Are educational credentials discretionary?

Hi,

I am trying to understand about the educational qualification for TN is something which is discretionary, depending on the mood of the CBP officer working on someone's TN application or is it something that is very clearly pre-defined.

She was working on TN status as Software Engineer for about a year last. This year, she left this job with that big company in US and started working for another company in Canada.
Now she applied for a TN in the same category i.e. Software Engineer, again this week. But got denied at the POE. The reason provided- her bachelor's degree is in Mechanical Engineering.

When she asked the officer, that howcome she was able to get the TN status last year at another POE, the answer received was that perhaps the other officer didn't know about all this so much last year... or maybe the job description given at that time was related to mechanical engg duties. But that was not true, the company that she worked for- never does anything related to mechanical duties. Her resume mentioened that clearly. And her TN letter was almost the same as previous employer's TN letter, with all the duties clearly defined as that of a software engineer. (Anyway, when the officer said that maybe he made a mistake it covers all reasons what-so-ever).
So now wondering what are the options for her....
She really needs to know- what could she do other than applying for H1B which could take a lot of time to be processed.
Thank you in advance for your inputs.

An H1-B petition can be started and finished in less than a month.

If she has a Mech eng degree and is not doing mech eng, she should not get TN.

If the degree does not EXACTLY match the TN job dewcription, then thereis discrestion. You don't want to base your career on discretion.

Get an H1 or start working in the mech eng field.

Thank you for your reply AGN.
So, at least we know there is discretion if the deg does not exactly match job description.

Would you please advice how much risk is it to try and apply at another POE and check if this time another officer let's her TN status application through. Would it seriously effect her future prospects of getting entry to US in anyway- visitor also, if she gets denied again?

The thing is- her employer may not wait for more than 2 weeks to fill up the role. Especially getting sponsored for H1B at this time so quickly is a big question mark for her. The employer had provided her the job at client's location and the required TN documentation, since she had already worked in the similar capacity in US and got TN under exactly same situation.
Just the CBP officer this time used his discretion towards the opposite way.

Trying another POE without fixing the petition would be suicide! This is known as port shopping.

From what you say, she doesn't qualify for TN.

But the petition was almost exactly the same as she had submitted last year, when her TN was approved. There was not much difference in there.

yeah, you said that already.

Dear AGN,

So we understand from above that she basically does not qualify for the TN unless she gets her TN petition fixed. Which we understand would mean making her TN letter more relevant to her education- i.e. perhaps a mix of mech and software duties.

Also if I may take the liberty and you don't mind about me highlighting that in one of the earlier related topics below, you had mentioned about evaluation:
"If the bachelors and masters degree are closely related to each other and to the TN category for which you are applying, then taking both degreess as they are should be suffcient.
Otherwise, especially if you are either using an unrelated degree or your bachelor degree is the only related degree, then you need an eval.
Ex: If you have both a Bach and ME in Engineering and are applying for a software engineering postion, you're fine. If you have Bach Eng and and MBA and are applying for engineering job, get an eval"
In the above we understand that you meant Bach and ME in 'SOFTWARE' Engineering when applying for Software Engineering position. Please confirm for our doubts sake.

We really appreciate your concern and thank you very much for responding to all this. She is in a real problem, since she resigned a very well paying job in Canada. And this TN denial came out of the blue for her. She never thought such a thing could happen on her way at the road POE to join the job next week in US, since she had got her first TN within 15 minutes easily last year without any problem with almost exactly same documentation she had taken to the airport.
Best Regards,
CDN

In the above we understand that you meant Bach and ME in 'SOFTWARE' Engineering when applying for Software Engineering position. Please confirm for our doubts sake.

No, I meant exactly what I said.
The only degree that completely satisfies aTN software engineering job is a degree in Software engineering. When I was going to school (and when TN statutes were written) there was no such thing, and yet I got a TN as a software engineer because the software I was developing relied entirely on my mech eng training. You have already stated that her job has NOTHING to do with mech eng. That is her problem. She doesn't have a software engineering masters, so that other post does not apply here.

So, as i've said, her degree and job duties do not mesh. She need to get H1.

Or are you suggesting her firm make up something?


In any event, this is not the best forum for TN info. http://www.immigration.com has an extensive forum devoted to TN. This is a travel advice site. Maybe she could post there for more advice directly, since she is the candidate.

Thank you AGN.
I would advise her accordingly to post on the other link herself.