Canadian Spouse Can't Find Work in US

[Chill77]

Hi everyone,

I'm sure we're not the only ones in this situation and was wondering if anyone has found ways of dealing with it.

My wife and I are both Canadian and moved to the US at the beggining of '09. I was sponsered for a TN Visa and we hoped that in time my wife would find someone wililng to sponser her for one as well.

She's an elementary school teacher with 10+ years of experience and excellent references yet hasn't managed to even get a bite out of a prospective employer. Her bacherlors degree is in translation so that could always be an option as well...however once again no bites.

I'm guessing the current economic climate here doesn't help.

We knew it could take some time but now it seems to be getting increasingly unlikely that she'll be able to find work here (unless I manage to obtain a green card which is obviously a lengthy process).

Does anyone have any ideas?
And if not teaching here, is she able to find an online job based out of another country? Would that be legal?
Can she start some sort of online business and base it out of Canadian address? Is that legal?

Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated as if we can't find something soon...we may have to move back and give up on my own opportunity here.

TIA for any advice.

[Dremani]

Given the current state of the economy, I can imagine it would be quite difficult to find a teaching job primarily due to budget cuts in most of these schools.

I know New York, Houston and possibly North Carolina are hot spots for this type of work. To obtain a visa to become a elementary school teacher in even more difficult.

Here is a website you could check out for some info:

http://www.educationamerica.net/

[MC]

It is bad all over North America but the worst is probably behind us as the U.S. economy is actually expanding again.

Your wife may try using a website for Higher Education Professionals and she may very well have an advantage being physically present in the U.S. over remote candidates:

http://www.higheredjobs.com

[Reba]

Unfortunately, neither elementary school teacher, nor interpreter are on the NAFTA list of occupations eligible for TN. Your wife would have to either go for higher education teaching positions, as MC alluded to, or, for an interpreter position with someone that would sponsor her for an H visa. An H visa is much more involved than a TN, and requires a lot of hoops to be jumped thru.

This website outlines the H1B visa requirements. http://www.immihelp.com/visas/h1b/h1b-v ... ments.html

[agnelson]

... and many public school jurisdictions refuse point blank to sponsor any H1's, and most privates won't pay for it either.

Besides, if hse has worked as a teacher in canada, she will soon suffer from PTSD from working in US public jungles, er, schools.