living in us wanting to getting work visa

[chrissy95]

i am a Canadian living in Indiana with a family member that is not a US citizen but resident a what do i need to do to get a visa card to work legal in US. unsure how to get one can anyone help direct me the fastest way. but what if i apply to school

[Steven]

Depends on what your qualifications are and what sort of work you are looking for, but it's not a casual process, in pretty much all cases you need an employer to sponsor you.

Without a BA or equivalent and a firm job offer that requires it, it will be very difficult.

You cannot legally even look for work while a visitor in the US.

[chrissy95]

thanks you for your reply what if i apply for school my sister is a resident of the us

[Reba]

So, you're "living" in the US then, not just visiting? How long have you been here exactly? Are you even in legal status, or ?

If you want to try to apply for a student visa of some sort, you'll have to return to Canada to do it. Don't think you can do it from within the US, and you will have to prove that you have means of support for the duration of your student status.

[Steven]

You can apply for AOS on I-539 from B-2 to F-1 but USCIS hate it when people do that, if you bang it into a search engine there are various horror stories. Perhaps not such a problem for Canadians but USCIS always see that as people trying to find a way of overstaying.

Anyway, apply to college, get an I-20 and yes, you can get F-1 status at the POE. Then you will pay foreign tuition rates which are usually pretty high and you can get employment authorization to work on-campus for up to 20 hours a week. Once you graduate (assuming it's a full-time course at least 2 years long) you can get employment authorization for one year for "practical training" related to the field of study.

You cannot attend high school using this method, not easily anyway. You can get F-1 to attend high school for up to a year, however the school has to sponsor you for the I-20 which means they must be State Dept. registered and generally only private schools are.

The only real way of a Canadian attending public school in the US (independently of the parent/guardian being in some sort of immigration status) is to use F-3, but this is intended for people who live in border areas where the nearest school is in the US, e.g. if you live in Stanstead, QC and you cross the border daily.

Part-time courses of study can be done as regular visitor but this doesn't help you because the restrictions on the length of stay are the same.