Ironically the #2 post on /r/canada right now is titled "'I'm done with Canada': High cost of living leads some to leave the country" (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1538vpj/im_done_with_canada_high_cost_of_living_leads/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1538vpj/im_done_wit...</a>)
I can't imagine that America's byzantine visa system is accomplishing any useful policy goal, it's just a mess.<p>Compare to a country like Germany, where you can get a work visa, extend it indefinitely, and then roll it over into permanent residency after five years. No bullshit, no lotteries, you just meet the legal requirements and your applications are accepted in a matter of weeks.
Wonder how many people are thinking “maybe I’ll go to Canada, spend a few years, get citizenship there, then come back to America as a Canadian with much better prospects”?
So according to this article Canada has seen an increase of 500,000 foreign students.<p>Assuming a highly conservative $20k in annual tuition fees (the cheapest decent US public college will run you at least $30k for 2 semesters in tuition alone, never mind fees, living costs, etc), that’s about $10Bn in additional annual revenue with about 4 years locked in, every year.<p>And that’s just tuition. It doesn’t include living costs, the fact that many students might have friends and family visit, they will contribute to the academic and research programs at the university, and will graduate and almost certainly have a much higher output than what they will consume, being, almost by definition, more highly educated than the average Canadian.
the most frustrating thing about US immigration is that nothing changes. The American politics is deadlocked. Even though both sides agree that GC backlog is a problem, nothing happens because now in American politics only small inconsequential incremental changes are possible. Anything reformative is just not possible here anymore. This is also true for issues that impact americans like gun laws.
Not sure how to feel about this. It can be a good thing if we get new business and companies in line with all the talent but without that it will just push down Canadian salaries even more. I guess it depends on if they have plans just as effective in encouraging VCs and entrepreneurs to invest more here.