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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

#341

Post by techie128 »

nambit wrote: post #256
techie128 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What about it is insane? Do you think H4 EADs are only for low paid jobs or for people who have no job prospects to undercut wages in the IT sector? She is a highly qualified engineer. She works for FANG in the Bay Area and is on a high growth trajectory. What is insane is that people like her and me will take our multi-million dollar assets and exit the United States because this government is so hostile towards immigrants. The US not only loses law abiding, highly qualified people but also the taxes that we pay. Together we pay taxes roughly equivalent to 4x the median HH income of the US. Let that sink in for a bit.

What is even crazier is that both our respective employers will move us abroad with whatever relocation package we need to keep us working for them. We will take our jobs with us. Possibly establish teams abroad which we would've done in the US if the damn immigration system would've let us stay.

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

#342

Post by techie128 »

_iofi wrote: post #169

I just moved out of US and in process of moving to Canada. Just for background: Worked in leadership roles for startups and Fortune 15 companies, sold a company, advise/invest in bunch of startups. My life's goal is contribute to curing/diagnosing terminal disease using technology. Everything I did in the past 14 years has been towards meeting that goal. I figured, I would need knowledge, network, and financial stabi…

> I tried for EB-1 Green Card twice and got rejected both times. You need 3 out of 10 criteria for Green Card. Over 2 petitions and an appeal - separate USCIS officials gave me 4 criteria. But none of them gave me 3, and their responses were very hostile.

I don't really understand. Do you mean to say that the USCIS officer wanted you to meet 4 criteria while the rules specify 3? Did you take them to court over it?

If you already were on O-1 visa, it should've been easy to qualify for EB-1 GC. The criteria is pretty similar for both. Did you try a different law firm? What criteria specifically did you not meet?

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

#343

Post by thatfrenchguy »

lhorie wrote: post #270
3pt14159 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I really don't understand where people get the idea that housing is expensive in Toronto. You can rent a room in a rental home in scarborough or etobicoke for as low as a few hundred dollars. You'd share a house with a dozen people sure, but you typically get a private room at least. The cheapest I've been able to find in SF was $600 for sharing a _room_ with half a dozen people.

« Renting a room » is not considered decent living for a lot of people.

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

#344

Post by dominotw »

bdamm wrote: post #278
3pt14159 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's hard to ignore the trolls. The phrase "simply move back" is always a clear flag that someone has no idea what they're talking about.

Ok man. whatever. I know tons of ppl who moved back, to start their own business, to take care of aging parents, to retire, for their kids schooling. It is really a viable option if you become "truly poor" in USA.

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

#345

Post by calvinbhai »

digianarchist wrote: post #309
calvinbhai wrote: post #290

I'm in my 30's, spent > 1/3rd of my life in the US. Got a Masters degree before Obama was elected. Slogged enough, made enough personal sacrifices to achieve what I have. An employer who hired me based on a promise of EB greencard. Employer screwed me at last moment by giving a lame excuse as to why the GC process stalled. In the mean time, had saved up enough to put 20% down on a 500K+ home in N.E. US. Had almost pa…

In Canada you’ll likely have citizenship in 3-4 years. It’s very straight forward.

very true. That's the icing on the cake. After 4 years, no one in the family needs to bother about visa, visa interview, stamping, stamp expiry, renewal of visa and a zillion other things.

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

#346

Post by calvinbhai »

Latteland wrote: post #333
calvinbhai wrote: post #290

I'm in my 30's, spent > 1/3rd of my life in the US. Got a Masters degree before Obama was elected. Slogged enough, made enough personal sacrifices to achieve what I have. An employer who hired me based on a promise of EB greencard. Employer screwed me at last moment by giving a lame excuse as to why the GC process stalled. In the mean time, had saved up enough to put 20% down on a 500K+ home in N.E. US. Had almost pa…

I am an american, and I'm sick about what is happening. We are going to see a real brain drain. In the top end tech market at least, there's a massive shortage of people who can do bespoke software. Seattle has endless job opportunities.

Toronto/Vancouver will become extremely attractive for those wanting to come up with startups, even for VCs to invest due to massive influx of high skilled immigrants, with valuable knowledge from US work experience.

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

#347

Post by fredophile »

bitL wrote: post #76

Dunno. Salary in Silicon Valley - $300k. Salary in Vancouver - $80k. Rent almost the same. Weather in Silicon Valley - year-round sunny. Weather in Vancouver - 2 months of sun, rest gloomy. Are you sure you want to move to Canada? It used to be that MS/AMZN had a back up base in Vancouver for anyone who didn't make the cut with H1B/O-1.

I'm pretty sure Amazon employees in Vancouver make about the same as employees in the Seattle HQ. That might not be on par with what you'd get in SF but it wouldn't be that far off. When I moved from Vancouver to SF I went from paying ~$1000 for an apartment in East Van to paying over $2000 for a similarly sized aparment in the suburbs south of SF. Both places were comparable for size and access to Skytrain/BART for getting into downtown but the Vancouver location was a lot more convenient in general.

You're also overstating the difference in the weather. SF gets plenty of foggy, gloomy days.

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

#348

Post by dwild »

otalp wrote: post #68
jszymborski wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> you need to know French well to fit in

That's actually the opposite, at least in tech, you need to talk English. In both placed I worked we had to talk English because there was a few employees that didn't talk French at all.

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

#349

Post by jvzr »

techie128 wrote: post #342
_iofi wrote: post #169

I just moved out of US and in process of moving to Canada. Just for background: Worked in leadership roles for startups and Fortune 15 companies, sold a company, advise/invest in bunch of startups. My life's goal is contribute to curing/diagnosing terminal disease using technology. Everything I did in the past 14 years has been towards meeting that goal. I figured, I would need knowledge, network, and financial stabi…

> I tried for EB-1 Green Card twice and got rejected both times. You need 3 out of 10 criteria for Green Card. Over 2 petitions and an appeal - separate USCIS officials gave me 4 criteria. But none of them gave me 3, and their responses were very hostile. I don't really understand. Do you mean to say that the USCIS officer wanted you to meet 4 criteria while the rules specify 3? Did you take them to court over it? If…

I understand it like so: (not a native speaker myself)

individually, they both give 2 criteria. Together, they would give 4. (So, say, the 1st one gives criteria #1 and #2, and the second #3 and #4)

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

#350

Post by _iofi »

techie128 wrote: post #342
_iofi wrote: post #169

I just moved out of US and in process of moving to Canada. Just for background: Worked in leadership roles for startups and Fortune 15 companies, sold a company, advise/invest in bunch of startups. My life's goal is contribute to curing/diagnosing terminal disease using technology. Everything I did in the past 14 years has been towards meeting that goal. I figured, I would need knowledge, network, and financial stabi…

> I tried for EB-1 Green Card twice and got rejected both times. You need 3 out of 10 criteria for Green Card. Over 2 petitions and an appeal - separate USCIS officials gave me 4 criteria. But none of them gave me 3, and their responses were very hostile. I don't really understand. Do you mean to say that the USCIS officer wanted you to meet 4 criteria while the rules specify 3? Did you take them to court over it? If…

I had an O-1 visa. Still my EB-1 was rejected - twice!

First time then gave me 2 criteria (contribution to field of work and contribution to companies). On Appeal, AAO gave me another criteria (high compensation) and took away 1 already given (contribution to field of work).

Second time, my application was much stronger - but they gave me just one criteria (press).

I didn't take them to court over it. Didn't want to deal with that.

I will try a different firm next time.

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