Canada’s new Tech Talent Strategy program targeting H-1B visa holders in the United States has reached its quota of 10,000 applicants in less than 48 hours, as the country seeks to improve further their local tech industry and takes advantage of a new push by the United States to lessen the country’s H-1B visa acceptance rate.
The Tech Talent Strategy program, announced by Canadian Immigration Minister Sean Fraser at the end of June to push forward the competitiveness of their local work immigration policies, also included a specific section for H-1B visa holders who were interested in acquiring open work permits in Canada.
The open work permit program allows H-1B visa holders to move to Canada without a job and to look for jobs inside the country, and it could give those migrants a quicker path to becoming permanent residents in the country. This is a boon for migrants in the United States, especially as Congress pushes for more stringent requirements to obtain H-1B visas.
“With the H-1B lottery getting worse and worse every year, for a lot of these individuals Canada may actually be their only option,” former U.S. diplomat Chris Richardson said.
The program itself acquired an “overwhelming” positive response after they opened the online application portal on July 16, as they were able to reach their 10,000 application quota by July 17 and were now not accepting applications to the program.
Analysts have expressed surprise at the quick response for migrants applying to the open work permit program in Canada, and many of them believe that it may take months for the Canadian government to re-open the program as the country evaluates how many of the 10,000 who submitted the application actually enter the country.
“I am sure that officials will open up to more applications in due course,” David Crawford, a partner at immigration law firm Fragomen, said. “They will have to sift through what they have, and I assume that some applications will be incomplete and/or ineligible. Once they learn the numbers and have a feel for how many will take up the opportunity, they can commit to the next steps.”
Many migrants have expressed hopefulness at the new open work permit program for Canada and with the new migrant-friendly policies of the Canadian government, with many students and workers in the United States upending their lives to move to the country where the policies are easier to work with.
“I was feeling so much frustration and anger,” Ketaki Desai, a Ph.D. holder in biomedical sciences, said. “And when we realized we could start off with Canadian permanent residency, it was a no-brainer.”
She was having a hard time acquiring a green card in the United States, having been waiting for her application to process since 2008, and after 2020 led to more COVID-related delays, she decided to leave the country with her family for another job in Canada after her existing visa was about to expire. Within a few years, she and her family were able to become Canadian citizens.
“If I were the U.S. government, I would be very upset that Canada is basically siphoning off American workers,” Sergio Karas, an immigration lawyer based in Toronto, said.
Headline image description: Photo by Jude Joshua via Pixabay.
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