Change of Status from TN to H1-B

I was one of the lucky ones that made it through the lottery and recieved an H1-B visa in Oct. this year. Previously I had been on a Management Consultant TN visa, but I'm quite happy to be through with the stress of renewing under such a tricky category.

I'm going to be traveling to Canada this weekend where I have been told I can do a change of status when I cross back into the US (at Pearson airport). The immigration lawyer told me all I need to do is present my I-797A, Notice of Action, form (which contains a new I-94) to the immigration official and they will change my status and put an H1-B visa stamp in my passport.

However, I was wondering if anyone on here has gone through this process previously? Should i bring a letter stating I'm still employed, or anything similar, as was often requested of me when I was on TN status, or am I truely okay with just this one piece of paper?

Thank-you,

I'm guessing the H1B is sponsored by your US employer, so you should probably bring some sort of confirmation from them of your full time employment with them.

Yes the H1B visa was sponsored by my US employer, the same employer that "sponsered" my TN Visa.

My concern is that with most of the visa's my company has done are through consular processing, not a change of status for a Canadian previously on a different work visa and everyone seemed a little confused by the process.

Has anyone switched from a TN to an H1-B? And if so what was your experience at the POE.

Thanks!

You're not actually changing status, you're re-entering. Basically you need your passport and the I-797. If you're abandoning your TN-1 status you can just surrender the I-94 when you leave the US. I suppose you could keep it and change status but it seems odd to do that.

Just on a side note, given that TN-1 can be gotten for three years now I'm not sure I see the point to H-1B other than that you don't have to maintain "non-immigrant intent". H-1B can only be renewed once and you have to show that you've progressed in the job as well, so I would have thought that was more hassle frankly.

Thanks for the answer.

To address your side note I'm thrilled about the change of status from TN to the H1-B for two reasons, one is that I was that under the Management Consulting TN category, and I found the renewal process incredibly stressful, and second because in a few months my company will sponsor my green card so I won't be maintaining "non-immigrant intent" stipulation of the TN visa. So when I took the entire picture into account this was the best solution for me.

Essentially I've already abandoned my TN status as my H1-B Visa was valid effective Oct. 1st., so in a way the change of status has already been completed from INS's perspective, but this isn't reflected in my passport. If my nationality was anything other than Canadian I would have had to go to the embassy for processing, but of course Canadians are exempt from this. My concern at this point is that my lawyer hasn't processed many H1-Bs for Canadians and has just told me to cross into the US and present my I-797A, Notice of Action, form (which contains a new I-94). However, this seems to simple and she was mistaken previously about some details concerning the TN visa so I just wanted to double check with someone who had been in the same position.

Also, I've looked on INS's website and haven't been able to find an answer there either.

Thanks again for the help!