H-1 sponsorship

[Anonymous]

Is it normal for an entry level actuary to get H-1B sponsorship?

Usu. the companies like to sponsor you or not?

[fallout]

I moved to the US from Canada and got what is called a TN-Visa. Trade Nafta. It allows you to move here if you have a Math degree from a Canadian, (or I guess Mexican) university, and have a job offer to work a math related job. There are also many other degrees that qualify for other types of jobs.

[basset]

I too went the TN route initially to get an entry-level US actuarial job. Doing so felt intellectually dishonest, to a certain extent, since "actuary" isn't one of the professions on the TN list (and the list is relatively specific). I had my employer describe the job as "actuarial mathematician" in order to create a tie to the TN job category.

Within the first year, I had my employer switch me from TN to H1B, because I was concerned that TN wasn't a good long-term solution. However, that position may have been overly cautious.

[Anonymous]

I thought Nafta did also take care of actuaries, I kind of remember SOA having a paper in the Actuary about that.

So this isn't the case, now?
How easy is for canadians to get TN, can we argue with the recruiter when she says : the company does not sponsor visas?
Thanks

[Anonymous]

I found it pretty easy to get the TN but I know a couple of people who were turned back at the border and had to have the company rewrite their letters.

If a recruiter says the company doesn't do visas, I'd pass on them. There are enough looking for people that you don't have to talk anyone into anything, let alone a company that doesn't know what it's doing.

[Anonymous]

Actualy I had contacts for quant jobs with a couple of recruiters only. Thanks for sharing your experience and for the encouragement. I hope the market is indeed good enough for companies to accept "temporary employees" and risk issuing a "conditional letter of employment".

I looked at the list of admitted titles for TN: http://www.usvisa.com/tn_list.htm

Now among potential problems there is this one:
"rejection of TN applications where employer's title does not exactly match the NAFTA title"

Did your employer put actuary as the job title?
thx

[CDL]

I also got a TN when I first started working in the US from Canada in 1999. This is formally a one-year visa that must be renewed each year.

I changed companies and states last year so I needed to get a new visa (even though my last one hadn't expired yet). I've gone through the application process 3 times now and the process took me about 15 minutes each time at the airport. They just end up stapling the visa into your passport.

Also, I think that actuary was recently added to the job list.

Here's a link to a site with some good info:
www.immigration-america.com/TN_visa.html

[42]

I came to the U.S. from Canada on an H1-B, and later got my green card so that I could stay here permanently. (This was pre-NAFTA.) The concern that some companies have with a TN is the fact that you have to keep renewing it. For now, it seems like a slam-dunk, but who's to say that the relationship between the two countries will remain the same. After Sept.11, the U.S. is looking more closely at people who enter the U.S. via Canada.

If your goal is to ultimately get a green card and/or citizenship, you may want to look into the rules for getting the green card and see if they have changed since NAFTA. It took me four years to get a green card, and one of the last items was the labor certification process, for which my employer had to advertise my job and prove that I was the only applicant who was qualified to do the job. The catch: in proving that I was the only qualified person, they could not use any of the experience that I had gained while I was working in the U.S. This makes it much harder to get a green card if you come to the U.S. prior to getting some experience. Again, this is from the early 1990s, and the rules may have changed since then, but you're better off knowing what you're getting yourself into NOW, rather than when you try to get your green card. Good luck!

[Eeyore]

http://www.usvisa.com/tn_list.htm
I checked the list here and didn't see actuary or even mathematician
On second look, mathematician seems to be grouped in with Management Consultant.
What are the best options for an actuary seeking TN Visa job title that would be acceptable, for anyone who has gone through this process?
Does anyone know what types of employers, insurance or consulting firms, would be more likely to accept a TN Visa employee (especially in the Fla area)?