help needed - want to move to US

Hi,

My company is closing our Montreal office at the end of April, so I am considering moving to a warmer place (got sick of shoveling snow ). My first choice is US (looking into California).

I work in IT and am about to finish my PhD in Computer Science (so I guess I should be eligible for TN visa). The problem is that I have no idea how to start looking for a company that is willing to consider hiring Canadians. As far as I understand, a position must not be a permanent one (since your intent is not supposed to settle permanently in US).

I would appreciate if someone could provide some info like coordinates of recruitment agencies working with Canadians willing to move to US or any tips and strategies that could help.

I looked at dice.com, but I am not sure what to write and how to present my candidature.

Thanks in advance.

TN-1 basically only requires a job offer letter so basically it boils down to looking for jobs as a systems analyst on monster.com etc. There's no real difference as compared to how an American would do it, the only snag is that you cannot enter the US to look for work, you would have to set up the job interview from Canada and enter to attend that specific interview.

Pretty rare for employers to want to offer employment contracts for more than three years anyway, so that shouldn't be an issue.

If it were me I'd say work in Canada for a year or two and pad out your resumé, especially given the state of the economy at the moment.

Thanks for your input Steve,

Well, call me crazy, but even though I am expecting an offer from the House of Commons (successfully passed all the tests and interviews), I would still like to move to somewhere warm.

As for resume, oh well, I have more than 7 years of experience now (mostly in US based well-known corporations), so that's not a concern to me. Just can't get used to the climate, and I think it's time for me move on.

I guess I'll have to apply and see which companies are willing to do interviews remotely and all the rest of the pain. Is it a good idea to explain my situation in a cover letter?

You would pretty much have to, because the company would be responsible for writing a properly prepared job description letter so that you can get your TN visa.

Given that California has probably one of the highest rates of unemployment at the moment, (9.3%) I wouldn't hold your breath too long waiting on a job offer. And with an incredibly high cost of living in the state, finding a job that will actually pay you enough to live there is something else altogether.

I guess I'll have to apply and see which companies are willing to do interviews remotely and all the rest of the pain. Is it a good idea to explain my situation in a cover letter?

They don't have to do the interview remotely, you just cannot physically enter the US to look for work. You can enter to attend a pre-arranged interview, but you can't enter, poke around looking for work and attending interviews willy nilly. An interview that's already set up is a business meeting, so that's just a regular B-1 business visitor entry.

I'm not sure I'd mention your situation in a cover letter, TN-1 is pretty straightforward and although legally they're not supposed to discriminate against you, I personally think it's better to wait until their HR dept. asks the question. Depends on the company you're dealing with really, the smaller it is usually the more hassle you have with this sort of thing as they have less experience.

Usually at job interviews I've been to they'll have the person running the dept. you're going to be working in interviewing you and an HR dept. person there to make sure that person doesn't ask you anything illegal, so they're bound to ask you where you live and your address is on your resumé so that is when they will ask the question. Hopefully the HR dept. person will know what TN-1 is, but given that it only requires a carefully worded job offer letter I think most companies wouldn't have a problem with it, explain to them how simple it is.

I am not so certain California is a good choice. If you examine the unemployment rate by state, California is 10.5% in February 2009 or 5th highest. I have used both Dice and Monster and based upon the history of it, at least the Monster employers will fly you in for interviews, There is no easy way to find a U.S. petitioner, it is a lot of hard work and sometimes a bit of luck.

I have actually seen projections of double digit unemployment right across the country before the middle of the year.

There are IT positions available though because there has been a chronic undersupply of people for years now in IT positions in the US. I noticed on CNN they were talking to these various employment "experts" who said Systems Analyst is the most recession-proof job at the moment. Air traffic controllers was second.

This is why IT companies in the US are always screaming for the H-1B quota to be raised.

And people wonder why everyone is outsourcing to India. Well if the labour isn't available and they won't let you bring it in, what alternative is there?

It's been interesting to watch the events surrounding U.S. interest groups like The Programmers Guild who, if you've read their website, are actively protesting the use of foreign workers in the IT industry (in particular H1-B workers) There's support for their endeavours by some U.S. politicians, it'll be interesting to see how companies react to the political pressure.

Thank you guys for your input.

As far as unemployment goes, same seems to be happening here in Canada, and I guess all around the world. I mean just by looking at the traffic in the morning one could tell that there are less and less people going to work. It's sad

I do feel a bit advantaged because they announced the closure in November (while we are closing in April), which leaves me plenty of time to make a decision (hopefully the right one )