Ha, that’s funny! I know no place is a utopia, and Texas isn’t ideal in any way but given the COVID situation, Florida and Texas look like a better place to be in, especially as a software dev. There is a reason why people move away from Cali to Austin. Plus, you could move to any of the states while Canada has a handful of cities with mostly the same climate.
I know I’m not only speaking for myself here but Canada is a bridge for most immigrants I know. Come in, get a PR, get a passport in 3-4 years and move to the US. If the US had the same system as Express Entry, Canada wouldn’t be as attractive. That’s facts. The local IT industry started to grow when the US became harder to immigrate to. Once that changes, only non-STEM professionals would end up in Canada IMO.
COVID lockdown here in Toronto is one big nonsense. The local government’s behaviour really turned me into a conservative cause I don’t understand any decisions made by the current administration. Delaying my application definitely didn’t help their case either.
All the talk about immigration friendly policy is just a talk here. No cap on countries (like the US has), just accepting too many applicants (like we saw with 27k of CEC and 75pts) when there are people who have been building their lives to help their immigration cases here and abroad and are still stuck. Studying, gaining work experience, moving across the world, saving/spending hard-earned money, and several IELTS tests as a grown man – all for nothing because we are de-prioritized now while some dudes with f'n 75 pts get in a line before us. It’s not just by any means. Any fool from a backward country can agree with that. We all worked hard to get our points, including studying when we didn’t need to, working jobs that we didn’t like just to get those LMIA points – moving to places that we wouldn’t choose had we had the PR card in our hands. Basically, giving away years of life and this is how we are treated.
I don’t see any excuse they could possibly have. It’s been an Internet age for decades. People sign multi-billion dollar transactions online, why woudn’t immigration officers of one of the most richest countries in the world be able to tackle a few thousand cases for people who are inside the country (with no COVID risk, at all)? It’s a rhetorical question.
Best of luck to you and your family too!