TN Visa Approval - Technical Program Manager Under Engineer Category

BACKGROUND:    

• The applicant, a citizen of Canada, was offered a Technical Program Manager position where he would be responsible for the program management of Artificial Intelligence (AI) development projects.

• The applicant possessed a PhD in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering.

• The Applicant originally applied for TN status under the Management Consultant occupational category. The USCBP inspecting officer denied the application arguing that the managerial position was inconsistent with the Management Consultant TN category.

• The Applicant then contacted my office for assistance.

SOLUTION:    

• Regardless of the TN category, managerial positions are always viewed with heightened scrutiny by U.S. immigration officers. They will often argue that such roles do not qualify for TN visa status because they involve supervisory or administrative duties, and not the hands-on performance of job tasks in the applicable TN category.

• In reviewing the applicant’s duties, I concluded that the USCBP officer was correct: as with most managerial positions, the Applicant’s position offered did not align with the TN category for Management Consultants.

• However, I believed that an argument could be made that the position offered fell under the Engineer TN visa category, which encompasses all engineering disciplines.

• Working off of the existing application paperwork, I prepared a revised employer support letter to explain how the job offered was consistent with a Computer Engineer role since it involved integrating hardware and software to develop Artificial intelligence and Computer Vision solutions.

• Another challenge to this case was establishing that the Applicant met the educational requirements for the TN Engineer category. U.S. immigration officers will often require a Software Engineering degree or Computer Science degree when presented with an Engineer application in the IT field.

• Since this Applicant did not possess such a degree, I explained in the employer support letter how the Applicant still qualified based on his completion of extensive computer coursework. I also highlighted the Applicant’s prior experience in the field along with the Applicant’s research in AI.

FILING PROCESS:    

• The applicant presented the application at the U.S. port-of-entry in Niagara Falls, NY (the port that originally denied the application), which approved the application same day, and issued a 3-year I-94 record.

Statements regarding prior application approvals our office has obtained are provided for informational purposes only. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.