Why are the tech workers considering Canada over the USA?
When it comes to immigration, the first choice for every skilled tech professional has been the USA. Though the reasons the obvious, the present scenario has witnessed a shift among the immigrant tech workers as they are looking up to Canada for a successful and promising career. The restrictive attitude of the USA towards immigration has planted the seed of uncertainty among the prospective migrants, while Canada has been offering them opportunities and is ready to welcome them with arms wide open.
Factually, in the last three years, tens of thousands of foreign tech workers have migrated to Canada. In the report named Information and Communications Technology Report, a significant 40% of the total workforce in Canada’s technology sector comprises of the immigrants. Not only this, the migrants make up for the 25% of the total workforce in Canada. These facts are fair enough for one to understand the importance of immigrants in the country and that they do not have to fear about being expelled from Canada.
Canada has specifically designed programs that caters to the international tech talent only and a lot of interested migrants apply to these programs every year. Among them, the popular ones are described as under –
Global Talent Stream
Introduced three years ago, this program enables the Canadian employers to employ international tech talent. The employer has to be eligible under two categories – the first one is that the employer is to be referred by a designated referral partner. If the employer is in Quebec, the referral must come from a Quebec partner. The second category is that the employer must be hiring from one of the twelve occupations.
As far as candidate is concerned, he or she must have advanced knowledge of the industry, have an advanced degree in the same field, the offered salary must be CAD$80,000 and above depending upon the occupation’s prevailing wage.
BC PNP Tech Pilot Program
The province of British Columbia has an exclusive program to attract the global tech talent. To be eligible under this program, the candidates must have a job offer in one of the 29 eligible occupations and they have to register through the Skills Immigration Registration System.
British Columbia conducts the draws on a regular basis and the selected candidates will be invited to apply for the provincial nomination within 30 days. Once given the provincial nomination, the candidates can apply for the permanent residence.
Ontario Tech Draws
The candidates who have applied through the Express Entry system are being identified by the provincial authorities to apply for the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) and they will be issued the Notification of Interest (NOI). These candidates, then have to apply for the provincial nomination under the Human Capital Priorities Stream within 45 days.
The technology sector in Canada has been on the rise and the immigrants have been contributing significantly to this front. The talented tech professionals like software developers and designers have been pivoting to Canada in search of better career opportunities and are driving Canada’s tech industry towards progress. Indeed, Canada is an ideal country that has the potential to offer fantastic prospects for tech professionals and it is the reason why people are attracted towards this country for their future settlement.
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