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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

#401

Post by what_ever »

unishark wrote: post #363
what_ever wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an employment based GC not diversity based. The primary criteria should be how good the person is as an employee and not where they were born.

You mean if the govt could somehow assess quality? That would be nice if you have a good idea how to do that. But companies have two priorities: one is a high skill level and the other is lower pay. If we simply removed country caps from the current system then it would be dominated by certain countries with the highest pay difference. The smartest scientist in Germany would be waiting in line behind hundreds of thou…

A lot of countries have moved towards points based system. It deals with your level of education, level of experience, salaries etc. That could be a good start. And docking points based on where they were born should not be part of that.

Also, smartest scientist will still get the priority via EB1 instead of lowly engineers who will get the EB3 category. This is already accounted for in the current system. so we are really talking about two lowly engineers in Germany vs India. Do you agree they should have to wait for same amount of years for employment based GC? How about two scientists from China and tiny country of Monaco?

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

#402

Post by diebeforei485 »

whack wrote: post #197
bobfrost wrote: post #27

I'm at somewhat of a cross-roads related to this matter. Note that this mostly applies to immigrants from India or China. I'm from India. This applies irrespective of education level (I did my Bachelors in the US, just FYI) Currently I'm in the US on a student visa (currently during a period of that visa that permits me to work) that expires in a couple years. I cannot renew it. If I want to continue working in the U…

> Guess how much time it takes to get a greed card? Atleast 100 years. I'm not joking. Unless there's a policy change, there's no possibility. Not disputing how ridiculous your situation is, but you do have a couple other options. The most realistic one would be to save up all your money and apply for the eb5 investor visa. If you're making 6 figures, you should be able to save up the required million dollars in abou…

EB-5 isn't too realistic either, considering the wait time between applying and actually receiving a green card is ~10 years.

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

#403

Post by jbay808 »

rhexs wrote: post #261
jbay808 wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason, they generally seem to have a policy of paying significantly less for the same role in their Canadian office.

Once Canada starts developing those trillion dollar home brew companies that deliver a product most of the world uses at a high margin, I’m sure Canadian salaries will go up to match.

Was this comment intended as sarcasm? I'm finding it hard to read the intention.

Anyway, I'm not so sure that's relevant. If Amazon or Microsoft pay less for the same role and skill level in their Vancouver office than their Seattle office, why wouldn't a Canadian company do the same? I don't think the pay differential is due to patriotism by upper management, so I'm not sure it has to do with where the company was founded.

In some cases proximity to the head office may be seen as worth extra pay, but that isn't always the case either.

The reasoning seems to be "we pay less in Canada because we can", and Canadian companies like Shopify or (in the past) RIM play the same way.

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

#404

Post by cheese4242 »

closeparen wrote: post #381
angry_octet wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another way to look at it is that the salaries of other workers are pegged to the salaries of H1B workers. There is a way to improve this situation -- allow H1B workers to easily change employers. Alternatively, employing an H1B requires paying into a tuition scholarship fund. $50k/year sounds reasonable to me.

I dunno, from the 98th percentile I’m not too anxious to move to 99th. I’m much more worried about losing my Chinese friends and colleagues. And no amount of tuition assistance is going to make more than a handful of the kids I grew up with capable of this work.

> And no amount of tuition assistance is going to make more than a handful of the kids I grew up with capable of this work.

How do you know that?

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

#405

Post by cheese4242 »

angry_octet wrote: post #384
closeparen wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, from the 98th percentile I’m not too anxious to move to 99th. I’m much more worried about losing my Chinese friends and colleagues. And no amount of tuition assistance is going to make more than a handful of the kids I grew up with capable of this work.

I think it is quite likely that there are many people in the US who are smart enough but lack the $100k to go to university for 4 years. Not saying that immigration is bad, but there are many US citizens who could participate if they had education. The US skims some of the best students and programmers from around the world, but also people who are equivalent but cheaper, and also indentured.

>The US skims some of the best students and programmers from around the world, but also people who are equivalent but cheaper, and also indentured.

Exactly. The latter needs to be shut off.

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

#406

Post by refurb »

swat535 wrote: post #283
refurb wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Montreal is an Anglophone city. Last I checked 80% were English speakers (not necessarily primary language). Now Quebec City is entirely different. I could see language being more challenging there. Honestly, Montreal is a hidden gem. Low cost housing, ton of culture and history. The only drawbacks can be the Québécois anti-immigrant and anti-business climate, but it’s not stifling, just more noticeable than the rest…

I mean.. I'm a Montrealer as well, and whilst I love this city, let's not kid ourselves. Montreal is not by any means 80% English and you're essentially handicapped if you can't speak French. You just need to take a stroll in "Plateau" to witness this. The salaries are also really low and we are the highest taxed province in Canada. I think we should give folks an accurate portrayal of this city instead of an endless…

You know what? You’re right.

I think the stat was for the island of Montreal, not the wider city.

That said, I have visited a few times and not speaking French didn’t seem a huge barrier, but I was a tourist.

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

#407

Post by sprashanth »

whack wrote: post #197
bobfrost wrote: post #27

I'm at somewhat of a cross-roads related to this matter. Note that this mostly applies to immigrants from India or China. I'm from India. This applies irrespective of education level (I did my Bachelors in the US, just FYI) Currently I'm in the US on a student visa (currently during a period of that visa that permits me to work) that expires in a couple years. I cannot renew it. If I want to continue working in the U…

> Guess how much time it takes to get a greed card? Atleast 100 years. I'm not joking. Unless there's a policy change, there's no possibility. Not disputing how ridiculous your situation is, but you do have a couple other options. The most realistic one would be to save up all your money and apply for the eb5 investor visa. If you're making 6 figures, you should be able to save up the required million dollars in abou…

> The most realistic one would be to save up all your money and apply for the eb5 investor visa. If you're making 6 figures, you should be able to save up the required million dollars in about 10-20 years, depending on how much you make, and how frugal you're willing to live.

I'm an early career engineer, and this is something that a few of my friends have looked into. The number was 500k when I started working 3 years ago. It's now 800k. It looks like how much ever I work, the number will increase faster than I can save, cause there will be more people like me. Unless I become sufficiently senior and comparatively rich like a VP, I can't realistically beat the trend.

> The other possibility is you marrying someone who isn't born in India. If you did that, you can use your partner's country of birth instead of your own, when waiting for the priority date. But obviously this isn't something you can plan for, and I wouldn't recommend letting this guide your life decisions.

This is true. Your tradeoff point hits the nail on the head. I have heard some cases of people feeling like they were married to just for the GC, and some from the other side who stand some abuse. But your broad point stands.

> The last option is progressing your career to the point where you can mount a realistic eb1 application. I've heard anecdotally that it's very hard, but not as hard as people may think it is. If you work at it over a 10-20 year time frame, it may be very realistic.

Need to progress outside the US though. Unless I become a Carmack/Jeff Dean/famous inventor, the logic of the law seems to suggest that if I could rise to this position here, then an American could too. That's why the EB-1 has an allocation for applicants who became managers outside the US and transferred in.

I have upvoted you and I feel you make some great points. I wanted to iron out some details in case a third person was reading this.

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

#408

Post by deepGem »

wenc wrote: post #356
deepGem wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More than anything I didn't get a tech vibe in Toronto. I was at UofT and the surroundings all the time, yet it felt like the town is mostly devoid of tech. Not the same vibe you get in Seattle or Redmond or SV for that matter. May be it's my bias but Toronto doesn't feel all that multi cultural. Sure you see people of different nationalities but something feels lacking.

> More than anything I didn't get a tech vibe in Toronto. I was at UofT and the surroundings all the time, yet it felt like the town is mostly devoid of tech. Not the same vibe you get in Seattle or Redmond or SV for that matter. Toronto is more of a finance town, with tech tacked on. NYC is similar. > May be it's my bias but Toronto doesn't feel all that multi cultural. Sure you see people of different nationalities…

One of the most diverse and mutli-cultural cities that I have lived in, is London, followed by New York City. I have lived in Singapore and Toronto as well but they don't match London or NYC.

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

#409

Post by bobfrost »

whack wrote: post #197
bobfrost wrote: post #27

I'm at somewhat of a cross-roads related to this matter. Note that this mostly applies to immigrants from India or China. I'm from India. This applies irrespective of education level (I did my Bachelors in the US, just FYI) Currently I'm in the US on a student visa (currently during a period of that visa that permits me to work) that expires in a couple years. I cannot renew it. If I want to continue working in the U…

> Guess how much time it takes to get a greed card? Atleast 100 years. I'm not joking. Unless there's a policy change, there's no possibility. Not disputing how ridiculous your situation is, but you do have a couple other options. The most realistic one would be to save up all your money and apply for the eb5 investor visa. If you're making 6 figures, you should be able to save up the required million dollars in abou…

I see where you're coming from, but any of those options aren't realistic, especially when I compare them to Canada's system.

As I noted in my comment, I can stay here for a while hoping for some way of getting a green card. It's those 10-20 years that I don't want to endure, with which again I need extreme luck (I would consider me saving up $1MM within 10 years or becoming a EB-1 level 'multi-national manager' not a guarantee).

If I did go the Canada route, I can do these things there (making $1MM or becoming an C-suite executive) - however unlikely those goals are, while not risking having my life uprooted. Canada doesn't pay as high as US, but then again I don't have to worry about going back to India (where jobs don't pay as well as either US or Canada) and finding a job there without notice.

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

#410

Post by whack »

diebeforei485 wrote: post #402
whack wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Guess how much time it takes to get a greed card? Atleast 100 years. I'm not joking. Unless there's a policy change, there's no possibility. Not disputing how ridiculous your situation is, but you do have a couple other options. The most realistic one would be to save up all your money and apply for the eb5 investor visa. If you're making 6 figures, you should be able to save up the required million dollars in abou…

EB-5 isn't too realistic either, considering the wait time between applying and actually receiving a green card is ~10 years.

Can you clarify? The EB5 priority date for India is Sept-2018, so why would it take 10 years?

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/v...

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