Expired TN - Has this happened to anyone else?

LateBloomer
New Member



Joined: 07 May 2008
Posts: 2
Location: Hawaii

Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 10:45 pm

 

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Hi!

I am stressing to the max! Here is my situation. I have worked a total of 6 and a half years for the same company over a 9 year period. Each time my TN extensions were filed by mail and filed by the same person - an attorney in the HR department. I had no reason to believe anything would be different this time. And it wouldn't have been if the person who usually files didn't "forget" about filing my extension. I didn't find out about it until two months after my TN1 expired, when I e-mailed this attorney to inquire about the status of my TN extension. It was at that point that the attorney must have realized he hadn't filed the extension and so he sent it in at this time. I thought the HR attorney knew what he was doing, but I now realize that his filing the extension AFTER the expiry of my TN was probably the worst thing he could have done, since the Department of Homeland Security must be aware I am "out of status" and likely the USCIS must know too. I had thought I had a certain amount of time after the TN expired, but last Wednesday I started investigating it online. It had been over 3 months since my employer had attempted to file the extension and I was getting concerned. When I did my internet search, I realized that I had misunderstood - if an extension has been filed BEFORE the TN expires, then you are okay, but my TN had already expired and I was NOT okay. That same night I e-mailed the company attorney and I also e-mailed my manager. The next morning, my manager told me that the attorney wasn't in his office and to contact the head of human resources. The HR head was pretty tight-lipped. The next day I got a phone call from the attorney saying he had been working with an immigration lawyer. He must have found out at some point that I was out of status and basically kept me in the dark while he was working with the immigration attorney. He informed me that my only option is to return to Canada and then apply for a new TN at a point of entry. I'm leaving next week but I'm stressing because an immigration attorney I contacted told me I may end up being denied at the border and that would very likely mean being barred from entering the USA for 3 years!

Has anyone else gone through the experience of having their TN expire and then try to scramble to get a valid one by going through a port of entry?

I am so upset about all of this because it is my employer who dropped the ball on this but it is me who will have to pay the consequences. The usual routine was for me to fill out as much of the I-129 form as I could, then submit the form, as well as the application fee to the HR attorney and he would complete the I-129 and submit it along with my cheque to the Department of Homeland Security. I submitted all of this back in September.

I'm just wondering if I am royally screwed or if I may have a decent chance of getting through the port of entry successfully. I am trying to keep hopeful. I wish I knew someone who could help!

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