Ask HN: Places with a good tech scene and quality of life that aren't in the US? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Places with a good tech scene and quality of life that aren't in the US?

22 pointsnottheus12 comments

Some background: I'm from India and I'm doing my undergrad. Until a few months ago, I had aspirations to work in the US. I consider myself quite competent, so I'm not talking about working in sweat shops like Infosys. I wanted to work at Google or Facebook full-time when I graduate (I have done internships with MS and Amazon).

But with Trump's recent spree of executive orders, it looks like my future will be highly uncertain if I go there (assuming of course that people are still allowed to enter the US). I'd much rather work elsewhere where I can have the luxury of not having to worry about my visa everyday.

Before you implore me to work in my own country - please don't. There are reasons why I want to work elsewhere.

So I'm just wondering - what are some other places in the world where there's a lively tech scene (i.e. Big 4 and unicorns have offices), the salary is competitive (maybe not as high as Silicon Valley, but close) and the quality of life is good in general?

Canada has an awesome tech scene and is a great place to live :) Toronto/Montreal you'll likely find the most opportunities, or if you prefer a smaller city Ottawa and Waterloo have lots of tech jobs and less big city problems.

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

as dumb as you might model Trump I don't think it's a good assumption to believe he'll get rid of working, papers in order, skilled immigrants, that doesn't mean you shouldn't look for an alternative but I wouldn't be too worried overall

That's what he literally just did for immigrants coming from a set of countries...

Toronto

Edinburgh, Scotland has an awesome tech scene and lifestyle!

Zurich, dublin, Paris

Though there's no H1-B like visa in europe...

What do you mean by H1-B like? Visa with immigration intent that lets you become a permanent resident if you stay long enough?

No visa for skilled workers unless you're a European citizen already. I think France and a few other countries started implementing a special visa for skilled workers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Card_%28European_Union%29

It is still far from being fully operational and to go back to the original question, it is only used by a few countries, excluding the ones where Google, FB, etc. have offices. They have offices in Ireland, Switzerland (not in the European list) and France. So the later might be the only option here...

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