I'm Legit!
I've actually been super-stressed for the past couple of weeks. Time was running out and we had booked our trip to Calgary for me to get the new visa...and there were nights I woke up in a cold sweat, breathless and panicky.
Now...for those of you who don't know about non-immigrant visas between the Canadian/US border, there are several options (oodles...but only a few that apply to me):
- TN-1 - a NAFTA visa, temporary (1 year max) and you obtain it at the border
- H1-B - there are only so many of these per year (they are out this year)
Only problem: you sweat bullets at the border because you are at the border official's mercy. If s/he is having a bad day, thinks you suck in the least or doesn't believe your story at all, you can be denied without much explanation. You have the plane ticket. You are lugging your bags. You (I) have client meetings lined up the next day. You could be sent away right then and there.
So, I had to be prepared for that. To tell you the truth, I would have never been 'prepared' for that. We even hired a brilliant lawyer who made certain everything was totally legit and air-tight, but he still told us to have a back up. I tried not to let it show, but I was a total basket case. Paul made it better, but he had to warn me that it may not happen, too.
Chris and I checked into our flights, then parted ways...Chris went to the US line, I went to the 'please let me in' line, then sat in a room with other hopefuls until I was helped out by a very nice homeland security officer who mostly wanted to make certain I had the credentials to be doing the work I'm doing and I'm not taking an American's job in coming down to California.
I was nervous. Of course. I talked to one of the other people waiting afterwards and Meghan, who has been doing this for 6 years, said that nervousness never goes away. She's never been denied or turned away, but she is still as nervous 6 years later as the first time.
In the end, the toughest questions were regarding my blog and how that has helped me make a name for myself in the industry. I even pointed the officer towards Wordpress and assured him that border stories would be a very interesting read, indeed. :)
So...there you go. I'm legit for one more year...and now I can breathe easy again and concentrate on helping build this business. In other good news, we now have 4 official clients (we'll chat about them a little more on the Citizen Agency blog) and a bunch more proposals out there. We plan to only do client work 3 out of 5 days of the week and work on developing our own stuff (both keeping close to the community and developing technology to help our clients and other startups) the other two.
We'll have another significant announcement to make on Friday night-ish. We've been incredibly fortunate and met so many amazing people along our travels with the community work we've done thusfar. We never want to lose touch with that (and kick me in the rss if I ever seem to).
Thanks for your support, advice and contacts!
Tags: citizenagency
12 Comments:
Congratulations. Glad to see you aren't losing any opportunity to spread the word. Educating the Customs Agents, nice!
I sense a feeling of catharsis coming out...that's it, share your woes with us all!
Well done...but Management Consultant...?!!!!! ;-)
Congrats!
Welcome back to the USA!
Glad we have you.
Con'grats on getting this finally accomplished !!
congrats tara! I've gotten 7 or 8 TNs, and the nervousness never does go away... H1B next year? :)
Congratulations.
Hmmm, not looking forward to it myself.
Bit concerned that you had to show them your blog (eeek). Might prune a few choice posts from mine if that's the case.
Anyway looking forward to hearing the announcement about, er, our company! :)
Hey Tara, first of all congratulations.
While I was having some quite and relaxing moment today, I remembered you and came straight to your blog to find out what is going on in your life. Glad you are getting what you want.
Ha ha, standing in the visa line and getting visas are never an easy peacy job.
Talk to you soon and see you around.
Just in time for you birthday! I am relieved. It was a very stressful experience for me as well. You really are at the whim of the "officer", and if rejected I do think it becomes magnitudes harder to get back in.
Now, with that distraction removed, I am really excited to see what comes out of the agency!
Whenever Ayse and I return from Canada, we are hoping that they won't let us back in!
Glad everything turned out well for you. I'm still extremely nervous about getting all of my things in order for a visa — I'm not sure I qualify for a Management consultant — but we'll see what happens over the next couple months.
Mike,
You may qualify for TN status under the Management Consultant category in three ways: (i) possession of a Baccalaureate or Licenciatura Degree; (ii) equivalent professional experience as established by statement or professional credential attesting to five years experience as a management consultant; or (iii) five years experience in a field of specialty related to the consulting agreement.
You can read more here: http://www.naftatnlawyer.com/nafta-tn-management-consultant/
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