Maybe you are right. I spent 2 years in Houston and when I needed help (busted my knee), I got it in super short time (40 minutes in ER). I just had to pay small amount for a medicine. Tax accountant told me that he can get some money back from IRS but it's was like 5$ so I didn't want to bother.
They go via TN visa. H1B is a lottery system and it's ruined. I believe that last time I checked it, they had 85K spots and close to 300K applicants.
It would be way easier for me to get a job in Canada that I can use to transfer to the USA via L1. There are no US companies left in Russia (maybe some but nothing too large). On top of that, this was one of the options I explored when I was working in Moscow. It's not that easy to transfer to the USA on L1. Everyone wants that, so a lot of office politics get involved.
TN-1 visa on Canadian passport has one major advantage: It gives you an authorization at the port of entry. No need to go to the counslate or embassy.
If I were you, I will check with a US immigration lawyer about EB-2 NIW (self petition). OR may be buy a NIW kit. Lawyer will be better IMHO.
While that may enable a person to obtain work authorisation in the US quickly, it has several restrictions and it isn’t even as good as what Australian citizens have in terms of E3. There’s this misconception that the TN visa is a great privilege when it really isn’t. Spouses of E3 visa holders can work in the US while spouses of TN visa holders cannot work, which in my opinion, is a very big restriction. My ultimate point being that neither of these visas are used for permanent settlement in the United States and people eventually have to be sponsored by their employers in order to gain a shot at permanent settlement. For citizens of Russia, who have no issues when it comes to green card backlogs, it seems like a massive waste of time to wait for probably five years, in order to gain citizenship in Canada, and then move to the US under TN, and then eventually convince your employer for sponsorship when instead, in those 5 years of waiting, you could directly apply to employers and seek sponsorship. Tech workers who have in demand skills should not have any issues in being sponsored by US companies. You probably would have received your green card by then and you could even apply for US citizenship. In hindsight, nothing really changes and you eventually have to seek sponsorship anyways. You’re ultimately making things more complicated and longer through TN. This is just my personal opinion.
It is VERY likely that spouses of someone getting TN is also a canadian citizen. Couples often immigrate together. Yes there will be few folks who will have citizen+non-citizen pairs but most will be citizen-citizen pair. Even in case of citizen - non-citizen pair, its going to be a temporary situation for few years. One can apply to become citizen in Canada after 3 years and become a citizen in 4-5 years total.
Well, look it at this way, TN gives you almost a guaranteed entry into US labour market. Having a TN-1 does not stop you from getting a H1-B in future. It allows you to easily switch job without any wait for processing at embassy -- unlike some HB-1. If you loose your job, no problem! Get another job in US and immigration will not be a headache. You can stay in US as a visitor (may be you need to re-enter).
I agree, thats why I told him to look into possibility of EB2 NIW using his masters degree from waterloo. Even if it is just bachelor's degree, add 5 years of work exp in CS/IT and you can petition for EB2-NIW.
Thank you for the advice. I will check it out.
I can totally understand. IIRC, we had a similar talk before on this thread and you mentioned about your fatigue with immigration. You are right, its one of these torturous thing.
Immigration fatigue is real. When I moved to Canada, I also had mixed experiences and I think most people who move from US may find Canada a let down on many things. I think primary driver is decrease in income and almost everything being expensive in Canada compared to US. So, in my initial days I dreamed of going back to US almost daily on TN visa (may be hourly). Couldn't wait to apply for citizenship. My reasons were quite similar to what @MajorGrom has been saying here (enjoying US vs Canada discussions). But now after 3+ years and having sent in application for citizenship that desire to move has been dwindling down every month ... Just tired of moving around. Just the thought of packing up all again and moving once more is brutal. I mean it will still again start with all those things .. looking for a new place .. furnishing it again , either buying a new car or exporting old one .. Just the thought of doing all those admin tasks again fill me with dread ..
There is a reason why immigration is a professional service. It requires real effort. The way around it is you delegate it to someone else -- for a price. Let them handle all the nitty gritty of immigration while you focus somewhere else.
The effort isn't doing the paperwork. It's always uprooting and moving, always trying to go to the next thing. Never feeling permanent anywhere even if your title says so. Personal greed does play a major role in it.
To me, uprooting moving part is not that big of a trouble. It cuts only for few weeks.
Horrible time.
