How I Found a Tech Job in the US from Canada with a TN Visa?
*Tips and Tricks Revealed*
About Me and Why I moved to the US
In 2017, I moved to the US from Canada for my dream tech job. It has been over seven years since I began working in the US. At that time, I was fresh out of school with about two years of software engineering experience in Canada. I had always wanted to move to the US for new experiences, opportunities to learn, and higher pay.
In this blog post, I will share my experience, tips, and tricks of how I interviewed and applied for new opportunities in the US while working full-time in Canada.
This post is not about TN Visa. For questions related to immigration and TN visas, please take a look at my previous posts.
9 Steps How I found a TN tech job in the US from Canada
- Knowing Yourself & Researching Targeted Companies
Identify your skills, specialty, and interests.
Find your targeted companies that can sponsor visas.
Here are some helpful websites that list H1B-sponsored jobs:
- H1BGrader: https://h1bgrader.com/
- MyVisaJobs: https://www.myvisajobs.com/reports/h1b/
2. Update Your LinkedIn Search Location. Let Recruiters Find You.
The easiest way to get noticed by US recruiters is to update your LinkedIn profile location to a US location. For example, I used Fairmont Hotel’s postal code (94108) in San Francisco. You can use any postal code in the area you are interested in applying to. (Note: you do not need to change your address on your resume.)
3. How to Answer These Questions as a Canadian When Filling Out the Application:
- Are you currently authorized to work in the U.S.?
- Do you now, or will you in the future, require immigration sponsorship to work?
You may answer “yes” to these questions if you are a Canadian and qualify for a sponsored TN Visa or another visa. I often find that “yes” gets a recruiter callback quicker. (Please do your research with Visa or consult with a lawyer.)
4. Apply through your US Network, Online, and Career Fair
Chances are you already know someone in the US. Reach out to them and ask for a referral. If you don’t know anyone, I recommend attending the Grace Hopper Tech Conference, online career fairs in the US, or local meetups.
5. Interview prep.
Preparing for interviews is the most essential task to get the job. I won’t spend too much time talking about it here, as I will have a separate post on software engineering preparation.
6. Schedule Phone Interview
Here is a typical week for me:
- morning: recruiter call
- lunch/afternoon: technical phone screen interviews
- weekend: interview prep day
I tried to schedule my technical phone interviews very closely together.
7. Schedule your onsite interview.
After several rounds of phone interviews and hearing back the results, I scheduled all my onsite interviews in the same week. Make sure you are fully rested the day before. Before 2021, I had to fly to the US, but nowadays, you can do all your onsite interviews virtually.
After the interviews, you may feel anxious to hear back from the recruiters. Remember, no matter what the results are, you have done a great job.
8. Reflection.
After the interviews, you may feel anxious to hear back from the recruiters. Remember, no matter what the results are, you have done a great job.
I would take some time to reflect on how I’ve done during the interviews. If there are areas that I had not done well, I would re-do the questions again, and make sure I understood them. Even if I didn’t get the job, I remind myself that I’m closer to reaching my goal than before.
9. May Repeat Steps 1 to Step 8 until you Accept an Offer in the US! 🎉
10. The final step is getting your TN visa/other sponsored Visa approved through your company.
I’ve written a detailed post about the step-by-step process to get a TN visa approved. Be sure to check it out for all the information you need!
Note: If you have any questions, you can comment below, or reach out to me on LinkedIn.
I offered TN Consultation and Software Engineer Preparation Services.
