Moving to Canada from the USA

rhf123

New Member
Hello everyone,

I had been working in the US on an H1-B visa till the end of March, 2020. Due to the current pandemic, my employment was terminated, and I am actively looking for new opportunities. The recently imposed immigration restrictions have made it difficult for me to find new opportunities and I have had multiple verbal job offers rescinded due to the difficulty associated with transitioning back to an H1-B visa.

Losing opportunities due to factors unrelated to my competence is really frustrating and this led me to start exploring job opportunities in Canada. I wanted your inputs on what are my best options to start working as soon as possible. I am noting down my skill-set below:
  • Close to 6 years of experience in my domain (Data engineering).
  • Master's in Computer Science from a reputed university in the United States.
  • I am 29 years old.
As I understand, I should have a decent chance of immigrating to Canada using the Express Entry program but what I have heard (and read) is that it might take at least 6 months to go through the entire process. How feasible is it for me to start applying for job postings in Canada from the US. I do see a lot of LinkedIn job postings in my domain. Considering the current pandemic, is it even a good idea to explore this option? If yes, how likely am I to obtain a work permit in Canada based on my skill-set and what are the approximate timelines around it?

Answers to these questions would be really helpful. Thank you!
 

Riley Haas

Administrator
Staff member
Location
Toronto
Hi there,
Sorry about what's happening to you, it must be very frustrating.

So, normally Express Entry would be the way to go for you (through the Federal Skilled Worker program, probably). However, in addition to taking around six months, normally, EE is currently focused only on two programs: Canadian Experience Class (CEC - Canadian work experience) and Provincial Nominations (usually involving Canadian work experience as well). That's because the border is closed. Because of what is happening in the US, there's no telling when the border will re-open and so there's no telling when the normal EE draws will resume.

So I would strongly suggest you try looking for a job from a Canadian employer. If you get a job, and your employer gets an Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA - permission from the government to hire you) then you can apply for a work permit. To the best of my knowledge those are still being processed and there is an exception to the border closure to those who have work permits or study permits.

I can't tell you how likely this is but I can tell you that an LMIA can normally take months, depending upon the occupation. It's only going to take longer right now.
 
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