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As someone who’s on H1b this whole effort by Canada seems pointless and I don’t understand the rationale behind framing this law. H1b comes through a lottery.

As someone who’s on H1b this whole effort by Canada seems pointless and I don’t understand the rationale behind framing this law. H1b comes through a lottery. This year less than 10% got through the lottery (mostly because Indian consultancy scams that US govt is trying to crack down on but mostly won’t). Even in good years, a good 50% don’t get through the lottery. If you complete your masters in US, you get 3 shots at the lottery after which you have to leave the country (Called the STEM OPT extension). If you pass through the lottery you are mostly set for life in US. If you’re not from India or China, you just need to find a company to apply for your green card and then get in in 3 yrs (All of big tech will apply for your green card). If you are from India and China you will have a long waiting line, Indians in particular might have a 100 yr waiting line because of the massive amount of recent immigration. Even then your H1b lasts a total of 9 yrs, after which you can apply for green card and then get an EAD while waiting for your green card, which basically ensures you can stay in the country and work as long as your green card is processing. This situation is a bit stressful, because if your green card processing has issues and you get a reject, you have to instantly leave the country on EAD (your life is uprooted) but by this you are either 100% committed to living here or you’re gonna leave (a lot I’d estimate 50% leave back to India) Which brings me to my puzzlement regarding this law. The main bottleneck is the H1b lottery, I would guess easily a good 30-40% of Indians leave unable to get past the lottery and that number is increasing. Canada is also giving choice to those who went past the lottery. But if I went through the lottery, why would I ever consider going to Canada? No offense, but US salaries are easily double, and even higher the higher you climb, there’s no comparison really. And if Canada is trying to maintain quality of immigrants, the H1b is literally a lottery, a member of Google or an Indian outsourcing sweatshop like TCS have the exact same chance of getting through (and TCS applies way more for H1b) so this isn’t even a great quality filter. By my prediction, this won’t do anything to attract immigrants from US, because those who made it through H1b are not going to leave except to maybe return back to their home country. US is simply too good pay wise, and then on top of that most of the country is very welcoming to immigrants.

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mavelikara 3y ago
> If you pass through the lottery you are mostly set for life in US. This is wrong. I understand why you say this, given the errors in the next quote. > Even then your H1b lasts a total of 9 yrs, after which you can apply for green card and then get an EAD while waiting for your green card, which basically ensures you can stay in the country and work as long as your green card is processing. The H-1B is issued for 3 years. You can renew it twice, after which you need to leave the country. If, within those 6 years, you have a green card application filed and have gone past the initial two stages, you can keep renewing your H-1B. But you will not get an EAD while you wait for the green card backlog to clear. Your stay in the country is not guaranteed while you wait. If you lose your job, you will have to leave the country if you don't find another similar job in a few months.
- sashank_1509 3y ago
  Not sure where you are getting your information, you will get an EAD while waiting for your GC backlog to clear: https://www.stilt.com/blog/2019/05/gc-ead/ https://www.stilt.com/blog/2019/05/gc-ead/ . This EAD allows you to switch employers and even remain unemployed for awhile (though when you GC eventually becomes current, you may get denied if unemployed).

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mavelikara 3y ago

> If you pass through the lottery you are mostly set for life in US. This is wrong. I understand why you say this, given the errors in the next quote. > Even then your H1b lasts a total of 9 yrs, after which you can apply for green card and then get an EAD while waiting for your green card, which basically ensures you can stay in the country and work as long as your green card is processing. The H-1B is issued for 3 years. You can renew it twice, after which you need to leave the country. If, within those 6 years, you have a green card application filed and have gone past the initial two stages, you can keep renewing your H-1B. But you will not get an EAD while you wait for the green card backlog to clear. Your stay in the country is not guaranteed while you wait. If you lose your job, you will have to leave the country if you don't find another similar job in a few months.

sashank_1509 3y ago
Not sure where you are getting your information, you will get an EAD while waiting for your GC backlog to clear: https://www.stilt.com/blog/2019/05/gc-ead/ https://www.stilt.com/blog/2019/05/gc-ead/ . This EAD allows you to switch employers and even remain unemployed for awhile (though when you GC eventually becomes current, you may get denied if unemployed).