NAFTA

NAFTA, and the Treaty Nafta Visa (TN Visa) provisions thereof, allow Canadian companies and individuals to expand their respective activities into the USA and to establish, on a full or part-time basis, commercial operations, including employment of Canadians in the USA on a temporary basis, subject to multiple, annual renewal.

The TN Visa is processed by the US Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), not the US Department of State (DOS), at ports of entry into the USA.

The TN Visa itself is strictly a function of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and occupations set forth in a Schedule to the Agreement qualify for TN Visa consideration (A copy of the Schedule is included in this website.).

The TN Visa is, thus, separate and distinct from other business and employment visas such as the following:

The H-1B Visa for Specialty Occupations (a Specialty Occupation for H-1B purposes requires a baccalaureate degree or equivalency),

The L-1 Intra-Company Transfer Visa for Executives and Managers within an International Organization (an Int'l Organization for L-1 purposes can be existing or newly established, with offices abroad and within the USA, and includes both subsidary and affiliated, limited liability companies),

The E-1 Treaty Trader Visa, or the E-2 Business Investor Visa,

The O-1 Visa for Extraordinary People in the arts, sciences, education, business, athletics, or motion picture/television,

The P Visa for Performing Artists, and

The F-1 Student Visa (with or without part-time work authority).

If an individual is not a Canadian citizen, or is otherwise not qualified for a TN Visa, then, the appropriate visa could be one of the above-mentioned other, temporary visas. In this regard it should be noted that the H-1B Visa does require issuance of a Labor Condition Attestation from the US Department of Labor (DOL)in the USA, and the E-1 /E-2 Visas alluded to above are not issued outside the USA by the INS, and, instead, are processed by the DOS at its foreign posts.

The TN Visa is designed to be straight forward, however potential pitfalls do exist, particularly in the areas of employment offers, education, experience, and background.

The other, above-mentioned visas are more involved, however they are also available to citizens and nationals of most countries in the world.

NAFTA-VISA can, of course, provide advice and assistance relevant to any of the visas of concern herein.