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As someone looking to enter Canada on an express entry visa an currently on an youth mobility/working holiday visa I find the situation in Canada quite extreme.

As someone looking to enter Canada on an express entry visa an currently on an youth mobility/working holiday visa I find the situation in Canada quite extreme. I'm a skilled worker working on a temporary visa, working for Canadian company in people management role. If I want to get enough points to get a permanent visa the best options are. 1. Go back to university and study give money to Canadian universities. 2. Leave my current job where I'm doing proper work, and try get one of these job bank ones. I fell like the system is pushing me to either give money to universities, or give my time (at a low price) to these borderline fraudulent jobs with LMIA attached. I don't believe this is the outcome the system was designed for, but it's what it's been gamed to achieve. I could understand if Canada wanted to simply reduce immigration, but that's also not the outcome being achieved.

alephnerd 3y ago
There is no real point to immigrate to Canada for the long term. For example, when I was a kid, my parents and I got Canadian PR via express entry as a backup option in case we wouldn't get a Greencard in the US. For most South and East Asians, the true value of Canadian Citizenship is the fact that it gives you TN privileges, which essentially give you the ability to stay in the US indefinetly. CoL in Canada is easily 2-3x that of the US with salaries that are easily half those you'd get in the lower 48.
- willsmith72 3y ago
  > CoL in Canada is easily 2-3x that of the US I'd love to see the data on that
  - alephnerd 3y ago
    My experience growing up in BC, and something most other BCians can back me up. I think the CoL aside from housing is much more manageable outside of BC. I remember as a kid it was very common for families on VI and the Lower Mainland to pool money for one family to cross the border and do all their Costco and Safeway shopping in Bellingham and then drive back. A good example is milk - it costs around US$4 including tax in the US, but around US$5 in Canada. Same for bread (though I was in Canada during the 2000s when there was a massive price fixing scheme by bread makers in the country) let alone restaurants and eating out (your average South Asian restaurant in Abbotsford or Surrey would sell a meal like Chole Bhature for around US$20 when the exact same restaurants and ownership in Fremont and Fresno would make the same meal and fixing for around US$10-22) All this doesn't sound too bad on a SV salary, but non-tech salaries in BC are around CAD$40-70k so your household income after tax is best case CAD$60-90k [0] There's a reason my family left Canada for the US. [0] - https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmip-pimh/en/TableMapChart/TableMatchingCriteria?GeographyType=Province&GeographyId=59&CategoryLevel1=Population%2C%20Households%20and%20Housing%20Stock&CategoryLevel2=Household%20Income&ColumnField=HouseholdIncomeRange&RowField=MetropolitanMajorArea&SearchTags%5B0%5D.Key=Households&SearchTags%5B0%5D.Value=Number&SearchTags%5B1%5D.Key=Statistics&SearchTags%5B1%5D.Value=AverageAndMedian#next-year https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmip-pimh/en/TableMapChart/Tab...
    - willsmith72 3y ago
      that lines up with my experience too, i.e. potentially ~20% higher CoL. Nothing like 200-300%.
      - alephnerd 3y ago
        Those small differences do add up, when factoring salaries as well, making everything significantly more expensive. Also prices are significantly higher once you leave the Lower Mainland due to how uneven population is spread. That said, Canada is a very federal country (much more than the US) so the BC experience is obviously very different from that in other provinces

alephnerd 3y ago

There is no real point to immigrate to Canada for the long term. For example, when I was a kid, my parents and I got Canadian PR via express entry as a backup option in case we wouldn't get a Greencard in the US. For most South and East Asians, the true value of Canadian Citizenship is the fact that it gives you TN privileges, which essentially give you the ability to stay in the US indefinetly. CoL in Canada is easily 2-3x that of the US with salaries that are easily half those you'd get in the lower 48.

willsmith72 3y ago
> CoL in Canada is easily 2-3x that of the US I'd love to see the data on that
- alephnerd 3y ago
  My experience growing up in BC, and something most other BCians can back me up. I think the CoL aside from housing is much more manageable outside of BC. I remember as a kid it was very common for families on VI and the Lower Mainland to pool money for one family to cross the border and do all their Costco and Safeway shopping in Bellingham and then drive back. A good example is milk - it costs around US$4 including tax in the US, but around US$5 in Canada. Same for bread (though I was in Canada during the 2000s when there was a massive price fixing scheme by bread makers in the country) let alone restaurants and eating out (your average South Asian restaurant in Abbotsford or Surrey would sell a meal like Chole Bhature for around US$20 when the exact same restaurants and ownership in Fremont and Fresno would make the same meal and fixing for around US$10-22) All this doesn't sound too bad on a SV salary, but non-tech salaries in BC are around CAD$40-70k so your household income after tax is best case CAD$60-90k [0] There's a reason my family left Canada for the US. [0] - https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmip-pimh/en/TableMapChart/TableMatchingCriteria?GeographyType=Province&GeographyId=59&CategoryLevel1=Population%2C%20Households%20and%20Housing%20Stock&CategoryLevel2=Household%20Income&ColumnField=HouseholdIncomeRange&RowField=MetropolitanMajorArea&SearchTags%5B0%5D.Key=Households&SearchTags%5B0%5D.Value=Number&SearchTags%5B1%5D.Key=Statistics&SearchTags%5B1%5D.Value=AverageAndMedian#next-year https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmip-pimh/en/TableMapChart/Tab...
  - willsmith72 3y ago
    that lines up with my experience too, i.e. potentially ~20% higher CoL. Nothing like 200-300%.
    - alephnerd 3y ago
      Those small differences do add up, when factoring salaries as well, making everything significantly more expensive. Also prices are significantly higher once you leave the Lower Mainland due to how uneven population is spread. That said, Canada is a very federal country (much more than the US) so the BC experience is obviously very different from that in other provinces