The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on October 3 that it will begin accepting Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker, from employers wishing to employ Canadian citizens who are outside the United States and seek Trade NAFTA (TN) status. Until now, in order to apply for TN admission, Canadian citizens had to apply in person to CBP at an airport or a land port of entry. Canadian citizens could only apply for TN status with the USCIS when requesting an extension of stay in TN status or when requesting a change of status to TN.
The U.S. government will now accept TN Visa nonimmigrant petitions! This is a change that allows you to file papers with the U.S. government rather than going to the border to apply for the TN Visa. After approval of a TN Visa petition, the TN applicant may take the petition approval notice to a preflight inspection station or land port of entry and apply for admission under TN status. The Service Center’s approval of the petition should not receive further inquiry, but there is no guarantee that the agency’s officers will not attempt to readjudicate the applicant’s eligibility for TN status.
Canadian citizens will continue to have the option of applying at the border for TN admission. TN admission procedures for Mexican citizens remain unchanged; Mexican citizens will still need to apply for a TN visa at a U.S. consulate or embassy.
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I have a similar question. I got an offer of employment from an soon-to-be owner of a franchise. He will own the company when my TN status starts, but he is not currently the owner when I will apply for the Visa (he has a purchase agreement). Would this be an issue when applying?
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I have a question u may be able to help me with any opinion, my current employer is selling the practice and my visa with it is good until march 2014 but since this is going to be a a new own practice (we still in the same location and im under same work position)
I’m wondering if i need to fill a new i-129 again? with all the papers and procesing fee before the new owner takes over the practise? is this right? or i can still in the same visa until expires and renew 2 months before march 2014, please let me know thank u
Cesar
I am not sure which Visa you have but Visas are issued to Petitioners (the company) and as such as long as the company exists, the fact that one of the owners changes should not make a difference. I have not seen the specifics of your case so this is a very general answer that you should not rely on.
Thanks for describing the changes for TN Visa for canadians..I like your post.
Thank you very much! Please let me know if you have any questions. Regards,