Consulting work in the US; tips?

[CLIFFORD ILKAY]

On Tuesday 24 July 2007 06:09, Dave Cramer wrote:
> On 24-Jul-07, at 5:54 AM, CLIFFORD ILKAY wrote:
> > 4. Be truthful in your answers. The consequences for being caught
> > lying can be quite severe. (I do not speak from experience in
> > this case.) Do not listen to people who tell you "Just say you
> > are visiting friends." That is very bad advice.
> > --
> > Regards,
>
> Well, having been in pretty much the same situation. If you are
> determined to get the TN-1 then yes get all your ducks in a row and
> show up really early. They don't seem to care if you miss your
> flight.

Of course not. It is not their job to care about you missing your 
flight so yes, do show up early. That is a good rule of thumb 
regardless of whether you are making a visa application or not.

> Be warned that if you are flying to the west coast you will 
> likely have to fly to Vancouver and then apply there (been there
> done that, you have to apply at the border where you cross, you
> can't pre- qualify here in Toronto) and candidly it's easier in
> Vancouver.

You apply for a B-1 or a TN at a port of entry to the U.S. That can be 
at Pearson, at Buffalo/Niagara Falls, or wherever you may cross the 
border. You chose to fly to the U.S. west coast via Canada. There was 
no requirement for you to do so. You could have driven across the 
border at Buffalo and taken a flight from Buffalo too in which case 
you would have applied for the TN at the border in Buffalo.

> If it's really only for 3 days, getting a TN-1 is 
> probably more trouble than it's worth. The TN-1 is only good for
> the one company. You need one for every company you are going to
> work for. As far as bad advice goes; after I did this I talked to
> quite a few people, and every one of them said, just tell them you
> are going for a meeting.

That advice was was worth exactly what you paid for it, nothing. That 
you and some of your friends may have gotten away with lying does not 
make it a good idea. You just have not been caught yet.

> This would be easier to arrange since 
> presumably the company could verify your story if asked.

Oh what a tangled web we weave... Now you are relying on other people 
to lie so that you do not have to be inconvenienced.

> Yes, I 
> know you can be denied entry if caught lying, but it is
> considerably simpler.

There is nothing "simpler" about lying. You can choose to expend your 
efforts in building up a back story to support your lie, in which 
case all it takes is for someone who does not have their story 
straight to cause your lie to be discovered, or, you can expend the 
effort in providing the documentation to support the truth. I prefer 
the latter since it is much simpler, notwithstanding the seemingly 
arbitrary interpretations of the laws by immigration authorities.

When you present yourself at a U.S. border crossing and make a 
declaration, you are already on American soil and are subject to 
American laws. If things go sideways, you cannot say, "Oh, I changed 
my mind. I will just turn around and head back to Canada." You will 
be detained if the border police suspects you are not telling the 
truth. At that point, the border police can search anything they 
want, your personal effects, your computer, your vehicle. All it 
takes is for one scrap of evidence that contradicts your story, such 
as an email between you and the American employer where you collude 
to deceive, for the whole house of cards to come tumbling down.
-- 
Regards,

Clifford Ilkay
Dinamis Corporation
3266 Yonge Street, Suite 1419
Toronto, ON
Canada  M4N 3P6

<http://dinamis.com>
+1 416-410-3326
--
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