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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

#251

Post by clubm8 »

overlords wrote: post #199
jorblumesea wrote: post #78

I wonder how much of this is just the political winds. Under the George Bush days there were similar sentiments and attitudes, but it never went anywhere and SV still remained dominant. Canada has long tried to capitalize on the US political situation with mixed results. Salaries are low, most of Canada has poor weather and unaffordable housing prices in the major cities. I guess if you're willing to stick it out you…

Canada does not have "a far less valuable citizenship compared to other western countries". It's standard of living is (size of house, consumer spending power) is better than any large country except the USA. And the weather is not that different to Boston, Chicago, New York (for Toronto) and Seattle (for Vancouver). Canada won't develop a racism problem because 20% of the country are already immigrants and Canada do…

>Canada won't develop a racism problem because 20% of the country are already immigrants and Canada doesn't have a bible belt south

You do have the prairies though and they can be as conservative as the Dakotas. (With a similar accent to boot)

For example, Calgary police officers won't be able to do marijuana off duty, despite it being explicitly legal at the federal level for all of Canada.

If you browse /r/publicfreakout you will see plenty of racist prairie meltdowns.

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

#252

Post by 3pt14159 »

martin_iden wrote: post #240
3pt14159 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The half-of-salary thing is a bit rich. Tech people unknowingly push up their second or third sigma downside in America and cost of living is hard to compare. In America you're more likely to get violently harmed. More likely to become truly poor. More likely to develop life-long medical conditions. Don't have actuarially balanced government pension (SS accounting is off book, CPP is fully funded). Higher net-debt-to…

I really like Toronto, but cost of living is high (one of the largest housing bubbles in the world, high taxes), salaries are low and jobs (not only in tech) are scarce. In the States you won't find engineers, doctors, accountants working in the supermarkets/starbucks. Go to any store in Richmond Hill/North York and you will see plenty. There is an ugly truth that people don't like to discuss much, Canada accepts too…

Martin you can rent a room in Toronto for $850 with a single housemate. It's no where near that in the valley. What other major costs are there? Healthcare is covered. Dental is <$1k / year. Vision is <$1k / year. Food is way cheaper than SF. Less on accountant fees, less on legal fees, less on anything I can think of, really.

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

#253

Post by vlovich123 »

paxy wrote: post #175
nostromo wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the article failed to mention is that Trump and the Republican Congress have called for the US to change our immigration system to be more like Canada's. That is: focusing on skills and merit and limiting extended-family migration. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/trump-c... Right now the majority of legal immigration to the US is based on having family in the US. The US has a much more expan…

Every administration and every congress in the last two decades has called for sweeping immigration overhaul. What they actually do remains to be seen.

Actually Obama got close with a pretty compelling bill but the Senate Republicans continually filibustered it for 3 years (even those who were originally cosponsors) and that was enough because at the time it required a supermajority to break the filibuster (& in 2011 the RNC took over the Senate & House in the midterms) [1]. I wouldn't say there has been genuinely two decades of calls for sweeping immigration reform; it seems like the calls have only genuinely come from the left on this issue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DREAM_Act

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

#254

Post by dominotw »

3pt14159 wrote: post #249
dominotw wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In America you're more likely to get violently harmed. More likely to become truly poor. all these only apply to lower income ppl in US not to ppl on h1b, they can simply move back to higher middle class in India if things go wrong.

I can't tell if this comment is ironic or not. But I'll bite anyway. The choice is between H1B in Canada vs H1B in US. Presumably permanent residency is the plan, so "simply moving back to India" isn't the plan if things go wrong 5 years later.

You can move back to India even if you take up US/Canadian citizenship on your PIO card.

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

#255

Post by sheepmullet »

phakding wrote: post #241
sheepmullet wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even with extreme level of penny pinching, 40% rate of saving is almost unachievable. Hah that’s a wealthy American point of view. When I first moved to the US I was saving 85% of my after tax income. Most (non-scam) Indian H1B holders I know are saving 6 figures a year.

I am one of those and almost everyone ( with exception of one or two every class) in my masters programs we're on F1 Visa. Most of my friends work six figure jobs in cities nowhere close to as expensive as Bay area. I know for a fact, nobody has accumulated million dollars in cash. Close to million in worth? Yes if you count real estate with mortgage, but not that kid of cash. Math doesn't add up.

> I know for a fact, nobody has accumulated million dollars in cash.

I agree, a million in a few years would be rare.

In 10 years though? It’s certainly reasonable.

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

#256

Post by nambit »

techie128 wrote: post #206
dilippkumar wrote: post #101

As someone who is contemplating this move, I can share some thoughts. First, money isn’t the force that’s driving immigrants out of India and into the US, Canada etc. Among the people I know and including myself, the top driving forces are safety, good governance, clean air and water. While living in the US has the benefit of higher pay, it comes at a significant cost. Here is a short list of things I can not do whil…

I have 3 offers to write books. I, unfortunately, cannot do that due to the H-1B visa restriction. I have been in US legally for over a decade, making 350K+ annually. Our HH income is 700K USD. Before someone jumps in and say but why don't you apply for a EB5 greencard, it's not so simple either. It is 600K (500K + legal and other fees) of my hard earned money down the drain with ZERO certainty of a greencard for YEA…

How does your wife get to 350K+ annually on an H4? That's insane.

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

#257

Post by NTDF9 »

briandear wrote: post #100
CydeWeys wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't particularly matter when you can't get or retain a visa to work in the US. Maybe salaries in those places will increase as a result.

Why would salaries increase? If anything, they would drop due to increased supply.

> Why would salaries increase? If anything, they would drop due to increased supply.

As paradoxical as it might sound, competition attracts more and more work and raises wages for top talent. That's why SV has high salaries for engineers, NYC/London has high salary for finance, Bangalore has high salaries for local engineers (because competition creates an eco system, increasing the fight for talent).

Imagine Amazon moving their minimum wage workers to Ohio and then giving them $15/hr. Now, all other Ohio companies have to pay $15/hr or lose talent. Then the other companies start paying $18/hr and Amazon loses talent. Then Amazon raises rate to $20/hr and others lose talent and this keeps growing as more and more employers move to the region to find all those skilled employees who can join and be productive right away.

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

#258

Post by toomanybeersies »

___cs____ wrote: post #104

Canada/Australia have thriving scene, but somehow the number of jobs is really low. There was a nice discussion on reddit about brain drain to Australia/Canada. https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/9l1pug/w... https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/9l3ueo/which_coun...

I can't comment on the tech scene in Melbourne, as I don't really participate in it outside of work, but there are plenty of jobs here.

It took me less than 2 weeks to find a job as a Ruby on Rails developer here in Melbourne.

The comments bagging on Australia seem like the classic self-denigrating comments that Aussies love to make about themselves.

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

#259

Post by sumitgt »

asdfx wrote: post #207
xtreme wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USCIS considers pretty much everything that results in monetary gains (other than investing) as "working". Even renting your own house counts as working, so people on H1B can't do that either.

I do not think this is true.

It is.

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

#260

Post by toomanybeersies »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #24

Isn't compensation, even after adjusting for cost of living and health insurance, much lower in Canada than anywhere in the U.S.?

Money isn't everything. Software engineers in any developed country get paid enough to live a comfortable life.
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