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> I haven't looked at countries besides Canada; but I would strongly recommend Canada over the U.S. for anyone seeking to migrate on the basis of skills. I wou

> I haven't looked at countries besides Canada; but I would strongly recommend Canada over the U.S. for anyone seeking to migrate on the basis of skills. I would also suggest to consider the Netherlands. The procedure for highly skilled migrants is super simple. Pretty much the only condition is that your employer pays you a sufficient wage. https://ind.nl/en/work/Pages/Highly-skilled-migrant.aspx https://ind.nl/en/work/Pages/Highly-skilled-migrant.aspx

throwmex 7y ago
Canada is an English speaking country except Québec. Why would a highly skilled immigrant learn yet another language to immigrate to Netherlands, if given a choice between an English speaking country and non English one ?
- perfunctory 7y ago
  Everybody speaks English in the Netherlands. People live there for years without learning the local language. Working language in many companies that hire migrants is English.
  - throwmex 7y ago
    Can those employees progress in their career without speaking the native language ? Will the kids get an education in English ? Can the immigrant take part in social activities ? Can they talk to their doctors or to the grocery store in English without misunderstanding. How is the attitude towards English ? Will a nationalist government change those English friendliness ? There are things like these a skilled economic immigrant should consider before immigrating to a non English speaking country. Take the example of Québec, although it's a province in the English speaking Canada, immigrants who speak only English are not welcomed and frowned upon. They find it hard to get by. They end up moving to other provinces. If the immigrant is not white, the difficulties are 2x in Québec. To be fair, Québec's hate for English is well founded if you examine their colonial history and hence the strict language laws.
- cr1895 7y ago
  Because very often English is the language of business, and the highly-skilled migrant visa makes no demands of you to learn Dutch. Practically speaking, Netherlands is (enough of) an English speaking place.
mariefred 7y ago
> I would also suggest to consider the Netherlands Unless you want to become a citizen, you'll need to learn Dutch (which is a good thing IMHO but some disagree) and renounce your other citizenship. Sweden has an even simpler system, if the employer can prove that you are needed (and for most professions reading here that's less than trivial) you are almost guaranteed to get permanent residency in 4 years and become a citizen in 5 years if you want to
- cr1895 7y ago
  You can get permanent residence after 5 years in the Netherlands too, and the language level required is pretty basic. It's not very hard to pass the required language tests within 5+ years. The limit to one nationality is maddening, however.
  - dhruvarora013 7y ago
    I just moved to the Netherlands after four years of university in the US and a few years of unsuccessful H1B applications. It's fantastic and a lot less stressful than the US! Why do you dislike the one nationality limit?
    - cr1895 7y ago
      >Why do you dislike the one nationality limit? Because it is deeply arbitrary. Plenty of people can have dual nationalities in the Netherlands, just not me. Even the Dutch Queen has two nationalities. If I married a Dutch person I could become Dutch and have two nationalities, no problem. Hopefully the law will be changed...there has been talk of it. I'm already eligible to apply for Dutch citizenship...I'm a well-integrated contributing member of society who would love to spend the rest of my life in the Netherlands. I tick all the boxes. I want to be able to vote and have representation (I'm a taxpayer as anyone else, after all). I want to spend the rest of my life here. But it's not limited to the Netherlands...I dearly want to become European. Dutch citizenship would give me the right to live and work anywhere in the EU (and plenty of other EU countries have no issues with people having two nationalities). I can't give up my US citizenship because of family and other ties. If I needed to return to the US for an extended time (e.g. more than a couple months) to, for example, take care of my aging parents, I would lose everything I've worked towards in the Netherlands. The residence clock would reset and I'd have to find a new highly-skilled job and start all over. Same if I ever wanted to take a (temporary) job in another country. And if you renounce US citizenship, it's hard to ever visit the US again.

throwmex 7y ago

Canada is an English speaking country except Québec. Why would a highly skilled immigrant learn yet another language to immigrate to Netherlands, if given a choice between an English speaking country and non English one ?

perfunctory 7y ago
Everybody speaks English in the Netherlands. People live there for years without learning the local language. Working language in many companies that hire migrants is English.
- throwmex 7y ago
  Can those employees progress in their career without speaking the native language ? Will the kids get an education in English ? Can the immigrant take part in social activities ? Can they talk to their doctors or to the grocery store in English without misunderstanding. How is the attitude towards English ? Will a nationalist government change those English friendliness ? There are things like these a skilled economic immigrant should consider before immigrating to a non English speaking country. Take the example of Québec, although it's a province in the English speaking Canada, immigrants who speak only English are not welcomed and frowned upon. They find it hard to get by. They end up moving to other provinces. If the immigrant is not white, the difficulties are 2x in Québec. To be fair, Québec's hate for English is well founded if you examine their colonial history and hence the strict language laws.
cr1895 7y ago
Because very often English is the language of business, and the highly-skilled migrant visa makes no demands of you to learn Dutch. Practically speaking, Netherlands is (enough of) an English speaking place.

mariefred 7y ago

> I would also suggest to consider the Netherlands Unless you want to become a citizen, you'll need to learn Dutch (which is a good thing IMHO but some disagree) and renounce your other citizenship. Sweden has an even simpler system, if the employer can prove that you are needed (and for most professions reading here that's less than trivial) you are almost guaranteed to get permanent residency in 4 years and become a citizen in 5 years if you want to

cr1895 7y ago
You can get permanent residence after 5 years in the Netherlands too, and the language level required is pretty basic. It's not very hard to pass the required language tests within 5+ years. The limit to one nationality is maddening, however.
- dhruvarora013 7y ago
  I just moved to the Netherlands after four years of university in the US and a few years of unsuccessful H1B applications. It's fantastic and a lot less stressful than the US! Why do you dislike the one nationality limit?
  - cr1895 7y ago
    >Why do you dislike the one nationality limit? Because it is deeply arbitrary. Plenty of people can have dual nationalities in the Netherlands, just not me. Even the Dutch Queen has two nationalities. If I married a Dutch person I could become Dutch and have two nationalities, no problem. Hopefully the law will be changed...there has been talk of it. I'm already eligible to apply for Dutch citizenship...I'm a well-integrated contributing member of society who would love to spend the rest of my life in the Netherlands. I tick all the boxes. I want to be able to vote and have representation (I'm a taxpayer as anyone else, after all). I want to spend the rest of my life here. But it's not limited to the Netherlands...I dearly want to become European. Dutch citizenship would give me the right to live and work anywhere in the EU (and plenty of other EU countries have no issues with people having two nationalities). I can't give up my US citizenship because of family and other ties. If I needed to return to the US for an extended time (e.g. more than a couple months) to, for example, take care of my aging parents, I would lose everything I've worked towards in the Netherlands. The residence clock would reset and I'd have to find a new highly-skilled job and start all over. Same if I ever wanted to take a (temporary) job in another country. And if you renounce US citizenship, it's hard to ever visit the US again.