3 ms·

Poignant for me, I haven't been able to decide on where to move. US is still the big whale as far as tech opportunities go, but for Indians going there now, per

by sage76 9y ago

Poignant for me, I haven't been able to decide on where to move. US is still the big whale as far as tech opportunities go, but for Indians going there now, permanent residency is not possible within their lifetimes, with an 80+ year waiting time on the green card processing. Canada is far easier to permanently settle in, but the opportunities are far fewer, and salaries are lower too. I don't know what the answer is here.

cylinder 9y ago
You can get your Canadian citizenship after a few years, which allows you to use the TN status under NAFTA to work with relative ease in the US. As a bonus you have a backup in Canada should the US go south. It's a no brainer.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
eigenvector 9y ago
The path I've seen many immigrants take (particularly young people who don't mind re-settling twice) is move to Canada, live here for 3 years, get citizenship then move to the US on a TN visa. I would say 50% of the international students I knew in engineering school did this. As you probably know Canada is by far the easiest G7 country to be naturalized as a citizen. Others come to Canada with the intention of doing this and end up staying cause hey, life is pretty good in Canada and after 3 years you may have family ties here. The mistake I've seen immigrants make is move to Canada, then move to the US on an H1B, L1 or other visa before attaining Canadian citizenship, lose their Canadian PR due to leaving the country permanently, then lose their US job & visa and end up having to return to their original country.
- sage76 9y ago
  > The mistake I've seen immigrants make is move to Canada, then move to the US on an H1B, L1 or other visa before attaining Canadian citizenship, lose their Canadian PR due to leaving the country permanently, then lose their US job & visa and end up having to return to their original country. Ouch, that sounds terrible. Yes, getting citizenship in Canada first seems like a good idea. Btw, it's not 3, it's 4 years. It's a sad commentary on the broken immigration system of the US, when it would be faster for me to get Canadian citizenship, and then switch to US citizenship than go directly for US citizenship. Though of course, I wonder if the US authorities would be able to find out I am switching citizenships like that, and cause issues. Do you know anyone who did this?

by sage76 9y ago

cylinder 9y ago

You can get your Canadian citizenship after a few years, which allows you to use the TN status under NAFTA to work with relative ease in the US. As a bonus you have a backup in Canada should the US go south. It's a no brainer.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

eigenvector 9y ago

The path I've seen many immigrants take (particularly young people who don't mind re-settling twice) is move to Canada, live here for 3 years, get citizenship then move to the US on a TN visa. I would say 50% of the international students I knew in engineering school did this. As you probably know Canada is by far the easiest G7 country to be naturalized as a citizen. Others come to Canada with the intention of doing this and end up staying cause hey, life is pretty good in Canada and after 3 years you may have family ties here. The mistake I've seen immigrants make is move to Canada, then move to the US on an H1B, L1 or other visa before attaining Canadian citizenship, lose their Canadian PR due to leaving the country permanently, then lose their US job & visa and end up having to return to their original country.

sage76 9y ago
> The mistake I've seen immigrants make is move to Canada, then move to the US on an H1B, L1 or other visa before attaining Canadian citizenship, lose their Canadian PR due to leaving the country permanently, then lose their US job & visa and end up having to return to their original country. Ouch, that sounds terrible. Yes, getting citizenship in Canada first seems like a good idea. Btw, it's not 3, it's 4 years. It's a sad commentary on the broken immigration system of the US, when it would be faster for me to get Canadian citizenship, and then switch to US citizenship than go directly for US citizenship. Though of course, I wonder if the US authorities would be able to find out I am switching citizenships like that, and cause issues. Do you know anyone who did this?