If you are a Canadian and looking to work in the United States you are in luck! There are many close ties between the US and Canada which allows Canadians to obtain a work visa. Many Canadians are eligible for a TN visa as a professional under the UMCA but many look at the extensive benefits of the H-1B Visa as well.
Qualifying for an H-1B Visa as a Canadian
The first step you must do is have a job offer from an American Company located within the United States. Generally speaking, you have to work in a special few occupations and what that term means, is most H-1B applicants have university degrees. It’s a specialized field that you are working in and that the company requires your services. Of course, in some cases, you don’t need a university degree but it’s harder to qualify for an H-1B without one. Learn more about the process and requirements for a Canadian to work in the United States.
Some occupations that fall under a specialty occupation category include:
- IT / Computer professionals
- University professors and teachers
- Engineers
- Healthcare workers
- Accountants
- Financial analysts
- Management consultants
- Lawyers
- Architects
- Nurses
- Physicians
- Surgeons
- Dentists
- Scientists
- Systems analysts
- Journalists and editors
- Foreign Law advisors
- Psychologists
- Technical publications writers
- Market research analysts
- Teachers in elementary or secondary schools, colleges
Meeting the Criteria for the H-1B Visa
The other thing you have to know is that there is an annual cap every year on H-1B visas and how it works is that applications for H-1B visas open up on April 1st of any given year and there is a mad rush on April 1st to submit H-1B visas in order to get your application in on time because often very soon, within a year, the government will not process any more H-1B visas because the cap has been filled. Now the employer has to go through a lot of paperwork to sponsor you for an H-1B. The petition paperwork involves proving that they are gonna be paying you a prevailing wage, documentation indicating the nature of the job. There is a lot of bureaucratic maneuvering you have to go through to get qualified.
Are You Interested in Applying for the H-1B Visa from Canada?
The H-1B visa is a challenging visa but we do a lot of them. Our US visa team is the department that handles H-1B visas for our firm. If you have any questions about H-1B visas or US work permits.
Contact our experienced team today, and let us help you apply for your H-1B visa.
President & CEO
Michael Niren
Mr. Niren is CEO of VisaPlace LLC and the President and Managing Partner of VisaPlace Legal Canada, an immigration law firm based in Toronto, and VisaPlace Legal US a law firm registered in The District of Columbia, USA. Mr. Niren is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Canadian Bar Association’s Citizenship and Immigration Section, American Lawyers Association, and an Associate Member of the American Bar Association.
