

US vs Canada for immigrants - acodelover

Hello Fellas ,
I work in United States as temporary non-immigrant worker. I am indian citizen. I hold masters from Ivy-League university.  Given the wait for green card in United States , which is at least 8-10 yrs based on employment , I am thinking migrating to Canada.  How is Canada in terms of job prospects? How does it compare to United States ? Has anyone worked in both countries ? I hold masters degree and have 7 yrs of experience.  I am looking for quick immigration and want to get my parents and brother also as permanent resident of Canada.  Can you provide your experience as immigrant in Canada ? Thank you in advance for inputs you could provide.
======
both-of-them
I've worked in both countries, and spent a fair amount of time in both.

America puts in more work hours, Canada has more governmental holidays. It
works out to about an extra day off a month in Canada, probably about 6-8 more
holidays in a year.

You get more vacation time and maternity leave in Canada. America has no
mandatory minimums for those. You may or may not get paid sick leave in
America.

American workers vs Canadian workers... not much difference in terms of work
ethic. Some are stellar workers, most are average. Similar levels of
education. Americans tend to have more rigid personal beliefs, but I wouldn't
say they're intolerant. They just hold their beliefs about religion, politics,
etc, more firmly than Canadians.

Interpersonally, I've found Americans more direct. I appreciate it, but it can
be offputting to Indians who are unaccustomed to it. Canadians aren't the
super-nice-overly-polite bunch they're made out to be, but, they are less
direct than Americans (more than Indians, still). No offence to your culture,
it can just take a while for us to figure out what you're saying when you're
saying we need to change something.

Also, Canada is huge and stunningly diverse, even among national Canadians.
Think of each province as a different country, very similar, but still
different. If you have the opportunity to travel from Alberta to Quebec,
you'll understand. America is more like four countries, culturally, Canada
more like seven. Look into this more, I could go on for days.

~~~
both-of-them
Oh, and one important one. Canadian salaries for urban areas will look
slightly higher, but it's more expensive to live in Canada. Check rents, costs
of living, groceries, alcohol, tobacco prices, and taxes. You're looking at
about a 10-20% increase in cost of living, but its offset by lower population
densities and people who tend to be more relaxed.

Also, since Canada has a reputation as "free health care for everyone
everywhere!" look into that, too. It's not free. Check the health care plans
with your employer.

------
hluska
I've lived in Saskatchewan, Canada for most of my life and some of my best
friends moved here through the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program.
Saskatchewan's economy is going crazy, so there are many jobs. Consequently,
if you decide to move forward with moving to Canada, you may entertain the
thought of moving here or to a similar province.

However, before you agree to move to any city, spend two weeks there in
January. Depending on where you move, Canada can be hip and cosmopolitan, or
culturally barren and frigid. Please choose cities very carefully!!

If I were in your shoes, I'd likely confine my search to cities like
Vancouver, Victoria, and possibly Nanaimo. You might also like Toronto, or
Montreal.

If you have any questions, or want any local knowledge, my email is on my
profile. Good luck, my friend!

~~~
kohanz
Saskatchewan may have a big jobs boom, but in my experience it's not in tech.

A couple of years ago, my now wife had graduated from school and because she
is originally from Saskatoon, we decided to look there for jobs. I work in the
tech sector as a somewhat specialized software engineer. There wasn't much in
available my specialization, so I started applying to jobs for which I was, if
anything, overqualified, if anything. While my typical interview to
application ratio is quite high, I had no responses after about 20
applications in Saskatoon. We ended up in Vancouver, which I'm happy for, but
not until after desperately trying to live in Saskatoon. Maybe my experience
was an outlier, but it seemed like there were plenty of jobs if I was a mining
or potash engineer, not so much for a software engineer.

------
akg_67
I have lived and worked in US and Canada both. My reason for migrating to
Canada were similar to yours. In the end, I relocated back to US. Most of my
experience was negative. Things may have changed since.

Most of the people, I know, who immigrated to Canada either moved to US or the
country they immigrated from or went to school in Canada and stayed in jobs in
Canada.

I may retire in Vancouver some day but I will never move to Canada again for
work or starting a company.

Check out this site [http://canadiandesi.com](http://canadiandesi.com) for
some relevant discussions and forums. It primarily caters to South Asians
immigrating to Canada.

------
kohanz
I'm not sure if this is relevant to you (since it sounds like you're looking
for a job, rather than starting a business), but I thought I should mention
the Canada's new Startup Visa [0]

[0] [http://www.cic.gc.ca/EnGLIsh/immigrate/business/start-
up/ind...](http://www.cic.gc.ca/EnGLIsh/immigrate/business/start-up/index.asp)

------
acodelover
Thank you all !

~~~
panbhatt
Hi,, I am in the same position and working in US on H1B and wanted to migrate
to CANADA. i really can't wait for Green card process. Can we discuss and
share opportunities. my email id is panbhatt attherateof gmail . so waiting..

