Last month the Canadian government reported that more than 6,000 U.S. H-1B visa holders had arrived in Canada so far this year. This comes as a result of large numbers of layoffs for foreign H-1B visa holders leaving them in an uncertain predicament. Annie Beaudoin, a former Canadian immigration officer, said, “The highly educated foreign national is really at the mercy of the U.S. employers.” The H-1B program seeks out educated and highly skilled foreign workers in the tech and health care fields. Major tech companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple are amongst thousands of annual H-1B visa sponsors. For 2024, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services were given 758,994 eligible applications, but only 188,400 were finally selected for the H-1B visa. Harnoor Singh, a software engineer from India, comments, “It is very stressful. It took me three times to get accepted in the lottery.”The tech industry felt the effects of layoffs early in the year with Microsoft and Amazon both cutting jobs. This meant that H-1B visa holders had only up to two months to find a new sponsor, transfer visa status or face deportation. Frederick Anokye, a real-time defect analysis engineer from Ghana, is one of the many unfortunate H-1B holders affected by the layoffs. He explains, “I'm still looking for jobs in the U.S. It's not easy. Even certain companies are still laying off.”In regards to the situation, Canada launched a pilot program on July 16th to allow up to 10,000 U.S. H-1B visa holders to apply for a three-year open work permit. Within one day, the applications had reached their capacity and up until October, the Canadian government reported that more than 6,000 work permits had been issued. Licensed immigration consultant Kubeir Kamal from the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants notes that this is truly “unprecedented.” Shivastuti Koul, an H-1B holder from India who was laid off from Microsoft, was one of the many who took advantage of the offer. She says, “My main reason was to have a sense of security...I wanted to make sure that if nothing pans out, I can get a Canadian work permit and apply for positions in Canada before my grace period expires. I can just move.” The program is part of Canada’s Tech Talent Strategy, which is an expansive multiyear plan to recruit the best tech talent in the world. According to a CBRE study, the Canadian tech sector has increased by 15.7% since 2020, a greater rate than that of the United States. Canada now has 1.1 million tech employees, and Toronto and Vancouver were listed among the top 10 tech cities in the US and Canada. Anokye states, “Currently it is my plan to try to move to Canada if I'm not able to find anything here within the US as soon as possible. Canada is also a great country, especially for immigrants.” Immigration Minister Marc Mier could not be reached for an interview but a spokesperson from his office highlighted that “the immense interest in Canada's new H1-B application stream is a strong indication of just how competitive Canada is on the global stage. When it comes to attracting international talent, we remain a top destination.” For more information about how Canada is targeting H-1B visa holders, watch the video.
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