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H-1B: As immigration furor roils Silicon Valley, Canada smooths way for techies

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Re: H-1B: As immigration furor roils Silicon Valley, Canada smooths way for techies

#61

Post by HumanDrivenDev »

Bhilai wrote: post #20

I can attest to this. I have three friends who are preparing to migrate to Canada or Australia. Mind you, these are not the typical H1B workers from Infosys. These are smart legitimate people with a masters degree who work at top tech companies. They have no hopes to get a permanent residency in US because of long queues. Renewing H1B is a big hassle. Surely its a big change to pick up your life up and move to a diff…

I wish so badly I could trade places, as a conservative man stuck in a 'progressive' country with lower wages. Give me a great salary and Blumpffss 'regressive' US any day.

Re: H-1B: As immigration furor roils Silicon Valley, Canada smooths way for techies

#62

Post by nraynaud »

tick_tock_tick wrote: post #7

Canada's aggressively merit based immigration policy has clear advantages in terms of allowing talent in. That said Canadian tech firms still pay way too little.

I'd say also the stability and non-stupidity of their immigration laws is an advantage too. I am always correcting myself when I work with USCIS: they are not stupid and slow, they are deliberately malevolent.

Re: H-1B: As immigration furor roils Silicon Valley, Canada smooths way for techies

#64

Post by acover »

refurb wrote: post #23
otalp wrote: post #16

I suppose my comments from yesterdays thread about "Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere" is relevant: I did the math for Toronto(which is more expensive than Montreal, and about the same as Vancouver). For a typical software engineer, taxes take away 25% of gross pay in Ontario while it's over 30% in California and New York. Cost of living is much less(by 30-40% if you rent) in Toronto compared t…

data, groceries and restaurants are 20% cheaper(adjusted for currency) Why would you adjust for currency when you're paid in Canadian dollars?

They are comparing salaries in USD. Using one currency for all comparisons.

Re: H-1B: As immigration furor roils Silicon Valley, Canada smooths way for techies

#65

Post by puranjay »

GhostVII wrote: post #58
dubya123 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm yeah hard winters or having your spouse deported. Hard choice.

I feel like the number of tech people who legitimately worry about their spouse being deported is extremely small. And it's only two years until the next election anyways.

> And it's only two years until the next election anyways.

At this point with 50% approval rating, I doubt you'll see an incumbent lose 2020

Re: H-1B: As immigration furor roils Silicon Valley, Canada smooths way for techies

#66

Post by untog »

fjsolwmv wrote: post #47
paxy wrote: post #41

Sounds accurate. There is no realistic path to citizenship or even permanent residency in the USA for highly skilled immigrants from India. While the high salaries and quality of life are attractive for someone straight out of college, you quickly realize that this isn't the place to be if you want to buy a house, start a family, or make any other major life decision when you could be asked to pack up and leave tomor…

That sounds great. Come to USA after college, make a million dollars in a few years, move back home, get married, and build the Indian economy. You don't want a country where every who has the ability will leave.

It doesn't sound great for the individual, though. Standard of life in the US and Canada is higher than in India, and they'll likely want their kids to grow up in better circumstances than they did, if that's possible.

Besides, you're not going to make a million dollars in a few years. New grad salaries take a while to turn into experienced developer salaries, and the money you make from 20-30 is unlikely to last you all the way to retirement, even if you return to India.

Re: H-1B: As immigration furor roils Silicon Valley, Canada smooths way for techies

#67

Post by Matthias247 »

otalp wrote: post #16

I suppose my comments from yesterdays thread about "Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere" is relevant: I did the math for Toronto(which is more expensive than Montreal, and about the same as Vancouver). For a typical software engineer, taxes take away 25% of gross pay in Ontario while it's over 30% in California and New York. Cost of living is much less(by 30-40% if you rent) in Toronto compared t…

Afaik taxes are rather more than in the US. If I enter the 110000 CAD into https://simpletax.ca/calculator I get a 30% tax rate. It will also get more at a higher income. Washington/US has less income tax overall, even with higher salaries.

Overall if you earn 30-40% less, you might also have that much less after taxes.

Regarding cost of living: I found the minor expenses (e.g. restaurants) to be quite a bit cheaper than in the US. However the already expensive things are expensive here too. Especially housing/rent, which is currently pretty crazy here in Vancouver. I would expect being able to buy a condo or house a lot faster in the US than here.

Re: H-1B: As immigration furor roils Silicon Valley, Canada smooths way for techies

#68

Post by otalp »

jszymborski wrote: post #34
otalp wrote: post #16

I suppose my comments from yesterdays thread about "Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere" is relevant: I did the math for Toronto(which is more expensive than Montreal, and about the same as Vancouver). For a typical software engineer, taxes take away 25% of gross pay in Ontario while it's over 30% in California and New York. Cost of living is much less(by 30-40% if you rent) in Toronto compared t…

Overall, I agree with your points, but I have some points of contention with some of the analysis. I don't think it's quite fair to include tax if you're not going to include savings for things like health care. Furthermore, Toronto's housing market, while less expensive than Cali/NY, is still insane. I know you acknowledge this in passing, but Montreal's housing market is insanely affordable, and we've a great tech/…

While Montreal does have very cheap(or at least non-insane) housing, jobs are harder to get and French is still a big thing as far as I understand: you need to know French well to fit in. Also the weather is more extreme. I think if you can land a good gig in Montreal and are good at learning a new language it would be the ideal place in Canada, but finding a good job is hard.

Re: H-1B: As immigration furor roils Silicon Valley, Canada smooths way for techies

#69

Post by btowngar »

dpatriarche wrote: post #31
8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any downsides to getting one, outside of perhaps having to let go of one's other citizenships for countries that don't allow it?

One downside of getting US citizenship is that if you later move to another country (your original country or a third country), you will obligated to continue to file US income tax returns, and potentially pay US income taxes. Depending on your circumstances, your tax filing might be trivial or it might be complicated, and you may or may not actually owe taxes to the US. So this might be a minor annual hassle, or it…

If you move to another country and you still hold a Green Card, you must file US income tax returns as well - it's not just for citizens.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/freq...

"if you are a U.S. citizen or a resident alien living outside the United States, your worldwide income is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where you live"

Re: H-1B: As immigration furor roils Silicon Valley, Canada smooths way for techies

#70

Post by saudioger »

I know multiple people who've even started turning down invites to visit the US (for conferences) because of the current administration... I think part of is fear of what _could_ happen under Trump even more so than what's happened so far.
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