TN visa is source of professionals for Utah firms

Brice Wallace 

Utah employers trying to meet their professional staffing needs have an option they might not have considered.

That’s the thinking of a group of officials at several Utah agencies who recently held an online business roundtable about the TN visa program, which allows qualified Canadian and Mexican professionals to come to the U.S. for work. Speakers said they believe the TN visa program is underutilized but could help Utah companies find the employees they are seeking.{mprestriction ids="1,3"}

“I’m glad that we are having this conversation because the problem is, there’s a need on both sides,” Marlene Gonzalez, of US Journey Immigration Services in South Jordan, said at the roundtable, conducted by the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity's Utah Immigration Assistance Center and the Economic Development Corporation of Utah’s Center of Economic Opportunity and Belonging.

“I’ve been an immigration attorney for 22 years, and I know the need of immigrants to find better opportunities and currently, after this COVID epidemic, the employers are desperate to have workers.”

The TN program, instituted as part of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement but continued under the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, permits qualified Canadian and Mexican citizens to seek temporary entry into the U.S. for business activities at a professional level.

To gain entry into the U.S., those citizens must have prearranged full- or part-time work with a U.S. employer and met the qualifications to practice in their profession.

The list of professions is wide and includes accountants, architects, engineers, pharmacists, scientists, teachers, lawyers, hotel managers, disaster relief insurance claims adjusters, librarians, management consultants, scientific technician/technologists, social workers, medical and related professionals and veterinarians.

Their initial stay in the U.S. is for up to three years, but extensions are allowed. Their spouses and children under age 21 may be eligible for TD nonimmigrant status and are permitted to study but not work in the U.S.

Unlike Mexican citizens, Canadian citizens are generally eligible for admission as nonimmigrants without a visa. Mexicans apply for a TN visa at a U.S. embassy or consulate in Mexico.

The U.S. has granted nearly 900,000 such visas in one year, and the number was about 726,000 in 2019.

Jose Borjon, consular general of Mexico, said there is a need for talent in certain professional areas, but greater awareness of the TN visa program would help.

“We believe it’s very relevant and I think as a country, we have a lot to offer,” Borjon said, noting that 130,000 engineers graduate each year in Mexico. Utah is “very lucky to have companies that know how to do it, that have experience and a track record” with the program, he added.

Mexican officials are “just making people aware that they have this visa as a way to see if they can respond to their needs here of talent,” he said.

“The TN visa is a very good option for Mexican and Canadian nationals and for the employers who need that global talent here in the United States,” Gonzalez said.

Jonathan Malan, a co-founder of Lehi-based recruiting agency IsoTalent, said the TN visa program “is better than any other system that the government has put in place.”

He urged companies to consider recruiting talent from throughout the world. “We’ve spoken heavily about Mexico and Canada, but there are engineers all throughout Latin America who are highly trained, know what to do in this type of development environment and can be reached through any of those countries,” he said.

Robb Lifferth, another IsoTalent co-founder, said employees under the TN program generally find that U.S. companies provide better pay raises than Mexican companies and that is among the reasons they stick with U.S. employers.

“The retention of that employee is so much higher than someone I’ve hired here locally,” Lifferth said. “Simply, there’s a nervousness and anxiety around the visa process, so they’re less likely to take a recruiter’s call to transfer to another company.”

Natalie El-Deiry, director of immigration and new American integration at the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity and director of the Utah Immigration Assistance Center, said many Utah companies could benefit from the range of professional position options under the TN visa system.

“As we think about naturopathic or STEM careers,” she said, “it’s quite wide, and it would be great to see multi-sectors taking advantage of this opportunity to bring talent in, especially that’s reflective of the majority of immigrants that are in Utah from Mexico and other Latin American countries.”{/mprestriction}