{"id":28,"date":"2004-06-11T12:13:22","date_gmt":"2004-06-11T19:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/index.php\/archives\/2004\/06\/11\/tn-status\/"},"modified":"2004-06-14T12:25:54","modified_gmt":"2004-06-14T19:25:54","slug":"tn-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/2004\/06\/tn-status\/","title":{"rendered":"TN<\/span> Status"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a Cana\u00addian cit\u00adizen who does some work for cus\u00adtom\u00aders in the U.S., I needed to get some form of leg\u00adal status for busi\u00adness trips there. For Cana\u00addians trav\u00adel\u00adling tem\u00adpor\u00adar\u00adily, TN<\/span> status is the easi\u00adest if you qual\u00adi\u00adfy. Here\u00adwith a few notes on my exper\u00adi\u00adence of the procedure.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t found out what \u201cTN<\/span>\u201d actu\u00adally stands for, if any\u00adthing; it\u2019s defined as the \u201cPro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adals Under the North Amer\u00adic\u00adan Free Trade Agree\u00adment\u201d cat\u00adegory in the U.S. State Depart\u00adment doc\u00adu\u00adment\u00ada\u00adtion<\/a>. Des\u00adpite being part of NAFTA<\/span><\/acronym>, it\u2019s dif\u00adfer\u00adent for Cana\u00addians and Mex\u00adic\u00adans in a num\u00adber of ways. For Cana\u00addian con\u00adsult\u00adants who have cus\u00adtom\u00aders in the U.S. that they need to vis\u00adit, it is rel\u00adat\u00adively easy and quick. You need to go through the pro\u00adced\u00adure for each cus\u00adtom\u00ader though, as the cat\u00adegory seems to have been designed for people who are going to work for a single com\u00adpany for a tem\u00adpor\u00adary peri\u00adod (max\u00adim\u00adum one year). To make up for hav\u00ading to renew the status every year, you can renew it as often as you like.<\/p>\n

The biggest draw\u00adback is that you can\u00ad\u2019t apply for TN<\/span> status until you are trav\u00adel\u00adling to the work site. I found this out the hard way by tak\u00ading my doc\u00adu\u00adment\u00ada\u00adtion to the bor\u00adder a couple of days before trav\u00adel\u00adling to the meet\u00ading, and got turned back. So in these days of non-refund\u00adable plane tick\u00adets, err on the side of tak\u00ading too much doc\u00adu\u00adment\u00ada\u00adtion rather than too little.<\/p>\n

Ah yes, the doc\u00adu\u00adment\u00ada\u00adtion you need. The site quoted above used to say: <\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  1. A request for \u201cTN<\/span>\u201d status;<\/li>\n
  2. A copy of the applic\u00adant\u2019s col\u00adlege degree and employ\u00adment records which estab\u00adlish qual\u00adi\u00adfic\u00ada\u00adtion for the pro\u00adspect\u00adive job;<\/li>\n
  3. A let\u00adter from the ali\u00aden\u2019s pro\u00adspect\u00adive U.S.-based employ\u00ader offer\u00ading him or her a job in the United States, which is included on the pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal job series (NAFTA<\/span> list); and<\/li>\n
  4. A fee of U.S. $50.00.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    The request is verbal (i.e., you apply at the immig\u00adra\u00adtion desk by say\u00ading some\u00adthing like \u201cI want to apply for TN<\/span> status\u201d); the US<\/span> $50 has to be exact change (although they do take cred\u00adit cards), so that leaves the let\u00adter and the proof of qualification.<\/p>\n

    I found a sample let\u00adter, no longer avail\u00adable, it used to be at http:\/\/www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu\/oie\/admins\/notebook2\/sample2.pdf, with an aca\u00addem\u00adic bent, since it was linked to from the http:\/\/www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu\/oie\/admins\/notebook2\/other3.cfm (Oth\u00ader Work Cat\u00adegor\u00adies) page at Carne\u00adgie Mel\u00adlon\u2019s web site for the Office of Inter\u00adna\u00adtion\u00adal Education.<\/p>\n

    That leaves the rest of the sup\u00adport\u00ading doc\u00adu\u00adments \u2014 I took cop\u00adies of the con\u00adtract, and any\u00adthing I could find to prove I ful\u00adfilled the require\u00adments of the \u201cMan\u00adage\u00adment Con\u00adsult\u00adant\u201d job spe\u00adcific\u00ada\u00adtion (uni\u00adver\u00adsity degrees, pre\u00advi\u00adous job offers, let\u00adters of recom\u00admend\u00ada\u00adtion, any\u00adthing that matched any part of the con\u00adtract). I have no idea how much of all of that was neces\u00adsary, since they send you out of the room while they read it all and make their decision. <\/p>\n

    Every\u00adone was busi\u00adness-like (it prob\u00adably helped that there was no queue for the sec\u00adond\u00adary pro\u00adcessing area). The offi\u00adcial in the first immig\u00adra\u00adtion queue (where you first ask for the TN<\/span> status) thought that TN<\/span> might not be appro\u00adpri\u00adate and muttered some\u00adthing about a busi\u00adness visa. This had me wor\u00adried, since I assume a busi\u00adness visa takes longer to get, and has to be applied for in advance. Obvi\u00adously the doc\u00adu\u00adment\u00ada\u00adtion was con\u00adsidered suf\u00adfi\u00adcient and appro\u00adpri\u00adate, since 30 minutes and $US<\/span> 50 later I was on the way to the con\u00adfer\u00adence<\/a> selec\u00adtion meet\u00ading with a TN<\/span> status card stapled to my passport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As a Cana\u00addian cit\u00adizen who does some work for cus\u00adtom\u00aders in the U.S., I needed to get some form of leg\u00adal status for busi\u00adness trips there. For Cana\u00addians trav\u00adel\u00adling tem\u00adpor\u00adar\u00adily, TN<\/span> status is the easi\u00adest if you qual\u00adi\u00adfy. Here\u00adwith a few notes on my exper\u00adi\u00adence of the procedure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}