Hiring Canadians for Temporary Positions

JRS

I haven't handled hiring Canadians and other non-US employees in ages, so please bear with me....We're a company that is not cash rich and not inclined to pay for or participate in the paperwork to sponsor hiring alien employees.

We've got lots of temporary positions to fill, primarily during the summer months, and was wondering if we can hire Canadians who may or may not already be in the U.S. on a student visa. Can we legally hire Canadians who are here on a student visa? TN visa? other?

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-12-02 AT 01:32PM (CST)[/font][p]No, you cannot do either. The only way to hire a Canadian or other non-resident alien is to sponsor the process, which ultimately runs upwards of $3-5,000 and is very paper intensive. Part time and seasonal jobs don't qualify. A student visa is not transportable and cannot translate to a work status (except on campus) unless an employer sponsors the petition for work-status and runs the gamut of getting it approved through INS. There are a few exceptions such as Migrant Seasonal Farmworkers approved through DOL, but I don't think you fit that. If your company is tempted to 'do it anyway', please rethink that. On the chance I'm wrong about students, each campus has a staff member in charge of immigrant processes and you could call them. Be sure to require a copy of some written regulation allowing it before proceeding on the word of an employee at the school.