Canada Plans Brain Drain of H-1B Visa Holders, With No-Job, No-Worries Work Permits

Canada has launched a bid to attract techies working in the USA on the notorious H-1B visa, by offering them the chance to move north. From a report: The offer, announced on Wednesday as part of the nation's first ever tech talent strategy, means H-1B visa holders can move to Canada without having a job waiting for them. The H-1B visa is contentious in the USA. Its purpose is to attract skilled people whose talents are in short supply stateside, thus adding flexibility to the economy, but the visa is believed to be widely abused -- by employers who use it to find employees willing to work for less than their American peers. But the visa is very popular in India -- one of the main sources of H-1B applicants. Indeed it's so popular that the Biden Administration last week announced moderate reforms to the program during the state visit by Indian prime minster Narendra Modi. The H-1B also made news early in 2023 amid mass layoffs in the tech sector, because visa holders who don't have jobs have just 90 days to leave the Land of the Free. Canada has clearly spotted an opportunity to nab some talent that needs a bolt-hole -- and can get that talent safe in the knowledge that its southern neighbor has vetted H-1B holders, and they already have some experience of working in North America.

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