If US restricts work visas, most skilled workers would head to Canada, say studies

Canada will become the choicest destination for most high-skilled workers if the United States restricts work visas for them, revealed research of the job hunting site Indeed.

In the quarter prior to which Trump took over as America’s President, Indeed witnessed a 40 percent increase from people in the US looking to work abroad.  Of the total searches, 42.7 percent of those targeted at Canada, followed by Australia with 11.9 percent.

The Huffington Post reports Indeed as saying in an email to the media that the data reiterated that Canada is most likely to benefit if the H1-B program gets limited by the US.

A report released in 2016 by the ICTC (Information and Communications Technology Council) predicted that though Canada would generate a minimum of 218,000 new high-tech jobs by 2020, enough number of skilled tech workers would not be graduating to plug these vacancies. It added that Canada needed to increase the number of tech graduates by 50 percent or welcome more overseas workers to fill these vacancies.

Data from the US DHS (Department of Homeland Security) indicates that Canada’s tech sector’s gains could hurt the tech sector of the US, which is severely dependent on talent from abroad. About 66 percent of America’s H1-B visas are issued to people from the tech industry.

The NFAP (National Foundation for American Policy), in its study in 2016, found that over half of US startups which are worth more than $1 billion have at least one co-founder who is an immigrant. It is said that each of these startups generated 760 jobs on an average.

Tech companies of the US are reportedly working on emergency plans to establish offices in Canada if they are unsuccessful in getting foreign talent through the H1-B visa scheme into the US.

Highly-skilled workers of Canada arrive on a TN-1, a NAFTA visa, and not on the H1-B, which is used by professionals from all other foreign countries. But the new American President could restrict the grant of work visas such as E-2, B1 and L-1. This move has the potential of adversely impacting thousands of Canadian workers.

If you are looking to migrate to Canada, contact Y-Axis, India’s most trusted immigration consultancy firm, to apply for a visa from one of its several offices located all over the county.