Truth About the TN (NAFTA) Visa

Now that Unosquare is bringing engineers into the US for certain projects and client roles, I thought it would be helpful to see and understand how the TN Visa really works. You can get official information here... but this is what we've learned from our real world experience.

It is easier to get the TN Visa in Mexico than it is to actually get setup for work in the USA.  Getting the Visa itself is fairly easy in Mexico.  You need an employer, a letter from that employer, and a positive history in Mexico.  If in the last 10 years there is any illegal activity on your record... forget it.

After your interview at the US Consulate, it takes about 2 weeks to get the Visa. Then it's time to travel to the US for work.

Once in the US, things get a little more tricky. There is a process that must be followed to work legally in the USA.  First, the person holding the TN Visa needs to make an appointment at the Social Security office.  It is not possible to apply for a Social Security number online if you are arriving with a TN Visa.  It is mandatory that each new Visa holder appears at the Social Security office in person. The SS officer will verify your immigration information in their computer systems.  If everything is verified it takes about 3 - 5 days to get a social security card.  If items are not verifiable (that can happen also) it will take 3 - 4 weeks to get a social security card.  This is because Social Security has to verify your information with immigration manually... which takes more time.

It is completely unknown why some people are verified automatically and why some are not. I asked a SS officer the other day and she didn't know either.  Regardless, the Social Security number is required before anyone can receive a paycheck or open a bank account in the USA.

You might be asking yourself at this point.. "Why not just get paid in Mexico and avoid the whole deal in the USA?"  Good question.  Because that is illegal with the TN Visa. It is a work Visa allocated for Canadians and Mexicans only and it also produces tax revenue for the US government. So don't try it.

Once you get the SS Card in the mail, it is time to setup payroll and bank accounts.  It is also required that Mexicans go to the Mexican Consulate in the state where you are working to get a local state ID card. This will be useful when getting carded at a restaurant or getting pulled over by the police.  Presenting your State ID card with your Mexican drivers license will suffice in most situations.

Lastly, make sure that you don't come into the US while working for a shady, weak, or otherwise tiny company.  You are a "guest worker" in the USA and the company that you choose to work with is very important.  A lot of companies say they take care of guest workers but some are too small and without the experience to really do that.  So choose wisely.

Saludos!

Unosquare Industry Focus

In the spirit of growing the "lean enterprise", Unosquare has begun to let our customers determine our future.  We started almost 3 years ago with 5 people and 2 clients and today we have more than 50 people and 10 valued clients. 

So what has the market said about Unosquare?  What have our customers told us about our future?

Basically this; As a company we are very good at healthcare related technology and eCommerce solutions.  We have a few clients that fall outside those two segments and we value them also. But we have 3 referenceable healthcare clients and 3 referencable eCommerce clients. These companies trust our software engineers and QA engineers to deliver.  Our team leaders know the domains of healthcare and eCommerce.  They have the nomenclature down.

Over time you'll see our messaging change to focus on these two areas.  Our internal education and training efforts will support the growth and demands on our consultants. And we'll always strive to have fun with clients and employees throughout the experience.  Saludos!

Domestic Staffing Services

Unosquare has launched a new domestic staffing effort from our Portland, Oregon office.  We're all pretty excited. We even hired a new staffing services coordinator, Annlisa Tomba, to help lead the effort.  Annalisa is a driven young woman... providing two forms of evidence... she holds a PHD in chemistry and runs marathons.

Our goal is to provide domestic contract staffing, IT/engineering recruiting, and project work from our US location while remaining a strong Nearshore services provider.  This will give our clients the option of Nearshore or Onshore.  A natural progression.

Want to Know the Best Way to Work with Unosquare?

This week I'm back in Guadalajara.  It's the middle of December and the skies are blue and the temp is around 70 degrees during the day and 55 in the evening.  Perfect.

I'm here with 2 clients... one a publicly traded pharma company that is building a new software application to better drive the quality of patient care and cost models. The other a privately held technology consulting firm that needed additional Java resources to augment their US based delivery teams. Both sent down senior technical and product leaders to work with Unosquare engineers in our office.

I have to say here... this is the right way to do Nearshore.  The amount of information covered in our conference room is one thing. It is what we do all day long when clients come to visit. Besides, you would agree that debating the approach taken with technical requirements and clarifying business requirements face to face is invaluable to any project. 

But drinking margaritas and getting to know each other in the evening is where the magic happens.  Teamwork, as a concept, only delivers its best result when friendships are formed.  That's my view anyway.

So, to clients and projects alike, I ask you to consider the wisdom of coming to Guadalajara to work with your team during the day and enjoy the festive life of Mexico in the evening.  Yes, you will be pleased with the business results. But even more you will be thrilled with new friendships.

Mario DiVece Goes to Vallarta

Did Mario DiVece go to enjoy the beach and the sunshine this month? Not really. He was there as a special guest presenter for the Festival de Software Libre, or Open Source Software Festival. DiVece was invited to speak at the request of Microsoft Mexico and the University of Guadalajara. Unosquare is a Microsoft partner, and the go to partner in Mexico for migrating and running open source applications on the Microsoft Cloud (Azure). 

DiVece, Co-founder and CTO at Unosquare, presented on moving and managing PHP applications on the Microsoft Cloud (Azure).  Unosquare has built a solid reputation in North America based on his work in this area.

Mario was in good company.  He was presenting with other notable leaders like Jon Maddog Hall, president of Linux International and Senator Francisco Javiar Castellon Fonseca, from the State of Nayarit just north of Puerto Vallarta.  If you want to see his slides on the topic, join the Unosquare Facebook site and send us a note.

Unosquare Helps Launch the Nearshore Executive Alliance

Unosquare co-founder and CEO, Mike Barrett, has been instrumental in the formation of a new industry association of Nearshore executives. The Nearshore Executive Alliance is a formalized group of industry leaders from across the Americas. CEO's and Vice Presidents from companies like Softtek, Neoris, CapGemini, and CI&T all have a stake in the new alliance.

The goals of the organization include collaboration around best practices, ethical standards for business, anti-corruption efforts, and recruiting guidelines that will help make nearshoring a long term, sustainable solution for North American client companies.

The Unosquare CEO presented the idea to form such a group during the Nearshore Nexus conference in New York City last April. Since then, nearly 50 executives from over 35 different companies have enlisted. For more information, visit www.nearshoreleaders.com or email our CEO from the contact page on our website.

WebCore: Unosquare’s PHP Framework goes Open Source

We believe that almost every software company out there has benefited from open source software. We also believe in returning the favor to the community. For this reason, we have decided to make the WebCore PHP Framework an open source project.

About 10 years ago, when PHP was transitioning from version 3 to version 4, the first version of WebCore was created by its main author, Mario Di Vece. It was only a few hundred lines of code and it was built to quickly re-implement a dated extranet for one of Di Vece’s customers. WebCore 1.0 was used in more than 10 small projects and it proved very handy.

Pretty much the same story repeated for the second version of the WebCore framework – WebCore 2.0 was nothing more than a handy library to create grids and forms with some basic scaffolding functionality. But when Di Vece teamed up with Geo Perez and Luis Gonzalez at Unosquare, they started cooking what would come to be the third version of the framework. They envisioned a framework that had automatic creation of an object model based on a database schema, lambda-like object queries, top of the line scaffolding, a clean templating mechanism, great-looking controls, support for custom renderers, and a plethora of other features that would make writing a PHP application fast, maintainable, and above all an enjoyable experience.

We are not anticipating that we’ll get a lot of attention, but if you’re interested feel free to download the source code and documentation at: CodePlex