u/Potential-Drag9761

The end of one term and the beginning of the next (especially when it's the Fall term), brings about many emotions. Many of you are insanely ecstatic about starting your dream coop. Some of you just failed a course, or maybe even the term. Some of you are going through a million challenges at once, from a failed exam, no coop, and the death of a loved one, it just feels like the challenges and hard times don't stop. You've almost attempted to end yourself. For others, you got some good news that you spent years waiting for. You graduated after longer than you expected, your brother survived his battle with cancer, your research paper got published, etc.

No matter what you're going through, just remember: "This too shall pass", just take a breather. No matter how bad it is, you'll be looking back at this in a year and tell yourself how important that event was for your character development. For those in their good times, make the most of it, enjoy it to the fullest.

I hope this message reaches the right person! Good luck to you all. Rise and rise!

Details: Canadian Mechanical Engineering student at a University in Eastern Canada. Although I’m technically on a “break” and am a part-time student. And idk if it matters, but I was born outside of Canada. And this was also my first time applying for the TN or any sort of US "work authorization".

Got offered an internship at a mid sized startup based in California. Went through YVR (which is highly recommended for the Scientific Technician category). Immigration team prepared a packet containing the following:

- Intro letter addressed to CBP officer explaining components of the packet in order.
- G-28 form representing me (the applicant).
- G-28 form representing my employer (the petitioner).
- 2 copies of detailed employer support letter with wet signatures of HR rep at my employer.
- Screenshots of the company website and explanation of what the company does.
- Copy of my passport bio page.
- Copy of my transcripts.
- I was asked to order and add my original sealed transcripts to the packet (although the CBP officer did not open them at all).
- My resume
- My managers resume
- Copy of my Managers/Supervisors degree (VERY IMPORTANT, you’re not getting approved for the Sci Tech category unless you have this). Also, my manager has an Engineering degree. I heard the manager's degree must be in the same field as yours, but don't know if that's a hard rule.

How it went:
- Went to US Pre-clearance at YVR, told officer I’m here for my TN, he asked me what category.
- Officer scanned my passport, took a photo of me, and then took me to secondary.
- Spent 20 minutes waiting.
- Called up for questioning.
- Officer spent 10 minutes asking me about the company and my role, he also asked some clarifying questions after reading the support letter.
- Directly asked me if this was for an internship (the word intern or internship was never mentioned on my support letter), to which I answered “Yes, it’s for an internship”.
- Told me to sit down while he reviews the rest of the packet.
- Calls me back after 15 minutes, asks me to go to payment counter and pay the TN fee.
- Stamps my passport, writes down category and company name below stamp.
- Hands me back all documentation (he didn’t keep a single document, I thought he would keep at least one copy of the support letter)
- Escorts me out to the US concourse of YVR.

In and out in about ~45 minutes. Also, there was no one in front of me and there were 3 other officers stationed at other booths within secondary. Very smooth and easy thankfully.

I hope this answers a common question on this sub that: "Can interns get TN's???". Also, idk if only Canadian interns can get TNs or if Mexican interns can also do this.

For Canadians, I think as long as your company has a good immigration team and they know what they are doing, you should be good.

And if it helps, I also had additional documents ready to present in case such as my Proof of Enrolment for every single semester I've been enrolled in university, lease documents for housing in California, and original offer letter. I didn't need to present any of this.

Now, this is going to be somewhat contradictory to what I just said about interns being able to get the TN, but I guess this goes for all categories of the TN Status. It's really important to realize that TN's are at the complete discretion of the CBP officer reviewing your packet. All your paperwork can be in order, but because you didn't answer some of their questions in the exact way they were expecting, for examples sake, that can be enough of a reason to reject you.

That's also why most companies prefer using the J1 for interns over the TN as with the TN, there is some luck (although a very small amount) involved. And then with the J1, there is a strict requirement of being a full-time student when you apply for the Visa. Both have their pros and cons, but at the surface level, TN is definitely much much cheaper ($50 compared to the minimum $550 for J1) and quicker to process. Anyways, that's a conversation for a different day.

Hello, I've noticed this is a job title used in place of "Manufacturing Engineer" at a lot of companies in the Bay Area. What is it that these engineers do at these companies?

The JD often mentions conducting DOE's. Isn't that just a fancy way of saying "testing"? As in, there exists this manufacturing process, a DOE is used to see how the end result (output) changes when a step or part of the process (input) changes. Isn't that testing at it's core? I've also heard that these engineers are responsible for fixture design and being the final person to say if a product or feature can be made, and if it can't, providing the Design Engineers with DFMA feedback.

Would love to hear more from any Manufacturing Engineers at these cool companies! And what would the most important technical and soft skills be to get into this field. Thanks.

Hello, I've noticed this is a job title used in place of "Manufacturing Engineer" at a lot of companies in the Bay Area. What is it that these engineers do at these companies?

The JD often mentions conducting DOE's. Isn't that just a fancy way of saying "testing"? As in, there exists this manufacturing process, a DOE is used to see how the end result (output) changes when a step or part of the process (input) changes. Isn't that testing at it's core? I've also heard that these engineers are responsible for fixture design and being the final person to say if a product or feature can be made, and if it can't, providing the Design Engineers with DFMA feedback.

Would love to hear more from any Manufacturing Engineers at these cool companies! And what would the most important technical and soft skills be to get into this field. Thanks.

Hello, I've noticed this is a job title used in place of "Manufacturing Engineer" at a lot of companies in the Bay Area. What is it that these engineers do at these companies?

The JD often mentions conducting DOE's. Isn't that just a fancy way of saying "testing"? As in, there exists this manufacturing process, a DOE is used to see how the end result (output) changes when a step or part of the process (input) changes. Isn't that testing at it's core? I've also heard that these engineers are responsible for fixture design and being the final person to say if a product or feature can be made, and if it can't, providing the Design Engineers with DFMA feedback.

Would love to hear more from any Manufacturing Engineers at these cool companies! And what would the most important technical and soft skills be to get into this field. Thanks.

Hello, I've noticed this is a job title used in place of "Manufacturing Engineer" at a lot of companies in the Bay Area. What is it that these engineers do at these companies?

The JD often mentions conducting DOE's. Isn't that just a fancy way of saying "testing"? As in, there exists this manufacturing process, a DOE is used to see how the end result (output) changes when a step or part of the process (input) changes. Isn't that testing at it's core? I've also heard that these engineers are responsible for fixture design and being the final person to say if a product or feature can be made, and if it can't, providing the Design Engineers with DFMA feedback.

Would love to hear more from any Manufacturing Engineers at these cool companies! And what would the most important technical and soft skills be to get into this field. Thanks.

I was on LinkedIn recently and noticed a large number of Mechanical Engineers working at OpenAI. I originally thought that they are working on Data Centers (not a bad guess), but I noticed that many of them are former Product Design and Manufacturing Design Engineers at Apple and Meta. A few were also former Tesla engineers. This doesn’t seem to be the people with experience for Data Center design. Does anybody know what they are working on specifically? Are they most likely part of a special team? Also, many of them have the title: “Member of Technical Staff”, what does this mean?