Why Indian h1b people not moving to Canada ?
Dec 11, 2020
195 Comments
Two things first:
1. I am only referring to Indian employees on h1b
2. Mostly interested in perspective of Indians on h1b
With the recent express entry from Canada, I was expecting an exodus of Indian people in gc backlog.
But so far I haven’t seen people working in big tech moving to Canada.
With the recent remote work options, will you take it over the uncertainty of the usa visa system?
If not, what stops you from moving to Canada.
Note: the s386 bill will likely never get passed, and if ur falling for that carrot, May peace be upon you ✋🏻
#workvisa #h1b #canada #remotework
comments
tc in India is better than Canada for talented folks, so many people rather move to India.
Middle aged folks understand that life happens and things change and root more for QOL and certainty, even if they take some TC hit.
Every time I visit India, it gets even harder to imagine that one can settle down there.
1. The weather and cold is mad. Please do not underestimate this at all! It will wreak havoc on your social life, mental well-being etc
2. Canadian cities are very very sparse on cultural activities IMO or just activities in general. Outside restaurants and bars there’s zero stuff to enjoy
3. Only 2 cities you can actually think of living- Vancouver and Toronto
4. There’s basically 10-15 companies here to roatate from.
5. Healthcare and real estate are out of control. You will not find a family doctor in Toronto/Vancouver period.
Moving here was an incredibly bad decision. I’m hoping to move back the next few months .
Uh no they are not without converting, my rent here is only $100 more than it was in Toronto, there were places available that were cheaper than I paid in Toronto too that I didn't like as much.
"Dude, I'd actually like you to find someone that's paying 1%, let alone 0.75%. it doesn't happen in the bay area."
I don't live in the bay area. I live in LA, where all of them nearby look like 0.75% according to the estimates, it is not rocket science to look at the estimate and divide it by the price. I don't know how the bay area differs.
"I think I've already shown its nominal. You implied it's not nominal because you don't have to pay property taxes or health expenses, but you are paying higher rent. For everyone who pays property taxes, or has a family thus has higher health expenses, it evens out."
You have in no way shape or form shown it's nominal, and even if you had that would still be the single highest tax state... I do not pay noticeably higher rent and even assuming 1% is more accurate for property taxes that is still only 0.4% over Toronto and Toronto has literally double the sales taxes. I just got my 2021 benefits guide today, the plan I am on is also free for spouse and kids! The most expensive plan Snap has with only $450 deductible (split among all family members) is $156 per month for spouse and kids. It sounds like you just have bad plans available at Oracle but maybe Snap has shockingly good plans even for tech idk...
"1. Which numbers are being fudged? I am not talking about huge uncovered medical bills, literally just having a spouse and/or kids is enough to spend 3-10k in medical expenses. I am talking about deductibles, co-pays, saving for HSA, etc, all the usual stuff people do. Your insistance that property tax rate being only off by 0.15% is getting annoying. If you want to continue believing that, go ahead, especially after what I provided above."
Lmao all of them. You are literally like 12k per year? Close enough! Your medical costs you are claiming are higher than if I hit the out of pocket maximum for the family plan every year. You are counting the property tax fully as if Canada has none and you have completely ignored Canada's double sales tax, literally almost double Ontario is 13% Quebec actually is more than double I think they're 15%. They also charge that sales tax on the new carbon tax, tax on a tax... Canada also has no tax deductions for mortgages (although there are tricks for that) and charges up to 5% of the home sale price (In Toronto if it is over 2 million, probably closer to 3.5% on the average house) up front as a tax. That could make up 10 years of the property tax differences right there. And if you ever want move you pay it again. I don't think California has a tax like that as far as I can tell. California is the closest state for sure but I really don't agree with it being "similar", it is not higher and it is literally the highest of all states.
"2. Yes, "a lot of states" have similar taxes to Canada. I didn't qualify that with states where tech workers tend to live, but that's essentially it - it's the states where tech workers tend to live. Perhaps the only exception is WA and Texas, although from my understanding Texas property taxes are absurdly high."
I mean Washington and Texas have the most tech jobs next to California and maybe New York as far as I know so... You are basically saying California and New York do and that's half of the major tech states so now it's a lot. I still don't agree with that but that's at least a lot better than just a lot of the states in general.
"Affording houses in both Toronto and bay area is very difficult. In Toronto your combined family income probably needs to be 180k+, and in bay area probably 300k+."
Yeah, 180k can afford an average Toronto house if you have 250k down which will take a good 5 years even as a careful saver on 180k income. Canada has much stricter mortgage rules and higher down payment requirements. The thing is though Toronto median income is like 60k lol. Bay area has around 100k median income, the pay to house cost ratio is a lot closer than it seems.
2. Yes, Canada is just GTA and Vancouver. I’ve no clue about rural Canada. Will take your word on it.
3. Bay Area can’t be compared to NYC. Bay Area is an outlier in terms of ethnicity.
4. If comparing apples to apples, NYC can be compared to GTA and GTA is no different in its welcoming nature.
2. Higher tax.
3. Less opportunities
4. Bad weather.
Just PR is not enough for most folks.
In all other cases, you are looking at anywhere from 3-10k annually depending on company and personal situation.