Canada is reducing the number of permanent and temporary residents it will admit over the next couple of years over concerns about housing prices and stress on infrastructure and social services due partly to the high levels of immigration.
This may impact U.S. companies and U.S. institutions of higher education most.
For U.S. companies, this change has an upside and a downside. Those who cannot obtain enough H-1B visas to hire the number of foreign nationals they require will no longer have the convenient option of sending employees to Canada to work remotely. On the other hand, foreign nationals who have planned to leave the United States for better immigration prospects in Canada may now want to try to stay in the United States. If they do, U.S. companies will have a larger talent pool to draw from, and this may cause them to expand their visa sponsorship policies, if the Trump Administration doesn’t take steps to narrow the eligibility for H-1B visas, experience higher retention rates and less upward pressure on salaries.
As for higher education institutions in the United States, international students who were deciding to go to Canada instead of U.S. colleges and graduate schools, due in part to the belief that post-graduation job prospects might be better there, may be rethinking their plans. Tuition from foreign students has long been essential to the budgets of colleges and universities and the number of foreign nationals coming to the United States for school has been declining. If Canada is not an option, then more applications from foreign nationals may go to U.S. schools.
For more than a decade, foreign nationals have found it difficult to obtain H-1B visas and “green cards” in the U.S. due to the limited number of slots available and the restrictive policies of the first Trump Administration. Throughout this time, highly skilled foreign nationals and international students were choosing to move to Canada from the United States on their own to obtain work authorization and permanent residence more quickly. International students who couldn’t obtain H-1B sponsorship due to unsuccessful H-1B lottery registrations have often left for Canada. This has been a boon to the Canadian economy. Now, the tide has turned, and this may be advantageous for the United States economy if the high-skilled workers and international students choose the United States over other countries.
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