to a CSA, they should have filed you under the CSA category. CSA also directly relates to your degree.
 
ITguy75 said:
Your Degree, Job Duties and TN category should be logically connected. If it is a new job offer from another company you have not applied in the past, there is a chance for CSA TN. Is your degree from North America? what's the degree ?. Remember you are not allowed to code in CSA.
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I understand the 3 things should be connected, how about the official job title though? Does that matter as much?

It'll be for the same company A, my degree is from Canada and it's a 4 year undergraduate computer science degree
 
bob2344 said:
I understand the 3 things should be connected, how about the official job title though? Does that matter as much?

It'll be for the same company A, my degree is from Canada and it's a 4 year undergraduate bachelor computer science degree
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Also note that I have work experience in Canada as a software developer intern, and in the US as software engineering intern while I was doing my studies
 
The company job title is meaningless, as is your previous experience. Education, job description, and TN category. Period.
 
nelsona said:
The company job title is meaningless, as is your previous experience. Education, job description, and TN category. Period.
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Appreciate your reply nelsona, would my previous two denials cause for extra care or concern?

I also find it a bit hard to believe that if my job title was Associate software engineer that they wouldn't ask why im not applying as an engineer
 
Frankly you are not an engineer, so having an engineering job offer is problematic. If it is not an engineering job, have company remove the title from the TN letter. But your previous faileres are definitely going to be hard to overcome, since little in your case has changed materially.

Job titles never halp an application, but, as in your case, they can definitely hurt.

Of course, the question is what are your sponsor's lawyers sayin to do?
 
nelsona said:
Frankly you are not an engineer, so having an engineering job offer is problematic. If it is not an engineering job, have company remove the title from the TN letter. But your previous faileres are definitely going to be hard to overcome, since little in your case has changed materially.

Job titles never halp an application, but, as in your case, they can definitely hurt.

Of course, the question is what are your sponsor's lawyers sayin to do?
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Its surprising that USCIS pre-approved it previously tho
 
USCIS did more than pre-approve it: they actually approved it. Unfortunately, if you are not in US when it is approved, you still have to go through CBP anyways, so that first denial was out there. and could not be overcome. Getting an I-129 approval while outside US gives one the mistaken belief that they are good to go, and they may start their move to US (quit job, sell house, etc). It probably would have been better to fix the first TN letter, removing any reference to Engineering, and returned to YVR within a couple of days, and not bothered with I-129. which turned out to be useless.
 
nelsona said:
Frankly you are not an engineer, so having an engineering job offer is problematic. If it is not an engineering job, have company remove the title from the TN letter. But your previous faileres are definitely going to be hard to overcome, since little in your case has changed materially.

Job titles never halp an application, but, as in your case, they can definitely hurt.

Of course, the question is what are your sponsor's lawyers sayin to do?
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Would you say that a change in category and update in job responsibilities is a small material change in an application?
 
You didn't do that. You took the same petition (now approved by USCIS) to the border and it failed again at CBP. Your lawyers should have done then what you are thinking of doing now, instead of filing with USCIS. So now, they will simply say you are "tailoring" your 3rd attempt.
 
Right but thinking about this 3rd attempt, what do you mean it's "tailoring", like i can't change the past attempts
 
Several people have mentioned: TN categories don't allow for coding / software development. By now the the border officers know that's exactly what you plan to do, no matter how you dress it up.
 
Tailoring is writing a letter with job description that so exactly fits the category, when previous attempts failed. Then It looks like you are trying to simply satisfy (ie. lie to) the CBP rather than describe job truthfully.
 
nelsona said:
Tailoring is writing a letter with job description that so exactly fits the category, when previous attempts failed. Then It looks like you are trying to simply satisfy (ie. lie to) the CBP rather than describe job truthfully.
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So in your eyes theres no hope for a TN Visa?
 
I think this issue is specific to YVR/Vancouver. I've always gone to Buffalo border and every time a "Software Engineer" title was allowed through the "Engineer" category for someone with 4-year Computer Science degree. I was told that the all POE were sent a clarification few years ago stating that Computer Science qualifies under "Engineer" category.
 
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