What's the best optoin? Couple of Weird Circumstances

[misterg 0]

Hi there, been trolling through the forums here and have found lots of good information around moving from Canada into the United States. I'm wondering if anyone with knowledge of this can help me determine what I need to do, and if I qualify to even attempt to immigrate into the United States. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated!

Here are some points of mention with respect to my case:

1 - I previously lived in the US from 1994 to 1997. During that time I was there with my family - my father had been transferred there from a location here in Canada to one in the US, the company was an American company. At that time the company he was working for paid to have him, my mother and myself legally brought into the country on Green Cards / Resident Alien Cards. While I was there I received a Social Security Number - which I still possess. My Green card expired a few years after moving back to Canada and at that time (upon recommendation of a border crossing guard) my family and I surrendered our expired cards.

2 - I have graduated from Canadian College with an Advanced Diploma in the Computer Programmer Analyst Field. However, I have not worked in that field since graduating 5 years ago - I have worked in Computer Support/Repair however.

3 - I work for US Retail Electronics Store at a Canadian location as an Assistant Store Manager but I am 99% sure they have no interest in "sponsoring" an immigration into the US as I'm assuming there would be costs involved for them. However, they are in strong demand for Computer Repair Supervisors in the area I am interested in moving to.

[canadian_wife 1,824]

So you want a work visa? Then you'll need an American company to sponsor you.

good luck

[SapphireDreams 71]

Your circumstances are not really weird. Your status and time in the US as a child has no relevance to your situation anymore. You gave up your greencard, so at this point, that's a moot point. You have no way to get it back. Your SSN means nothing anymore either.

In terms of getting a visa. You don't really have any kind of extraordinary experience to match your degree so that really doesn't help you in any way for a TN Visa. If you found a job as a computer programmer, had some great experience, and then were able to find a company in need of a computer programmer (this is highly possible since I do think there is a need for this kind of job right now in silicon valley) then you could get sponsorship of some kind. Also consider though in this economy that there are less and less visas being sponsored because of the expense.

Also, you say that you have a diploma from a college, do you mean it's not a Bachelor's from a University? That actually matters a lot as well. US employers look for university degrees among Canadians and unless your experience was amazing and they were in really great demand, your chances are probably even slimmer.

Currently, as you stand though, your not eligible for visas (that I can think of).

Another option would be to find a job as a computer programmer in Canada for a company with US offices and then after a certain number of years look into getting a transfer.

[Harsh_77 718]

As “Sapphire” mentioned your previous GC does not have any impact on your current case.

Having a SSN number does not mean anything either, and you hold that SSN number until you die.

Now coming to the point getting a work visa with skill set of computer repair supervisor would be a difficult.

[Boiler 45,767]

The only real option seems 3.