Canada is raiding the US for tech worker immigrants. Can you really blame them?

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

immigration system, millions of workers face insurmountable hurdles to gaining permanent residence. It was always a risk that other governments would take the opportunity to lure skilled workers away from the US. Now it’s happening, thanks to a somewhat unlikely rival: Canada.

Last month, the Canadian government introduced a new work permit targeting US-based knowledge workers. Foreigners living in the US on H-1B visas — typically professionals with skills in STEM fields — are eligible for a three-year work permit allowing them to work for any employer in Canada. Spouses of visa holders are free to pursue employment — unlike in the US, which restricts their ability to work.

Canada said it would accept up to 10,000 applications from interested H-1B visa holders in the program’s first year. It got that many in less than 48 hours. The government’s already received requests from Canadian tech companies asking that the program be doubled.

This talent-poaching scheme is a model of creative policymaking, and should be causing alarm in Washington. Once the world’s most desirable destination for science and engineering talent, the US is now losing tens of thousands of foreigners each year to Canada, Australia and others. It’s easy to see why.

In theory, workers on employer-sponsored H-1B visas can stay in the US for up to six years, then apply for permanent residence. Yet nonsensical rules, bureaucratic paralysis and caps on the numbers of green cards issued to citizens of any single country mean the wait can last decades. Some Indian workers with advanced degrees face estimated queues of more than 150 years.