Consulting work in the US; tips?

[Madison Kelly]

tleslie wrote:
> So you work for them now remote, but you need to go their in person for
> a few days?

No, this is a new contract.

> I got caught up big time at the border. I worked as a consultant for
> Siemens, and they were in London Ont., but part of them moved to PA.
> so I had to go there periodically.
> 
> I was honest when I crossed over, the first few trips were honestly
> meetings. But I went sometimes to do programming,
> and I told them the truth once when asked .... oh they hauled my ass
> over to the interrogation room so quick!
> So we talked and I was basically going to get turned around :(
> We went over it one more time, I was saying - the whole company moved
> the US, this is a benifit to you guys, and I used to work there,
> and so now what, this company now all of a sudden can't use my services?
> and that seemed to be the case, but they really did seem to 
> "feel bad for me", and it came out in one last explaination, that the
> software i work on, was/is a original canadian package ... BINGO
> i am in the air 20 minutes later :)

In this case it would be discussing the "methods and concepts" for a 
program I was lead developer on written here in Canada.

> anyways, to not have that issue any more,
> if a (i think manager level or above) give you a note, on company
> letter head, as an invitation to meetings, your in like flint.
> I went that route from then on, just flashed that "meeting notice"
> and in I go. Now in my case, sometimes i wasnt always in meeting,
> but honestly working on Canadian software, so it was still legit,
> but I didn't want the hassle of having to explain that each time.
> 
> So if the person you're going to see can write you a meeting notice,
> and they are comfortable with that, unless something has changed,
> that's your best bet.

I'll definitely keep that in mind. I am hoping to use a more accurate 
way around that would get me a TN or H1B Visa though. Gonna talk to the 
American consulate shortly to see what it my best option. "A meeting" is 
stretching it a little, though still in the realm of accurate.

Madi
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists