TORONTO — Canada wants to tap an international talent pool already close at hand, with a new program to bring in skilled foreign workers living in the United States. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced the pathway for H-1B visa holders on Tuesday at the Collision tech conference, along with other measures in a new federal strategy targeting tech talent.

The programs follow a wave of layoffs by tech giants and startups that have affected workers in both Silicon Valley and Canadian ecosystems, even as advanced economies compete to attract top professionals. 

Starting next month, foreign workers who hold U.S. H-1B specialty-occupation visas will be eligible for three-year open work permits in Canada. Ottawa is opening the window for one year for up to 10,000 applications. 

Post-pandemic, “workers are more mobile than they’ve ever been before,” said Fraser, speaking at The Logic Summit in Toronto on Monday, ahead of unveiling the Tech Talent Attraction Strategy. “Whoever wins the race for talent is going to set themselves up for success for the next generation.”

Switching to Canada under the new program may provide workers with more immigration stability than they have in the U.S. The H-1B is employer-specific, and holders who lose jobs tied to their visas must find another within 60 days, or leave the country. That requirement left many foreign tech workers in the U.S. scrambling following the recent wave of layoffs. Ottawa is offering an open permit, allowing holders to work for almost any employer. 

Remaining in the country long term may also be easier in Canada. The U.S. typically grants permanent residency to only 140,000 people every fiscal year under employment streams, though it raised the cap last year to 281,507 as a one-off measure. The system also limits the citizens of any one country to seven per cent of the green cards issued. Indian and Chinese nationals have between them accounted in years past for most of the H-1B visas issued, and many wait years or even decades for permanent status because of the caps.

In Canada, the Liberal government aims to grant permanent residency to up to 277,250 people via economic-class programs in 2023, with the high-range target rising to 326,000 in two years. Innovation-economy workers make strong candidates under the country’s points-based system, which favours youth and professional qualifications, as well as local work experience, which they’d be able to gain on the new three-year permit. “Canada wants you,” Toronto immigration lawyer Robin Seligman told The Logic in 2020. “Young, educated techie—perfect.” 

Canada has benefited from disruptions to the U.S. tech-labour market and immigration system in recent years. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada approved temporary-residency applications for 20,391 U.S. residents between April 2017 and June 2022 under the Global Skills Strategy, according to The Logic’s analysis of departmental data. But most were likely foreign workers living in the U.S., since Canada only admitted 1,691 U.S. citizens over the same period under the fast-track program.

The Trump administration constrained use of the H-1B program, claiming companies were using it to bring in cheap labour. It also slowed processing. The program’s denial rate has fallen under the Biden administration, which has also taken a more open stance on immigration. It is also allowing international STEM students to remain in the country longer once they get their degrees, matching Canada’s post-graduate permits. The U.K. and other countries have launched similar schemes to attract tech talent.

“Certainly the ebb and flow of immigration policy in the United States has an impact,” Fraser acknowledged on Monday. But “people who are coming from India, from Nigeria, they’re looking at the Canadian opportunity because of the growth of the [tech] ecosystem.” A pathway to permanent residency in Canada is more appealing than a short-term opportunity in the U.S., he said, adding that the relative quality of life is also a major draw.

Fraser’s strategy will also include a new stream allowing employers to bring in foreign workers from anywhere in the world without having to prove they couldn’t fill the job domestically. IRCC has not yet determined what form the program will take, but plans to launch it by the end of the year, said spokesperson Remi Lariviere. 

One option could be to focus on the 10 firms selected for the Global Hypergrowth Project, an initiative designed to give promising scale-ups priority access to government support. Those companies would be able to hire workers on five-year, employer-specific work permits. Another option would be to create a stream for “highly skilled workers in select in-demand occupations.” 

Fraser said the latter version would allow workers to come to Canada “without a job offer, if they are actually amongst the most talented people in the world.” The department will consult with industry on the mechanics of the program, he said.

The new stream answers a call from the Council of Canadian Innovators, a scale-up lobby group, which made a series of talent-related recommendations last March. “When software engineers, data scientists, technology product managers and other key professionals are able to come to Canada, they will be snapped up by companies that are desperate for skilled workers,” Nick Schiavo, the council’s director of federal public affairs, said in a statement that welcomed ongoing industry engagement on the program.

At The Logic Summit on Monday, Fraser unveiled another key component of the strategy: Accelerating the processing of permanent-residency applications under the Start-up Visa program, and giving more flexibility to work in Canada while they wait. Ottawa is also considering a plan to attract so-called “digital nomads,” who live in one place but can work for an employer anywhere.