IT Breathes!

So since I just got my GreenCard I thought I’d throw together a quick blog entry that will help people transition from a TN visa to a GreenCard (through marriage only). The reason I’m doing this is because when I went through the whole process it was basically a crap shoot trying to get information about the TN status and what I should put where.

I’m not a lawyer and this is just what I did on my forms. If you have questions/comments above and beyond this document you’ll probably want to consult a lawyer.

First some things to get out of the way, from Wikipedia:

TN (Trade NAFTA) status is a special non-immigration status unique to citizens of the United States, Canada and Mexico. TN status was created by virtue of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It allows American, Canadian and Mexican citizens the opportunity to work in each other’s countries in certain professional occupations.

One thing to pay attention to is that a TN-1 status is not a visa. You do not have a visa number, nor will you have an alien number. All you have is your departure number. If you’re working in the US on a TN status and you get married you can no longer renew that status. With the new 3 year period you’ve probably got a long while until you need to renew but if you get married and leave the country with your TN status in hand be aware that USCIS can deny you re-entry in to the country. So once you get married it’s probably a good idea to start to submit all the paper work. So what can you do? It’s called ‘Adjustment of Status’. It allows you to change your status from TN to GreenCard. To do so you must submit whets known as an ‘AOS Package’.

I’m going to quickly describe what I included in my AOS package:

1)       I-130 Petition for Alien Relative

1. My birth certificate
2. Wife’s passport, in full
3. G-325a Biographic information for wife (including 2 passport photos)
4. G-325a Biographic information for me (including 2 passport photos)
5. Evidence of bonafide marriage (marriage cert, joint bank account, lease, car loan etc)

2)       I-485 Adjustment of Status

1. Copy of my passport bio page
2. Copy of my I-94 front and back
3. Copy of my birth certificate
4. Copy of marriage cert
5. 2 passport photos of me
6. Another G-325a (including 2 passport photos)
7. I-693 (Medical Exam)
8. I-864
   1. i.      Wife’s 2009 Tax return and W2

3)       I-131 Advance Parole

1. Copy of my passport bio page
2. Copy of my I-94 front and back
3. 2 passport photos of me

4)       I-765 Employment Authorization Document

1. Copy of my passport bio page
2. Copy of my I-94 front and back
3. 2 passport photos of me

The I-130 is used to create allow you to get a GreenCard. It’s a petition to give you an alien number and allow you to get a GreenCard. The I-485 is the application to change from TN to GreenCard. The I-131 allows you to travel, more on this in a second. Finally the I-765 is to allow you to work while you wait for the green card.

About the I-131 and the I-765. When you submit your paperwork your status changes from TN to ‘Pending’. Basically you’re still allowed to work under the TN-1 status until you get your Employment Authorization Document (EAD). The only difference between the TN-1 and EAD is you’re no longer tied to a company’s sponsorship when working under and EAD. Once you’ve submitted the paperwork you can no longer leave the country. If you leave the country you are dropping your application, unless you have an Advance Parole (or the I-131). With this document you’re allowed to leave the country without forfeiting your application.  You submit both these applications at the same time and you should receive them in about 90 days or less. Mine took 2 months but YMMV.

Now for the helpful advice that took me days to hunt down:

1)       You don’t have an alien number (or A# or A). The TN-1 status is not a visa and as such does not give you an alien number. So what are you supposed to put when every form asks for an A#, you but ‘none’.

2)       If the form asks for your class of admission, visa type, current status, how you arrived in the country etc. You put ‘TN-1 Status’.

3)       This is specific for the I-765 so I’ll just include a screenshot:

4)       Within the I-485, since the TN-1 status is not a visa you’re going to put ‘none’ a lot. Just like this screenshot:

5)       One of the hardest pieces for me was getting the medical exam (the I-693) completed. What you’re going to want to do is go to the USCIS website and put in your zip code. Then what I did was create a Google docs spreadsheet of all my local doctors and called each and every one of them. Make sure to ask how much the medical including all vaccinations will costs. Doing this I was able to find the cheapest doctor in my area that used the local city vaccination clinic to get my vaccines. Total cost was less than $200. You might be able to get your family doctor to give you a physical and prescribe the shots to have insurance pay for it but I didn’t go that route.

6)       When filling out the I-864 it will ask you for 3 previous year’s tax records. You can easily request these records from the IRS.

7)       When the package is complete scan the entire thing to email and save a copy. This will save you many sleepless nights when you doubt what you put down.

8)       When you’re ready to mail the entire thing take it to USPS and use their tracking feature, this will let you know when it arrived at USCIS and who took it in.

9)       You can use the online case status at USCIS when you’ve received your case numbers. Be aware, however, that the system isn’t always up to date; my cases still haven’t shown-up there.

This obviously doesn’t answer every question out there and if you’ve got question I would recommend you check out the forums over at Visa Journey and the rest of the site. They can walk you through exactly what paperwork to submit and generally answer questions you may have. Best bet is to use the forum search feature as 9 times out of 10 someone else has had your exact problem. I’m sure you’ve got questions. If the Visa Journey forums or site don’t help you out feel free to leave a comment here.