Moving from USA(H1B) to Canada(PR)

[ht7]

I have abandoned my GC processing in US and moved to Canada in 2013

Compared to US ,there are very few IT jobs in Canada.Canada has 3 to 4 Major cities which have IT Jobs ,whereas US has over 30 to 40 cities for IT Jobs
Salary: 30 to 45% less pay and over 60% less ,if you take into account the USD/CAD conversion and taxes
Cost of living may be more in Canada (Toronto,Vancouver or wherever IT jobs exists.But if you take into account free health care over Health Insurance expenses for a family,then cost of living will be almost same
A IT professional with around 10+ yrs exp may get around $80k to $120k (1 CAD= 0.76 USD) .i.e around $60k USD to $90k USD before taxes.Average tax bracket above $80k is 26% to 29% federal and 12% Provincial
Entry level IT Jobs (3 to 6 yrs exp) are very hard to get into and pay very less ($35 k to $50k)
IT Jobs in Canada are very few and competition is high.90% of them are not advertised and get filled through internal references

Coming to lifestyle:It is more or less similar to US,but you will not get good deals or varied shopping choices .The prices are usually 15 to 30% higher than US

The major advantage is you don't have to worry about H1-B/Visa headaches or maintaining status

Sounds pretty dismal, but one can always go back to US after citizenship or find remote work in the US. Not a bad deal to live like this for a few years after building up savings in the US.

 

[shallowpurple]

yeah -- salaries in canada aren't that great compared to US but I am hoping that there is a better work life balance.

Do we have folks who stay in Canada (border town) and commute regularly to work on H1B in US? if so, can you please provide the location and challenges?

 

[kirch]

Here's a spin fellas.

I guess you all know the priority date of canucks on eb3 which is 3 months right. EB2 or either eb4 is none. Like apply now and your gc is ready.

Think about it.

Priority dates are based on country of birth and not the passport you hold

 

[shallowpurple]

That is right -- priority dates are on country of birth -- my years of waiting for US GC is an evidence

 

[ht7]

Was your I-140 submitted while your holding an Indian nationality(im assuming) or your a canuck already?

It doesn't matter. None of that matters. I personally know cases of UK citizens who were born in India and were just a few years old when they
moved to the UK. They are now treated like any other Indian in the GC line (waiting for decades).

 

[ht7]

Did they write Indian in the nationality box even though they're UK citizens already?
If you make a mistake in your application then you need to adjust it.

At this point, it looks like you are trolling. Let me make this abundandlty clear. The UK citizen declared that he is a UK citizen, he sent his UK passport copy with the application. His lawyer, trying to be clever, put in his 'chargeability' as UK, even though he was born in India. Of course, he could not fake his Birth Certificate which was also required in the application. The USCIS returned the files to him to correct his chargeability to 'India'.

There are thousands of Indian born citizens from Canada or Australia who are still waiting for GC for decades under the Indian born category, they are not all fools and you have not discovered anything new. Stop trolling.

 

[shallowpurple]

Hi ht7, just sent you a PM

It seems that there are many folks stuck with US GC (born in INdia) and trying to move to Canada -- found another case -- http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/live-in-windsor-on-ca-and-work-in-detroit-mi-usa-on-canadian-pr-and-h1b-t407452.0.html

 

[ht7]

http://www.cicnews.com/2016/04/longawaited-express-entry-report-important-details-occupations-candidates-selected-immigration-canada-047587.html

This sounds a little encouraging. 80% of ITAs were given to those already in Canada and presumably already have jobs. So really, we are only competing with 20% of the PRs. And most of them are cooks. If you take 20% of the 2171,73,74 NOCs, there are only about 626 PRs for folks in IT who are outside Canada.

It will be interesting to know what was the breakdown before Express Entry. Pretty sure there was a higher percentage of outland PRs.

 

[H1B_140approved_CanadaPR]

Whats your location in Canada (I am guessing Windsor)? And whats your specific field (within IT, if you are in IT)?

No. I'm in West Coast. Living in Abbotsford, BC and Working in Everett, Washington... Around 90 minutes of drive. I work a Lead System Engineer ( Windows Servers & Networking).

 

[deadbird]

No. I'm in West Coast. Living in Abbotsford, BC and Working in Everett, Washington... Around 90 minutes of drive. I work a Lead System Engineer ( Windows Servers & Networking).

Ah, finally found a forum after my heart. I just received an ITA and am now waiting on the dratted FBI PCC.

Since most of us are in IT on this thread. What are your thoughts about being your own boss in Canada? How feasible is it to incorporate a company in Canada and tap into the enormous IT demand in the US i.e. serve silicon valley while living in Canada ?

Also, what about getting a remote gig with some US company? There seem to be an abundance of jobs right now that let people work remotely.

 

[deerestlovelybear]

There is absolutely no good jobs in Canada, especially for immigrants. You can't serve the US market with only a PR, it takes 4 years to be eligible for citizenship and another 2-3 years for processing of citizenships applications. So the wait is the same as waiting for green card

 

[deadbird]

There is absolutely no good jobs in Canada, especially for immigrants. You can't serve the US market with only a PR, it takes 4 years to be eligible for citizenship and another 2-3 years for processing of citizenships applications. So the wait is the same as waiting for green card

Why does it take 2 - 3 years for processing citizenship applications? Isn't it one year?

 

[AlexRox]

yeah -- salaries in canada aren't that great compared to US but I am hoping that there is a better work life balance.

Do we have folks who stay in Canada (border town) and commute regularly to work on H1B in US? if so, can you please provide the location and challenges?

Could you please let me know the numbers on average (in your opinion) for comparison reason. So far my experience was very good in terms of $$. How much(a range) would you think is average in the US for IT jobs ? Thanks

 

[sumairak]

There is absolutely no good jobs in Canada, especially for immigrants. You can't serve the US market with only a PR, it takes 4 years to be eligible for citizenship and another 2-3 years for processing of citizenships applications. So the wait is the same as waiting for green card

on what basis are you saying there is no job? can you please explain.
are you an immigrant and live in Canada?

 

[francaispourquebec]

Trust the CANADAVISA forum to have people who have faced a similar situation as me. It will easily be another 4 to 5 years for my US Green card to arrive. I'm planning to satisfy my Canada PR requirements in the interim. I went on a recce trip to Montreal and Toronto and I liked what I saw. I'm still learning French though.

Those of you who continued with their US GC processing while staying in Canada for your Canada PR requirements, could you please tell me how you managed to do both? This looks like a delicate balancing act to me and I have no idea how to navigate it.

I look forward to a response from you....