What do you need to do after getting to US
There are many American Consulting firms hiring Canadian employees working in US, while surprisingly many of them lack of proper knowledge to let their Canadian employees work legally. Therefore, you have to follow the following steps to fulfill the legitimate mandates.
1. Apply Social Security Number -- SSN
Identical to Canada’s SIN, SSN is the number you must have for employment, tax deduction and opening bank account. It’s the first thing you should apply to avoid late payment deposit.
You can download the application form and find the SSA(Social Security Administration) office near you from this link:
http://www.ssa.gov/
You need to bring following original documents when you go to SSA:
• Passport with TN-1 visa and I-94 card
• Driver license
• SSN application form
You may mail out the original documents to SSA office, photo copy is not accepted. It is recommended that you go to SSA in person, cause too much trouble once the mail is lost somewhere.
2. Take Drug Test
Most of the US employers require their employees taking drug test as pre-employment condition. Prestigious employers such as Motorola pick up people randomly to take the test, drug addictives will be fired immediately.
You may get the test form coming with the job offer. Go to your employer’s designated test lab or hospital to do it, and the form will be mailed to your employer directly, who will pay the service late on.
Canadian government is thinking of legalizing marijuana, on the other side of the border people have very different practice to drug problem.
3. File “Employment Eligibility Verification”
When you received TN-1 visa on the border, the official would have given you a form named “Employment Eligibility Verification” (INS document number: OMB No. 115-0136). If you don’t have one, search google and get a softcopy in PDF.
After you finding a place to stay, i.e. you got an address in US, you can fill out this form, pack it with the photocopy of your passport and visa, send them to your employer. INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) might audit employers hiring foreign workers.