What concrete, legislative privileges do I get as a Canadian immigrant living in the USA that an Indian immigrant living in the USA would not? That's unquestionably what's under discussion here, so please be as specific as possible, Chuck.
If you have a Nexus card and live close to the border, travel between the two countries becomes a non-issue.
When you hit retirement age, you can move back to Canada and get provincial health care.
As of today, $1.00 USD == $1.36 CAD.
I will probably be depositing a lot more money back into my Canadian savings account over the next few years, just because I'll probably move back at some point in my life.
So yeah, Canadians in the US definitely get a lot of advantages over other immigrants. The only trade off is filling a 1040 every year, but even that is reduced to one additional form when residing in Canada.
Also, this is a misconception. This has nothing to do with your passport. The separation is based on your country of birth.
So if you were a Canadian citizen born in Canada, got an H1B visa, applied for and were approved for a permanent residency which is your right as per the H1B visa, you would get your permanent residency immediately.
If you were a Canadian citizen born in India, got an H1B visa, applied for and were approved for a permanent residency which is your right as per the H1B visa, you would get your permanent residency approximately 180 years from now.