Answers!

[mattcanada]

So here is the situation. My now girlfriend, soon to be wife, is a nurse in Canada applying to hospitals in the U.S. We both want to move in the near future down south. She will have no problem with her employer granting her a TN visa. My graduate profession however does not qualify for one directly. What if any options do I have to go down with her? I've heard she can sponsor me once her visa status is approved, thus letting me be able to find work. Another option would be applying places and trying to get a company to sponsor myself which seems slim. We will be married at the time that we choose to move. We both really want to move, and I don't mind being not able to work for a couple months, as long as its not years. Any suggestions or past experience would be greatly appreciated.

[Steven]

If she's on TN-1, you get TD, which allows you to stay in the US but you can't work on TD. The quota for H-1B is full up, so I guess you'd have to find an employer willing to do the letter for TN-1.

[andi]

Or you could just apply for a pleasure visa, 1 year and then see where you can go from there, you could always change your status in that time.

[voyager6868]

As Steven says, the best you can do for now is get TD status based on your wife's TN. Don't take the advice about a Vistor's visa above. That's only needed if you aren't married, or the US doesn't recognize your marriage.

I think you may have problems if you want to work, though. If your degree is not at least very close to one on the "TN list" then you may have a very long wait. If you can't get a TN, then option 2 would be an H1B visa, but the absolute earliest you could start working on one of those is Oct 2009. and even then, there's only about a 50% chance (although higher if you have a Master's or better) that you'll get one in a given year unless they raise the quotas.

Final option is wait for your wife to qualify for a green card, and then you can get a green card at the same time as her. Once you have that, you can work at any job (just as if you were still in Canada). The problem is, it'll probably take 3-4 years for her to get a green card.