USA Green Card vs Canada PR

New
Aqly47

New

Aqly47
Apr 24 59 Comments

Hi all,

I (31M) am privileged enough to have both US Green Card and the Canadian PR, but it is impossible to keep both. It is time to decide for me and my wife (both software engineers at Amazon: SDE III / SDE I) to choose one of the two.

We prioritize bringing our parents to live with us and have a comfortable future.

We are leaning towards Canada but reading the posts on Blind/Quora/Reddit, it sounds like it would be a career suicide. Is the healthcare really bad in Canada?

Any insights here would be appreciated. #workvisa #canada

Edit 1: Adding definitions (what I think)
1. Bad Healthcare - Healthcare is slow to non-existent such that it affects quality of life (not suvivability)
2. Career Suicide - Unable to save enough for retirement / unexpected expenses (given the real estate / healthcare costs in either country)
3. Career Success - Being able to enjoy the quality of life similar to that of my friends and peers.

Edit 2: TC - Combined we are getting about 30% paycut (550k in US to 380k in Canada) both in USD.

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 TOP 59 Comments
  • Intel
    EjqI20

    Go to company page Intel

    EjqI20
    You cannot get all the luxuries of us in cannada. If you have good enough NW maybe you can consider Cananda.

    Also check out TC in cananda. It had increased significantly in the last 6 months. Of course you will get a capitalists env when compared to socialist one but Seattle was anyways moving to the latter part.

    You will have to compromise
    Apr 24 4
    • New
      Aqly47

      New

      Aqly47
      OP
      What luxuries are you talking about? I can think of cheaper goods and easier flights to India
      Apr 24
    • Intel
      EjqI20

      Go to company page Intel

      EjqI20
      Lol. Thanks Amazon for the spelling classes. Hope you get to suck on the 🍌 .

      Luxuries -

      1. have you seen the cost of housing in Canada.
      2. Too cold vs rainy in PNW.
      3. How many cities in Canada are tech centric and you have the option of moving around. You have CA and WA in west coast, TX and PHX in central and NY, DC and GA and FL in east coast,
      4. Traveling to other places. Guessing you can only do it in summer and fall and that too have to come to US

      That paycut you are mentioning can be offset by other side hustle.
      Apr 24
  • Cerner
    (°__°)

    Go to company page Cerner

    (°__°)
    Is Canadian healthcare that bad? I was considering moving only because the US healthcare is ridiculously bad (for different reasons ofcourse)
    Apr 24 11
  • Xilinx
    doofus_rik

    Go to company page Xilinx

    doofus_rik
    Been in Waterloo ON since 2020. Few things I wanted to add.
    1) Basic health care is free and taken care of the govt. Employers usually provide extended healthcare that covers prescriptions, chiropractor, massages, therapy etc. We have not spend a $ on anything health and wellness related from 2020. In the US I at least had to pay my copay of $25 and sometimes a little more for tests.
    2) Getting a good family doctor is hard. It is a long wait. But, once you get one you are good. We were fortunate enough to get a referral from my coworker. I have had ultrasound, radio medicine, x-ray appt without much delay. I had to wait for 3 months for the radio medicine appt but that due to the pandemic and they had to cancel all non-emergency procedures.
    3) The housing market has almost doubled since 2020, the rental cost is fast raising too. With many companies hiring fully remote positions in Canada, I only speculate this to further increase.
    4) Winter is okay, its not as bad as people write online. I was in San Jose and Bangalore for 30 years of my life and moved here. If you invest in good quality winter gear, you will actually enjoy the winter. There is nothing called bad weather, there is only bad clothing.
    5) People here are really really nice. I can not emphasize on this enough. They go above and beyond to genuinely help you. I decided to stay back just for this alone.
    6) I took a 40% pay cut too when I moved. I do make less that what I used to in the bay. But, we have also been able to buy a good house and a rental property here over the last 2 years, something which I could have never dreamed of in the bay area.
    7) Parents can get a super visa with which they can stay for up to a year which is a nice thing.
    Apr 25 4
  • You can’t bring parents to us unless you have citizenship, they can come for max 6 months a year.

    I’m Canada, it may be better.

    Salary is more in US.

    I will say US is better for career
    Apr 24 1
    • New
      Aqly47

      New

      Aqly47
      OP
      I have 3.5 years left to apply for citizenship, so it might be not that far to get them green cards I hope
      Apr 24
  • Amazon
    whoknows🤫

    Go to company page Amazon

    whoknows🤫
    Bringing parents on PR is super hard in Canada as it’s lottery based. Bringing parents in US is super easy once you have citizenship. There’s no quota but your parents wouldn’t qualify for medicare for 5 years. So health insurance itself will be in thousands per year if not tens of thousands. Not an ideal situation in either countries. Honestly I think staying in India is the best for parents and after you get US citizenship, maybe relocate to India. Indian tech scene is at apr with US if not better and you can come back to US anytime you want if you are fed up with traffic and pollution.
    Apr 25 4