Canada has Become the New Destination for Indian IT Employees! - Here is How?

Ever since US President Donald Trump suspended H-1B and L-1 Visa, experts from the Indian IT industry have been analyzing the pros and cons of the move. While the focus is still on US, recent media reports suggest that Canada might soon become the next destination for the Indian IT industry. 

The Canadian government introduced a fast-track visa programme in 2017 which has attracted a large number of tech workers. The number of applicants to Canada’s Global Skills Strategy (GSS) has increased significantly over the first three years. Almost 23,000 workers have been approved under the top five tech categories. 

"There are employers who have non-U.S. employees in the U.S. who are definitely looking seriously at Canada," Kyle Hyndman, a partner with McCrea Immigration Law in Vancouver told Livemint. A major company already contacted Kyle Hyndman about shifting employees to Canada.

"The fact that people started contacting me pretty much the next day is perhaps a suggestion that there are going to be more people interested," Hyndman said.

Reportedly, Tech majors such as Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc, Facebook Inc and Netflix Inc have expanded their base to Canada. 

U.S. technology companies including Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc, Facebook Inc and Netflix Inc have in recent years expanded their Canadian operations, although most companies declined to comment on their GSS usage or how Trump's recent announcement will impact their hiring plans.

As per data disclosed by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, most of the applicants approved to the fast track visa programme were computer engineers, interactive media developers, information systems analysts and consultants. 

“Indian citizens accounted for 62.1% of successful applicants to the fast-track programme, followed by Chinese citizens. Nearly 1,000 U.S. citizens also have seen their applications approved,” Livemint cited in one of its reports. 

Immigration lawyers anticipate that there will be a surge in number of applicants to the programme in the coming days.