As of final month, the Canadian authorities says greater than 6,000 U.S. H-1B visa holders had arrived in Canada up to now this 12 months. That is after large layoffs left high-skilled overseas H-1B holders in limbo.
“The extremely educated overseas nationwide is admittedly on the mercy of the U.S. employers,” stated Annie Beaudoin, a former Canadian immigration officer.
The H-1B program targets extremely educated and specialised overseas employees in fields corresponding to tech and well being care. Large tech firms like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple all sponsor hundreds of candidates annually.
The visa has develop into more and more aggressive since its creation in 1990. For 2024, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers acquired 758,994 eligible purposes, however solely 188,400 have been chosen for the ultimate drawing to get an H-1B visa.
“It is rather irritating,” stated Harnoor Singh, a software program engineer at Microsoft and H-1B visa holder from India. “It took me 3 times to get accepted within the lottery.”
Layoffs hit the tech business early this 12 months, with Microsoft letting go of 10,000 workers in January and Amazon reducing 18,000 jobs across the similar time. The labor market shake-up meant that H-1B visa holders who have been laid off had as much as 60 days to discover a new sponsor, switch visa standing or face deportation.
Frederick Anokye is from Ghana and was a real-time defect evaluation engineer at Micron. He is one of many unfortunate H-1B holders hit by the layoffs.
“I am nonetheless searching for jobs within the U.S.,” stated Anokye. “It is not straightforward. Even sure firms are nonetheless shedding.”
On July 16, Canada capitalized on the state of affairs.
It launched a pilot program for as much as 10,000 U.S. H-1B visa holders to use for a three-year open work allow in Canada. The purposes reached capability the subsequent day and, as of October, the Canadian authorities says greater than 6,000 work permits have been issued as U.S. overseas H-1B holders arrive at its border.
“That is unprecedented,” stated licensed immigration advisor Kubeir Kamal of the School of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. “By no means heard of any related program prior to now.”
Shivastuti Koul, an H-1B holder from India who was laid off from Microsoft, jumped on the chance.
“My major motive was to have a way of safety,” stated Koul. “I wished to guarantee that if nothing pans out, I can get a Canadian work allow and apply for positions in Canada earlier than my grace interval expires. I can simply transfer.”
This system is part of Canada’s Tech Expertise Technique, a bigger multiyear plan to recruit the world’s high tech expertise. A CBRE research discovered that Canada’s tech market has grown 15.7% since 2020, outpacing the U.S., which grew 11.4%. The research additionally exhibits that Canada now has 1.1 million tech employees, and Toronto and Vancouver ranked among the many high 10 tech cities within the U.S. and Canada.
“Presently it’s my plan to attempt to transfer to Canada if I am not capable of finding something right here inside the U.S. as quickly as doable,” stated Anokye. “Canada can also be an amazing nation, particularly for immigrants.”
Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller wasn’t obtainable for an interview, however a spokesperson stated in an announcement that, “The immense curiosity in Canada’s new H1-B software stream is a robust indication of simply how aggressive Canada is on the worldwide stage. In the case of attracting worldwide expertise, we stay a high vacation spot.”
To study extra about how Canada is concentrating on H-1B visa holders, watch the video.
