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The TN visa is arbitrary and random. You are at the whim of an uneducated border officer, who gets to unanimously decide on whether you get to work in the US or
by FD3SA 12y ago
The TN visa is arbitrary and random. You are at the whim of an uneducated border officer, who gets to unanimously decide on whether you get to work in the US or not. Furthermore, its renewal is also at the whims of said officer. You better hope he's in a good mood, or you can say goodbye to GoogFaceMicroZon!
Try explaining to them why you have a degree in Electrical Engineering but work as a Data Scientist. My friend tried, and it would be funny if it didn't almost cost him his job. He literally got in due to a shred of mercy caused by his girlfriend's tears at the possibility of a refused visa.
The USA sometimes feels like a dystopian nightmare, mainly populated with idiotic yes-men and ruled by Machiavellian bureaucrats. There are a few niche ecosystems that are impressive, but they are by far the minority.
- mahyarm 12y agoDon't renew at the border, don't change jobs at the border. Renew while in the country where your company lawyers send a small booklet of paperwork. Since there is no personal aspect to it, and everything is definitely in order, it gets approved and it only takes a few weeks. It's a far more objective process. It's what I've done twice so far. You can theoretically only do the border visa part once. Also remember to have the documentation when you cross the border, in case some border guard forgot to stamp your passport with your renewal number, which has happened to me. Their computer systems are so bad (or they are so untrained) that they can't just look it up by passport number. It's supposedly a pretty complicated process on their end at the secondary screening office.