TN Visa/Management Consultant/Stating a Business Problem

[renee]

My application was recently denied, based on the following grounds:

I didn't have a letter stating that I was being hired as a management consultant TO my company (as opposed to a consultant to their clients, which is what the letter stated.)

Adding to the complications, since my Bachelors Degree is not a business degree - it's a Journalism and Law Degree) I had to show 5 year's work experience. I have 10, but I didn't have letters going all the way back. Those are easy to obtain, but here's the problem:

The customs official went onto an external site (nafta tn lawyer) and looked at one of their checklists. it states that the application needs to show the business problem I am solving on behalf of the company. Does anyone have any experience with the wording of this? What's the best way to state it?

(The attorney obtained 3rd party verification from an external, USCIS endorsed agency stating that my BA is equivalent to a U.S. bachelor's Degree, but apparently that still isn't enough).

If anyone has any advice, please help. Thanks in advance!

[Steven]

Management consultant is always really tricky, because it sounds broad but in reality it isn't and they interpret it very narrowly. I.e. you must be principally employed as a management consultant, so you need to be able to prove that. Best case scenario is you work for "Canadian management consultants, Inc." or something like that.

And like it says, the offer letter needs to explain what problem you are being hired to solve.

[renee]

What I'm having a challenge with is, what does it take to be classified as a Management Consultant and what type of wording needs to be used? I think my lawyer thought she had used the correct wording but I got grilled on it and they were really picky about me not being employed to consult TO the company as opposed to being brought down to consult FOR them.

[Steven]

You would have to be a management consultant working on a problem for the company that gave you the offer letter, because they are the sponsor, unless it was some sort of US management consultancy company. People work on TN-1 who got their TN-1 from an employment agency, but the agency needs to be clearly working in the field they sponsored you for.

So your offer letter could say something like: "We at ABC management consultancy company of the US are hiring Renee as a management consultant for three years to provide management consultancy to our clients and she is a qualified management consultant because of X, Y and Z and these are her qualifications that show she is a qualified management consultant."

That might work. Depends on the POE.

But have a look through the threads on here, lot of people try to get in as management consultants and get turned down, usually because it's more to do with simply being a manager, rather than a consultant. They're looking for a specific management issue you're being hired to consult on.

[renee]

Thanks, that helps. I knew it would be tough, but I was surprised because they didn't even want to review the statement we'd provided them with. The lawyer had included the definition of Management Consultant under NAFTA in the package and the Customs Officer yelled at me and said "Are you going to lecture me on NAFTA?" Fun times.

[Steven]

"Well I did think about memorizing it, but something tells me it wouldn't stop you from being an asshole."

There's a TV show on in the UK called "Fry in America" where Stephen Fry visits every US state (which, cough, you can watch on the BBC website by using a proxy server), last week he was in Montana and he went up and down the border with CBP and DHS and they waffled on endlessly about how they were "protecting America" by flying up and down the 49th parallel in a helicopter.

And Stephen Fry is stood in the middle of a field with a Border Patrol agent looking at the border with Alberta and goes: "Strangely, there don't appear to be crowds of Canadians attempting to illegally cross the border." Of course the sarcasm went straight over the agent's head.

[renee]

Hilarious! And sadly, typical.

And thanks for your tips.there are some good watchouts on here.