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Comment by elviejo | Hacker News Reader

For foreigners I'd like to mention that hiring Mexicans and Canadians is pretty easy with the TN visa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TN_status

Can anyone share their experiences with this? My understanding is that the TN will let someone with a CS degree take a "Computer System Analyst" job, but you have to show that the job consists of requirements analysis and architecture rather than coding.

Is this true in practice? Have any hackers here worked on TN visas?

As far as I know many devs from Canada working at large companies, such as Microsoft and Google, are brought in under the CSA title. You just need to be careful what you say at the border. I've worked under a TN, but am now thankfully switching to an H-1B which is supposed to be a much more pleasant border crossing experience.

As I recall from working with a few Canadians over the years who had to do regular renewals, the TN visa has a very restricted and particular set of job.titles with specified duties which are allowed. The main one for revs is the Programmer Analyst ( I forget the exact title).

One coworker was required to show his job.description for a renewal and had.to have the company revise it several.times.to satisfy the bureaucracy.

Been working on a TN for a year now as a web developer, it's true to get it you need a qualifying degree under the NAFTA professions list which is really "outdated", I was lucky enough to get an graphic design related degree, so my lawyer advices to get a "graphic design/ web developer" title, had to modify the job description to match a little the NAFTA listing for s graphic designer, I should say that crossing from Mexico to the US on a TN is a very pleasant experience not sure about why would it be a different experience for Canada, The biggest difference from TN-H1B is that on H1 you get to apply for a 5 year process to get a green card if your employer is willing to get it for you,

I think this thread was long due, there's very little support for international talent aside from companies like Qualcomm like. USA should have a visa to help startups get international talent, making it easier for everyone

If you don't have a computer engineering degree I'd forget about trying to obtain a TN. I'm Canadian and was working in the US for many years as a web developer under the TN "scientific technologist" category. I don't have a CE degree, and it was generally very iffy whether they'd extend the TN each year, but they did... until 2008 when they started coming down really hard.

I don't know if they started cracking down on TN's in general, but long story short... even while working legally in the United States and holding a valid TN I ended up getting flagged in the US customs database as an illegal immigrant and will probably have trouble if I even try to visit the country again.

Here's the official page for Canada, with the exact conditions and job requirements.

http://www.consular.canada.usembassy.gov/nafta.asp

It's obtained at the port of entry, so if you're denied, you'll miss your flight. But it seems unproblematic most of the time.

Slight caveat: you can't spend more than 50% of your official working time programming, else you don't qualify (for the TN).

I don't think that it is a specific number. I've heard people suggest you say less than 40%.

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