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U.S. immigration policy has been a boon for the tech industry in Canada

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Re: U.S. immigration policy has been a boon for the tech industry in Canada

#171

Post by hylaride »

jariel wrote: post #23
mcpherrinm wrote: post #9

I'm moving from San Francisco to Toronto soon. Staying at the same job, my salary will go from $180k usd to $128k usd ($170k cad). (Equity comp remains the same) That's a pretty big cut, though at least for me it's worth it because of non-monetary reasons, like being closer to family, not dealing with immigration anymore, healthcare/education. The money stuff isn't so bad. A downtown Toronto condo is a lot cheaper th…

It's a problematic comparison because few people in Canada earns $170K CAD writing software unless they are contracting for the government. Even then. There are a few people lucky enough to 'make the deal' that you have. Also, there are very few 'great companies' in Canada to work for, that can leverage high end talent - Canada is 1/10th the size of the US and spends less than 1/2 on R&D per capita. This is because C…

> It's a problematic comparison because few people in Canada earns $170K CAD writing software unless they are contracting for the government. Even then.

In Toronto if you’re an experienced sr engineer you can get this in the tech scene. It’s a much smaller employment pool, it it’s there. And there is a lot of r&d happening within that scene. That’s nothing to say of remotely working for an SV company.

The tech scene has exploded here over the past 2-3 years.

Re: U.S. immigration policy has been a boon for the tech industry in Canada

#172

Post by rwmj »

Anyone else from western Europe had their ESTA cancelled and had to apply for B1/B2 (non-immigrant visa) just to visit the US? It happened to me at the end of 2018, and it took me a year to get a visa. It's apparently going to be issued this week. It was stuck in Administrative Processing the whole time. The situation is eye-opening.

(And no, I don't have a criminal record, or indeed any hint of what I might have "done wrong")

Re: U.S. immigration policy has been a boon for the tech industry in Canada

#173

Post by bawolff »

briandear wrote: post #65
petre wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also better healthcare. My parents have friends that moved from the US to Canada due to this and the very competitive job market in the US with virtually no employee rights. They weren't working in tech but banking/services.

Working for a Silicon Valley tech company, you typically have extremely good health insurance and a vastly higher salary than anything in Canada. Salaries north of the border are a pittance compared to what you could earn in even a mid-tiered US city. I remember about 3 years ago being offered a “senior” “lead” rails developer position in Toronto paying $C30 per hour. And a non-lead was paying $C25 per hour. Ridiculo…

I live in canada. While its true there is less money here than usa, those numbers sound pretty low. Maybe that employer was just trying to screw you over?

Re: U.S. immigration policy has been a boon for the tech industry in Canada

#174

Post by LadyCailin »

amatecha wrote: post #56
Phanyxx wrote: post #24

Vancouverite here. When major tech companies started setting up satellite offices here, I assumed it'd be a temporary situation, and that we'd be at the mercy of any change in the U.S. immigration process. The longer there's an immigration bottleneck though, the more entrenched these companies become here. There are more senior roles opening up here all the time, and salaries are increasing in this competitive market…

Yup, most ppl I know who've moved here for a tech job have no desire to move to the US for a similar role, even if it pays more.

I went the opposite way. Native US, but moved to Europe, cause the living conditions are better. Pay is worse, and cost of living is higher, but my standard of living has gone way up. Funniest thing is, I still work for an American company anyways.

Re: U.S. immigration policy has been a boon for the tech industry in Canada

#175

Post by oblio »

mcbain wrote: post #155
blackrock wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is property value in Sydney so high? You have only 30 million people, living on an island continent the size of the United States. And is the country with probably the longest warm water coastline on the planet.

The inland of Australia is nothing like inland North America. There is very little water, much is literally desert. Something like 85% of the population lives within 50km of the coastline.

True, but you made me curious about it and I checked the Australian climate zones. I found this: https://www.abcb.gov.au/Resources/Tools-Calculators/Climate-...

Out of the 8 zones, zones 3 and 4 don't seem to inhabitable, they're probably the "outback" aka desert. 1 seems to be the subtropical jungle bits. They're huge, however doing a silly size comparison with Romania, which has around 20 million people ( https://thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!NzkwMTU3Mg.NDI0MDg2OQ*M... ), it seems that even considering just the temperate zones, Australian population density is low.

I guess it's more an issue of bad urban planning because of economic pressures. Everyone bunches up in the same centers of population, which cover a very small area, in relative terms.

Re: U.S. immigration policy has been a boon for the tech industry in Canada

#176

Post by frequentnapper »

rewq4321 wrote: post #126
frequentnapper wrote: post #12

Canada gets immigrants from developing countries; immigrants take advantage of the excellent education and healthcare system, after a few years get a citizenship, a TN visa, then move to US for a better salary and a lower rent. USA gets the cream of the crop from Canada and wins. Canada loses.

If they're Canadian citizens, then aren't they still getting taxed? If by "Canada loses", you mean that they lose entrepreneurs, then it seems like (from what the startup scene people were saying in that article) the opposite is actually occurring. Also, if your hypothesis were true, you probably wouldn't see an influx of big companies (e.g. Google, Microsoft, Intel, Uber, etc.) opening shop in Canada - the companies…

I'm a Canadian naturalized citizen. I am currently in Japan. In the last few years since obtaining PR became a piece of cake, I have seen Indians and Chinese coming here for a masters in a technical field (which are now a joke to get into and graduate from as long as you can pay tuition), obtain a PR in less than year after graduation, 3 years after that a citizenship, apply for TN visa and get a job in US easily.

Why? Because it's very easy to do so and rent/property prices in Vancouver/Toronto have skyrocketed but tech salaries are nothing compared to what you can make in US in USD. Also taxes, cost of living, etc. in select states in US (texas for example) are much lower. Even in seattle, etc. you pay higher rent, but your salary more than makes up for it.

Canadian policy basically makes sure that we lose the brightest to US .

Re: U.S. immigration policy has been a boon for the tech industry in Canada

#178

Post by amf12 »

ycombonator wrote: post #115

They will all eventually will migrate to US once the policies are relaxed. This is a typical path for immigrants who can’t get into US directly: Rest of the world -> Canada -> acquire TN Visa -> migrate to US

> They will all eventually will migrate to US once the policies are relaxed.

It takes at least 5 years to get Canadian citizenship. 5 years is a long time to build a life somewhere that people wouldn't want to migrate to the US. You are assuming it's just more money that motivates everyone.

Re: U.S. immigration policy has been a boon for the tech industry in Canada

#179

Post by AzzieElbab »

jorblumesea wrote: post #43
yawaramin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toronto may be expensive but it's not SF-level expensive. Salaries may not compare but you don't have to worry about basic things like healthcare and high-powered weaponry in the streets. Those are just the top two–there are many other reasons to move to Canada than just money.

Housing prices in YVR or Toronto are similarly out of reach, more so in the case of YVR

Because they are young and do not use it?

Re: U.S. immigration policy has been a boon for the tech industry in Canada

#180

Post by amf12 »

freebee34 wrote: post #31

Taxes in canada are very high. The ontario income tax rate of 53.53% applies at 220K CAD. the equivalent rate for Cali in USD is 34.75%. you then have PST/GST (14%), way fewer deductions and european gas taxes. The one thing that is a good deal in canada is cheap high quality education. The "free" healthcare that you get is not very good and even the for pay services are of surprisingly low quality.

The average tax rate for a single person making 250K in Sunnyvale is 32.93% [1]

The average tax rate for a single person making 250K in Ontario is 39.80% [2]

But with the extra taxes you also get some better benefits like healthcare, cheaper education. Of course if your main goal is to save as much money as you can, then it probably better in the US because you earn more salary and USD converts better into other currencies.

[1] https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes#I4RNWQ9WYm [2] https://simpletax.ca/calculator

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