[Last modified on Nov. 25th, 2008.]
Some info on the Visa I was applying for: It's called a TN Visa. The "TN" stands for "True Nafta", meaning it was drafted to meet with many many regulations set out in the North American Free Trade Agreement. To be more specific it's a "TN-1" Visa. The way it works is: you have to apply for the actual Visa at the physical border (or sufficient representation of a border) while you are travelling from one participating country into the other. With most other visas, and Green Cards (the proverbial Holy Grail of US immigration approval), you apply in advance. Another detail: the TN-1 Visa only lasts for one year (12 months.) At that point you may re-apply. Sounds pretty straightforward.
The text of the agreement states: "Mexican and Canadian citizens who are members of the professional occupations can enter the USA as a business visitor if they are not paid income by a US source, if they show proof of citizenship, and if they convince that their purpose of entering the USA is to do business in one of the professional occupations." When you see the term "professional occupations", that actually means one of the occupations which have been described in several addendums to the actual NAFTA agreement. There are quite a few of them, too. Electrical Engineers, Farmers / Agriculturists, Pharmacists, etc. All over the place. Of course, it's only when I was rejected that I discovered a super-important point. They don't have any occupation listed anywhere which would begin to describe the job of "Web Developer." Or Database Administrator, for that matter. Both of these job descriptions are, at the moment, the most sought-after things in the US. One report I read said that, per year now, the US requires something like 70,000 new recruits just to fill the demand. No joke!
Given the situation I faced here, I think the term "convince" is pretty freakin' relative. Which, to a certain degree, I understand. But really. If I'm way off base in thinking these people have a hate-on for any new immigrants who happen to only fall within TN eligibility, please feel free to email me.
Some recommended reading:
Some updated further reading (since many of the original stories are now offline or part of paid archives:|
The Law Office Of Joseph C. Grasmick "The most comprehensive source of TN-1 information on the Internet" TN Visa Expert A more recent (2008) resource with very comprehensive information. Notes on NAFTA: The Masters of Mankind. - by Noam Chomsky. Citizen.org: The NAFTA Index A series of statistics collected on October 1, 1998. High-Tech Executives Try New Tack in Push for More Visas. [Sep. 16th, 2000, San Jose Mercury News] Push for High-Tech Visas Stalled [June 14th, 2000, Associated Press, payment required to read the complete story.] A story on the sudden lack of support for visas for new tech-worker immigrants to the US, . Proposed Changes to High-Tech Visas [June 14th, 2000, Associated Press, payment required to read the complete story.] Another story regarding the alleged "changes" which congress was thinking about implementing to address the need for tech workers. |
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U.S. reaches limit for high-tech visas in 2008 [Apr. 14, 2007, International Herald Tribune] |