Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles • Hacker News Board

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#91

Post by seanmcdirmid » Mon, Aug 11, 2014, 1:56 AM UTC

enraged_camel wrote: post #77

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, so uninformed... Having lived in Mississippi and Seattle for 4+ years each (Seattle it was more like 8), windchill is much worse in Mississippi than it is in Seattle. In Seattle, you can pretty much leave your window open year round and have a nice sleep. 70 is considered hot in the summer; 40 is considered cold in the winter. Now Mississippi: hot humid summers, cold humid winters. Life pretty much sucks outside…

>>Wow, so uninformed... I lived in Seattle for six years. So I'm not quite "uninformed" as you seem to believe. >>Now Mississippi: hot humid summers, cold humid winters. Life pretty much sucks outside of Fall/Spring. At least you have Fall/Spring in Mississippi. In Seattle, it's overcast nine months of the year, so you don't really have seasons.

I'm really not sure if you trying to scare people off or are really serious. Po's law is confusing me now.

Spring and fall are really nice in Seattle, Summer is to. It is just the start of November until around March where the rain rolls in...why don't you just look at the statistics, the numbers don't lie:

http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/U...

and more about humidity:

http://www.komonews.com/weather/faq/4308492.html

Anyways, the more people who don't want to live in Seattle, the better, so I'd rather not convince anyone.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#92

Post by gorkemyurt » Mon, Aug 11, 2014, 1:56 AM UTC

pekk wrote: post #72

inoop wrote: post #66

Earlier this year I interviewed for a research/engineering position at Apple. I was offered the job, took it, and went into the H1B lottery. It took the USCIS four months to let me know that my application was not selected, even though it was filed under 'premium processing', and the draw had been done using a computer in the first week after submissions closed. Since the job required me to be in Cupertino, the deal…

American citizens are not entitled to work in the EU. If an American wants to plan their long-term life around working in the EU, that is far from a sure thing. Even with a masters and PhD. So why should the US be singled out for this?

at least there is no lottery?

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#93

Post by mahyarm » Mon, Aug 11, 2014, 1:56 AM UTC

parennoob wrote: post #31

mahyarm wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about pay? Job offers were literally almost half compared to Seattle 2hrs away in Vancouver, and life is cheaper in Seattle.

There is a cost-benefit tradeoff to every decision. Analyse the tradeoff, and make your decision. Less glibly, it might be worthwhile to target companies who already exist in SV/Seattle. I find it hard to believe that Facebook (the example given in the article) forced its engineers to accept a 50% pay cut to go to the Vancouver office.

It wasn't the same company saying that I'd have to take half, but offers from separate companies that were different.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#94

Post by cperciva » Mon, Aug 11, 2014, 1:56 AM UTC

daviding wrote: post #12

jp555 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine him then moving to California and rarely going outside. Vancouver weather is pretty close to London England, except sandwiched between an ocean and majestic mountain range.

Yep, I've lived 10 years London and now 10 years Vancouver and it's comparable. It's probably even nicer in Vancouver, as we have a ground pool and air conditioning here, while in London those were more of a rarity. Vancouver does get a very grey and miserable November, but the Spring/Summers are usually very good. It's a cliche, but I've often done the 'ski in the morning up the mountain, swim in the sea in the afte…

I think the cliche is "ski in the morning, go surfing in the afternoon, and play golf in the evening". ;-)

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#95

Post by jleyank » Mon, Aug 11, 2014, 1:58 AM UTC

myth_drannon wrote: post #64

Just a personal example, a friend of mine was looking for a web dev position in Montreal for months until he found some low paying crappy job, he then decided to move to Vancouver and found a job within 3 weeks! Vancouver job market is burning hot and startups are having difficulties hiring, I read some even consider setting up offices in Montreal.

It is important to point out that Montreal is in Quebec, which controls immigration into the province (while Canada actually issues the paperwork). Thus the process getting into, say, Vancouver or Toronto is somewhat different than getting Montreal - French is far more important, as is being young, or having children. Some countries, such as the US and some South American ones, have reciprocity arrangement where you can enter with a CV and a job offer. Others, such as European ones, can take 4+ months and require a bit of "paperwork gymnastics" to pull it off. And there are quotas and categories which have appeared and disappeared over the recent past.

As far as I can tell, it's way easier than dealing with the US although one must be "careful and correct" when doing the paperwork.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#96

Post by disbelief » Mon, Aug 11, 2014, 2:01 AM UTC

pekk wrote: post #72

inoop wrote: post #66

Earlier this year I interviewed for a research/engineering position at Apple. I was offered the job, took it, and went into the H1B lottery. It took the USCIS four months to let me know that my application was not selected, even though it was filed under 'premium processing', and the draw had been done using a computer in the first week after submissions closed. Since the job required me to be in Cupertino, the deal…

American citizens are not entitled to work in the EU. If an American wants to plan their long-term life around working in the EU, that is far from a sure thing. Even with a masters and PhD. So why should the US be singled out for this?

Countries in the EU (and elsewhere) have more sane immigration systems. As a Canadian having immigrated to both Germany and the US, I can say that the US system is at least two orders of magnitude more difficult, costly, needlessly complicated, and in the end a lot of it comes down to luck (most of it bad). Germany has no lottery system, and renewal is very straightforward. I applied for my visa while in Germany as a tourist, I was issued a "temporary visa" while the final decision was made, and after I was accepted, the renewal processes every couple of years was essentially a formality. There is also a straight-forward path to permanent residency after X years working in the country. Contrast that with how things work in the US (which I don't have time to get into in an HN comment), and you'll see why it deserves to be singled out for this.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#97

Post by cperciva » Mon, Aug 11, 2014, 2:03 AM UTC

paul wrote: post #15

I think if we ever start a second YC location, this will be the reason -- to help founders who are unable to get past the US immigration system. It's unfortunate that our government is becoming increasingly dysfunctional at every level -- federal, state, and local governments are all failing to do their jobs. I'm glad that Canada is introducing some competitive pressure.

I think if we ever start a second YC location, this will be the reason

Please do. Tarsnap will apply to be part of YC Vancouver if it happens. (I'm assuming that if you create a YC somewhere outside of the US it would be in Vancouver, because really, nowhere else in the world is anywhere near as awesome.)

FWIW, I think there's two "markets" of which you've only mentioned one -- in addition to founders who can't get US visas, I know plenty of talented Canadians and Europeans who don't want to live in the US due to the current political climate.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#98

Post by disbelief » Mon, Aug 11, 2014, 2:07 AM UTC

pyre wrote: post #71

paul wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that I also mentioned state and local government, it should be clear that I'm referring to more than just immigration issues. I get your point though. I'm an evil capitalist who doesn't want to fund Americans because they are unwilling to give up 7% equity, or something like that. Maybe you think that Sergey Brin and Paul Graham stole their jobs from some hard working, native born Americans. That's the problem…

Well, in some cases it's that the people coming from overseas are willing to get paid less for the same job. The 'evil capitalist' sees this as a way to get cheaper labor. I think that this can be alleviated without being anti-immigrant though. For example, make it easier for H1Bs to move between jobs and/or start their own businesses so that they don't have to feel so tied to the employer that they don't want to ris…

> in some cases it's that the people coming from overseas are willing to get paid less for the same job.

Agreed that this is the case in a lot of industries, but the problem in Silicon Valley and the tech industry generally isn't the cost of workers, it's finding enough highly-skilled workers to allow companies to grow and achieve their visions.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#99

Post by afafsd » Mon, Aug 11, 2014, 2:09 AM UTC

exstudent wrote: post #87

afafsd wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We should be giving more visas - not less or the same amount reclassified. True, but you should also be doing more to exclude the people who don't have visas, which is the main reason the US immigration system is currently broken. I lived in the US for a few years, did everything legally, queued up at embassies, paid endless fees, and saw that everywhere I went I was surrounded by people who had entered the country…

What harm were those people actually causing you?

It was more the moral outrage that happens when you do the right thing and see other people getting away with doing the wrong thing.

It's like if you went to a supermarket and paid for your groceries and saw that you were the only person paying. Everyone else was just walking in, shoplifting, and walking straight out, and the managers weren't doing anything to stop it. That's not a supermarket I'd choose to keep going to.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#100

Post by disbelief » Mon, Aug 11, 2014, 2:10 AM UTC

turar wrote: post #19

This is a repeat of the same story that happened the last time H-1B limit didn't meet the demand for visas. US tech companies, most notably Microsoft, opened "offices" in Vancouver. What happens next is that those employees will work for 1 year in Canada, and then will become eligible for L-1 intra-company transfer back to the US, side-stepping the H-1B quagmire.

Though as long as demand for H1 visas remains high, this cycle will continue with new recruits replacing those qualifying for L1. Inevitably some of these people may wish to remain in Canada, or form their own startups there. Seems to be a big plus for Canada regardless.