Canadian citizen and work in USA

[thomas35]

Hello. I am Canadian citizen since 2012. What to do if I want legally work in USA? How to apply for work permit? Anyone with same experience? Thanks

 

[PMM]

Hi

Hello. I am Canadian citizen since 2012. What to do if I want legally work in USA? How to apply for work permit? Anyone with same experience? Thanks

You need a job offer and then either a TN visa or H1B to work. Start your reading here: http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/employment/temporary.html

 

[research-scientist]

All you need is a job offer. If you have a job offer and education higher than BS degree, you can work in the US under NAFTA treaty. American citizens can work legally in Canada under NAFTA as well. It's extremely easy, the hard part is getting a job offer. That's why I gave up my US green card and immigrated to Canada, couldn't find a job in US.

 

[CanuckForEver]

All you need is a job offer. If you have a job offer and education higher than BS degree, you can work in the US under NAFTA treaty. American citizens can work legally in Canada under NAFTA as well. It's extremely easy, the hard part is getting a job offer. That's why I gave up my US green card and immigrated to Canada, couldn't find a job in US.

Not to be offensive, you're saying you found it difficult to get a job in USA but found one in Canada? interesting . . . wanna eloborate?

 

[keesio]

All you need is a job offer. If you have a job offer and education higher than BS degree, you can work in the US under NAFTA treaty. American citizens can work legally in Canada under NAFTA as well. It's extremely easy, the hard part is getting a job offer. That's why I gave up my US green card and immigrated to Canada, couldn't find a job in US.

Well, you need to find a company willing to spend the extra time and money (lawyer fees, application fees, etc) to sponsor you. So to you it would be just a job offer but the company would have to weigh in all that overhead to decide to offer you a job. I was first sponsored to Canada many years ago by my employer so I'm familiar with the process.

 

[carluccio]

I believe US job opportuniates is far larger than Canada.

 

[CanV]

All you need is a job offer. If you have a job offer and education higher than BS degree, you can work in the US under NAFTA treaty. American citizens can work legally in Canada under NAFTA as well. It's extremely easy, the hard part is getting a job offer. That's why I gave up my US green card and immigrated to Canada, couldn't find a job in US.

I never heard anyone say that. What field are you in?

 

[on-hold]

I never heard anyone say that. What field are you in?

It's not that unusual -- there are plenty of fields where Canada has more jobs than the United States: my field, public health, is one (and the jobs are much better than in the States too), and Fort McMurray is a worldwide centre of employment for trades, mechanical work, and other skilled labour, though that is probably matched by North Dakota. When I immigrated to Canada in 2010, and when I chose to come to Canada over the United States in 2009, the employment situation up north was much better.

The idea that there are more jobs, in an unqualified sense, in the U.S. probably comes from a variety of factors. One, a lot of the internationally mobile educated professionals who say this work in IT, where it is definitely true. Second, I believe (without any data) that employers in America are much more willing to hire people from a distance -- I had a tough time finding work in Canada, partly because I landed in Victoria and assumed that I could apply for jobs pretty much anywhere. In my experience, Canadian job markets tend to be local, though I might be misreading the difficulty I had getting hired. Third, interprovincial barriers in Canada are stronger than interstate barriers (and sometimes even international barriers) are in the U.S. I suspect that many more professions are regulated in Canada than in the States -- for example, in Alberta you can become a registered biologist (and some jobs require this), which I'm pretty sure does not exist in any U.S. state, or if it does, does not factor into applying for work.

The idea of the US as teeming with jobs simply isn't borne out. My cousins lived in Portland for two years after graduating from Reed, and they struggled to find ANYTHING permanent, much less a professional job. A couple years ago there were anecdotes about laid-off professionals applying for dog kennel jobs in the Seattle area, with one job opening receiving several hundred applications. Currently, a lot of jobs in the U.S. are moving to a semi-full-time-always-on-call status, which is extremely onerous to life (and I'm not talking professional jobs where the pay is expected to make up for this). Canada has a much higher standard of protecting workers from exploitation -- as an example, I'm working right now as a part-time college lecturer, but receive the same benefits as a full-time professor. Sure, they eat up about half of my take-home pay, but they are worth far more than what I pay for them. All of the things I've mentioned here might not bother an IT professional from Germany who doesn't care where they live in the States -- but I'm from the PNW, I don't want to go work in Texas or Atlanta or San Jose, and I am much happier in Alberta than those places.

 

[keesio]

I suspect that many more professions are regulated in Canada than in the States

Very true. Canada makes it very difficult to work as a licensed health professional here. My wife is from the US, licensed in NY state, and she has to jump through hoops and pay through the nose to get licensed in Ontario (and get paid less on top of it). It is far easier for a Canadian (or anyone else) to work in the US. I know a doctor from Europe who got fed up trying to get licensed to work in Canada so she moved to the US and is working in a hospital in Chicago.

What's the old joke in Toronto? That the most educated people in Toronto are the taxi drivers? They do it as survival jobs while going through the pain staking process of trying to work in their profession in Canada. We have a shortage of doctors so we allow foreign ones to immigrate here... only to put up all these barriers so they end up taking menial jobs to survive... then people complain they are stealing these menial jobs from Canadians.

 

[on-hold]

Very true. Canada makes it very difficult to work as a licensed health professional here. My wife is from the US, licensed in NY state, and she has to jump through hoops and pay through the nose to get licensed in Ontario (and get paid less on top of it). It is far easier for a Canadian (or anyone else) to work in the US. I know a doctor from Europe who got fed up trying to get licensed to work in Canada so she moved to the US and is working in a hospital in Chicago.

What's the old joke in Toronto? That the most educated people in Toronto are the taxi drivers? They do it as survival jobs while going through the pain staking process of trying to work in their profession in Canada. We have a shortage of doctors so we allow foreign ones to immigrate here... only to put up all these barriers so they end up taking menial jobs to survive... then people complain they are stealing these menial jobs from Canadians.

Off topic a bit -- but in a real stunner, Canada suddenly decided to adopt the NCLEX test from the U.S. -- after Jan 1st, 2015, the CRNE will never be given again. Each province has to decide if they are going to recognize the validity of people who passed the NCLEX before that date, but BC has already announced that anyone who passed it after 1982 is eligible (considering other requirements) for licensing in BC. When I read this news, you could have picked my jaw up off the floor, I can't even imagine how it happened.

 

[keesio]

It's a good start. Too bad my wife is a Physiotherapist so it doesn't apply to her. So far it has been a year and a few thousand dollars to get her license (not done yet). The best part was the $800 she had to pay to get her PT degree recognized by Ontario. That was funny because she has a Masters from Columbia Univ in NYC and apparently Ontario PT schools models its program after Columbia's and the Canadian PT exam is based off the US one. Yet she had to pay $800 for them to make sure she went to a school that is fits the standards here.

 

[on-hold]

Sorry, assumed nurse . . .

Of course, you have to look at it from Ontario's perspective. They can't simply take a flier on an unknown university like Columbia, it's not like it's Western or Brock or some known quality, there are standards to be maintained. This, plus the massive cultural differences between Ontario and New York State combined with the nearly insuperable communication issues between their respective peoples, require extensive caution in granting some sort of equivalency.

However, I bet they have a 2-year program where your wife can retrain as a health care aide and work for 12 dollars an hour spooning mush.

 

[keesio]

Of course, you have to look at it from Ontario's perspective. They can't simply take a flier on an unknown university like Columbia, it's not like it's Western or Brock or some known quality, there are standards to be maintained.

I would agree except for that Ontario PT alliance models its curriculum after Columbia's and the exam is based off NYS exam (the study book that Canadians use is actually the book from the US). So does it not make sense that they would see someone educated from the university whose curriculum you modeled your program off (so it is not only "known" but also regarded highly enough to decide to mimic) and passed the exam that you modeled your exam off and decide that someone's degree is acceptable?

 

[IRCANADA]

Hello. I am Canadian citizen since 2012. What to do if I want legally work in USA? How to apply for work permit? Anyone with same experience? Thanks

You need a job offer and then either a TN visa or H1B to work.

 

[research-scientist]

Yes and no, US job market is larger than Canada, but there are more applicants competing for the jobs. Half of my coworkers came from US. I had US green card and Canadian PR and applied to almost 300 places from US-mexico border to north pole. Only got one offer from a small company in Winterplague. So moved up here and gave up my US green card (the only part that sucks about it is I can't visit family in US, and can't go to US with my wife (she's American) and my kid (US born citizen) until I get Canadian citizenship). US citizenship process takes less than 5 months from the date one sends out the application. It took me only 3 months to get US green card, but in Canada everything is very slow, low quality and hard. I have a PhD from a top school in US signed off by a nobel prize winner. But in my field, chemistry, jobs are scarce. In Canada the pay is 50% less than the same job in US. Living cost in Canada is more than double, tax is double of US. There's no technology and industry in Canada. Everything is service based, therefore high tech jobs, R&D jobs are extremely scarce in Canada.

I believe US job opportuniates is far larger than Canada.