Thereis a mystery afoot at the northern border. Last week reputable news organizations, suchas the CBC, reported that advance practice nurses were being told that theyno longer qualified for the TN-1 visa at the Canadian-Michigan border.
TheTN-1 visa is a visa authorized under NAFTA. All of the jobs on the NAFTAoccupations list are eligible for TN-1 visas. The NAFTA list is purposely vague. It does not list job descriptions for the occupations. Any rational job description includes advancepractice nurses under the registered nurse domain. For instance, the Stateof Michigan law on registered nursing, includes advance practice nurses asa subset of registered nurse. AdvancePractice nurses have been using the TN-1 for 20+ years.
USCustoms and Border Protection has been silent on the issue. Immigration attorneys are unsure if thedenials are based on one rouge officer’s mistaken understanding of law, or ifit is a policy-wide decision.
Eitheranswer is problematic. If it is a rogueofficer, then the US CBP ought to acknowledge their error, re-train theofficer, and announce that advance practice nurses are eligible for theTN-1.
If not, the administration oughtto explain the rationale behind its policy-decision. The administration’sown Department of Labor says that for US workers, ”job opportunities for advanced practice registered nursesare likely to be excellent.” Protectionism may be a valid policy argumentin some areas, but plainly not for advance practice nurses, who are theforefront of treating American patients.