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Comment by thbr99 | Hacker News Reader

This has been discussed many time in HN. Indian and Chineese H1Bs can keep complaining or they can immigrate to Canada with Express Entry system which levels the playing field. Business will soon follow. I made the switch and it has improved my life and career in many wonderful ways.

One sad thing I see though is they consider Canada as Plan B. They will get their permanent residency visa but will still stay in US.

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What I've heard is that Canada pays significantly less for Software Engineering talent than the US does. True?

https://www.payscale.com/research/CA/Job=Software_Developer/...

Not significantly, but less. I get the double of that avg salary mentioned in that link. (I am a 10 years exp dev)

But I think the salaries will go up as more US companies setup shops here as the talent pool rises because of economic immigration.

I consider the pay ok because I get healthcare for free, do not have to worry about my visa, childcare is cheaper, spouses can work, my Canadian equivalent of 401k will not be lost like when I was in US on H1B. If I ever want to work in US, I can work on TN visa too.

It also depends on what you want. I opted for certainty and a good family life over the money.

8 years ago, Canada was not even in the radar. Today, it is plan B for Indian tech professionals in the US and quickly becoming plan A for Indian students applying to study abroad. As the ecosystem improves, future inflow of talent will tilt towards Canada. Change takes time.

I had seriously considered moving to Vancouver (from SF) earlier this year, and had job opportunities lined up, but seeing the salary numbers was shocking. Vancouver is an expensive city, about on par with the bay area, but moving there meant taking a 40-50% pay cut. Toronto isn't much better either.

I would love to live there one day, but they really need more competitive salaries if they want to lure talent from the US tech hubs.

Not sure why the downvotes. Canadian companies are not into paying people very well, instead we get news stories about massive outsourcing to India followed by security breaches a few years later (eg, see the news over the last year or two about almost every single one of our major banks)

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