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I'd have to say Canada's immigration process is better (for the immigrant) compared to the US.

The usual US process:

1. Find a company willing to employ you, even though you are not a US citizen / GC holder.

2. Find some way to start working for this company. For some nationalities (ex. Canadian), this isn't actually too bad. For most nationalities, though, if the company wants you to start working right away, they'll have to base you at a foreign office until you become eligible for an intra-company transfer visa, or are able to get an H1-B.

3. The company applies on your behalf for an H1-B. The big problem here is that there is an H1-B quota which is usually exhausted very early on. In years where the quota is exceeded, the system switches to a lottery, so even if you've been trying for the visa for many years, there's no guarantee you'll get it this year if the quota is exceeded.

4. The company applies on your behalf for a Green Card. There's a whole pile of stumbling blocks here:

-- There are overall quotas for the number of GCs that can be issued by way of employer sponsorship.

-- There are national origin quotas. If you're from western Europe, you're probably OK, but good luck if you're from India/China.

-- The employer has to do a labor market search to show that they can't employ a US citizen / GC holder for your job.

5. Apply for citizenship after 5 years

Usual Canadian process:

1. Apply for permanent residency. This is done on a points based system. The calculator is here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/EnGLish/immigrate/skilled/assess/index....

Some permutations that will let you through:

-- BSc + MSc + 2 years work experience + excellent English skills

-- BSc + MSc + 1 year work experience + excellent English + basic French

-- BSc + 1 year work experience + job offer in Canada (requires labor market check) + excellent English

-- BSc + 3 years work experience + excellent English + basic French

-- BSc + 4 years work experience + excellent English

2. Apply for citizenship after 3 years

Advantages of the Canadian system:

- The Canadian system has no quotas (either based on visa class or on national origin). Apparently, the government publishes "targets", but they don't cut off applications if the target is exceeded.

- In the Canadian system, no one is "sponsoring" you -- your flow through the immigration system is a matter between you and the government. This removes a whole much of incentives your employer might have to keep you at certain stages of the immigration process.

- Once you're admitted as a PR, you can work for anyone you like. There's no period where you are stuck on visas that tie you to a particular company. If you feel the business you're working for isn't paying you enough, you can simply quit and take a job elsewhere without jeopardizing your immigration status.

- Once you have a few years of experience, you don't even need a job offer to get PR in Canada. This lets you enter the country first, and then once you've settled, start looking for a job.

Btw, A through D are false even with respect to the US.

It is very rare for American companies to hire foreigners not already present in the US. They usually hire young people who've come to the US to study for a BS/MS/PhD. It's a myth that people can "get off the plane immediately start working".

It's exceedingly difficult for a foreigner to get hired to work in the US unless he's already in the US (IMHO, mostly because of the costs/hassles in doing an in-person interview, and the cornucopia of talent in the US).

Having said this, I still think the US has one of the best visa policies in the world.

To answer your question: so far as I know, India's work visa program is easier than USA's. But that means nothing because there's very little demand to go work in India. :)

A through D are false even with respect to the US

Your statement is correct. My questions were asking for general information, and were not meant to imply anything about policy in the United States.

Having said this, I still think the US has one of the best visa policies in the world.

That's what I wanted to get a reality check about by asking my questions in the grandparent comment. I appreciate seeing your point of view.

Canada?

Which questions above were you linking to Canada by your reply?

I know for sure that Canada has a different immigration policy from the United States. Here I would be curious to know whether most hackers think that Canada's policies are easier on, harder on, or about the same as United States policies for would-be hacker immigrants.

The UK, Canada and Australia all have skill-based criteria for immigration, as opposed to the US's focus on family reunification. The UK also offers permanent residence to anyone who's been in the country for five years legally, even of you were just studying.

Features like these are pretty appealing to hacker types.

For E, I'd say around half, unless the distribution is very concentrated.

I'd expect the distribution to have more countries with net emigrants than countries with net immigrants--people on the move will try to get into the best countries that they can get into.

Yes, but countries do not like to take an unlimited number of people. So they may settle for second best (or third best etc).