TN success story - Economist (Compensation Analyst) at YUL
Wanted to share my TN success story since I got a lot of help from this sub.
Job Title: Compensation Analyst
Category: Economist
Degree: Bachelors of Business Administration
PoE: YUL
Background: Prior to my TN I’ve been in America since March 2025 on a TD visa. I spent about a year applying before I found a company that was willing to sponsor a TN. In that year I had 3 final round interviews where the companies backed out when I mentioned needing a TN, and one offer from a H1B non-cap eligible hospital that declined to sponsor an H1B application, and I had the offer rescinded as a result.
In the end I applied for my role on LinkedIn in late February, interviewed through March, and accepted the offer at the end of March. I have 8 years HR experience mainly in Business Partnering, and no dedicated compensation experience so I thought the TN would be a stretch.
I followed all the advice on this subreddit EXCEPT I was honest at the beginning about needing a TN. For all my other interviews I told the recruiter either at the offer stage or as I was entering the final round and every job ended up backing out. With my current job, I told the recruiter in the phone screen that I need a TN when they asked about my work status, and they were receptive to it if I was the right candidate. This won't work every time but the recruiter did say they appreciated knowing early.
The Package & PoE: When I got the job, they engaged a law firm in early April to do the PoE application package. All in it took around 1.5 months for the law firm to put together the package, verify my education with a third-party U.S. equivalency evaluation, and get the wet signatures.
The job description was not tailored at all—they used the compensation analyst JD word for word from the posting I applied to. I was worried because the wording didn’t match the Economist category but they used the support letter to make a pretty strong argument.
I booked a last-minute flight from NYC to YUL and back in late May. I had 4 hours between arriving and flying out, and the application took about 15 minutes total. The agent at YUL asked 3 questions:
- Who was the employer
- What category was I applying under
- How long am I requesting
He didn't mention my degree at all, and there was no mention about my TD status. He just told me to sit down while he reviewed it and called me back up 5 minutes later to pay.
I got my TD visa through YUL originally as well, and both times were super quiet, quick, and the border agents were nice (for border agents). I’ve seen people mentioning that Economist applications get a lot of scrutiny, so I wanted to share that it is possible! With the market right now I’d suggest getting a US number and changing your LinkedIn and resume location to the city you want to work in so you don’t get auto declined.