Introduce yourself 🙂

Hi, I’m Vik and I recently moved from an H1B in Silicon Valley to a PR in Toronto. I love California and my life there but I decided to prioritize being free over all else. I initially didn’t know much about Toronto or Canadian PR so I had to do a ton of research. It did help that I had friends who had moved there but Canada does a bad job of marketing itself.

We have now lived here for close to a year and love our life in Toronto. We even have friends who have also moved here from places like Singapore and California, And love it too.

When people I worked with back in the valley started asking about my move and Toronto I decided to write it all down. This few weeks of writing turned into the MOV North website which subsequently went viral on Linkedin. I understood that people would have questions so I invited people to ask me anything. I wasn’t prepared for the avalanche my Email, Twiiter and Linkedin inboxs are flooded. Clearly a lot of the tech world is interested in Canada.

Launching the MOV North Network (forums) is my way of helping answer everyone’s questions and also building a like minded community to help with the move, life and jobs in Toronto when you get here.

Thanks for helping I promise it will create value for everyone. And feel free to introduce yourself below.

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Hello

I am Prakul. I am currently located in Austin, Texas. I have lived in Silicon Valley for a Year and realized cost of living was killing me so made a move to Austin.
I love both Silicon Valley and Austin, both have some great advantages and few disadvantages.

I am looking for Canada as a new home since the wait is pretty long here and with alot of recent changes a lot of things dont have a visibility, which makes me concerned.

Thanks again for this great initiative.

Nice to meet you, welcome to the site. I’m slowly migrating content and people from our old Wordpress site to this one which is much better. I have friends in Austin they love it there. I lived in the Bay Area for the past 6 years and totally understand when you say its pretty expensive.

We’re pretty happy with our move to Toronto. We have other friends here who also moved from the bay area, and I have even more reaching out to me about moving. Toronto is a fun, safe and less expensive city. Also great schools and kids all around so our kids love it. The freedom of having a PR is like living back home your free to do anything. We fly in and out of the country without the worrying if we’d we let back in :smile:

Hi,

I’m Karan, been working with a web company in California for 4 years. Working on my PR application. Thanks for this site its been very useful. I am doing the application myself. Will be active here asking about software companies and jobs in Toronto.

People just don’t know enough about Toronto. Canada does a bad job marketing itself. I want people to see that Toronto is a very cool place and together we can make it a pretty solid tech center.

I am Preet. I work in software for a large bank in New York. I have been working on an H1B for a few years now. I do not see a way for me to get a GC without waiting for a long time. Honestly I like my job but I’m happy to move to Canada if I can have more rights. I have been to Toronto once I liked the city.

Welcome Preet. I understand, sounds exactly like the situation I was in.

Hello All,

I am saurabh form Mumbai, India. Contemplating on moving my based.

Thanks
Saurabh

Saurabh,

Good to see you on the forum. Tell us more what area do you work in and do you have any plans for when you get to Canada. As in do you want to work remotely for the same company, work for a different company in the same space or do your own startup?

Thanks .

I work in Information security space. I am currently working for a European company delivering security services and helping them penetrate into new geography. I am giving it next 15-24 months based on how things shape up for me. I am already working on getting things ready to apply. You website has been very insightful with good pointers.
In terms of job I would love to work with same company if it works out else will have to look for new job in Canada. That said , can you give some insight into the security(network security/ information security) space in Canada?

Thanks
Saurabh

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Hello ,

I must appreciate your thought of putting up this article “moving from silicon valley to toronto” on web. Indeed it was useful to me, honestly I am struggling hard to decide should i move from silicon valley or not to Toronto/Vancouver.

Let me tell you about myself. I am working in silicon valley since last 2 years before that I was working in MEA market since last 13 years. Thus at this age I am looking forward for something stable option. Your blog has actually reinforced my thought to go ahead with this decision.

Most of the people say that getting a Job in Canada is tough. They have regard only for Canadian experience. Please share your experience on this?

Can you suggest any good job consultants there in Canada, who has good reputation in local market?

You are the second person to ask about the jobs and companies in the security space. I’m looking into it should have some data soon.

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I am actually into IOT(internet of things ) domain mainly focused on oil & gas sector. So looking forward for reputed job consultants.

Thanks Kanishk. Honestly I was exactly in your spot. I was at a certain point in my life that I wanted something more stable for myself and my family. Add to that there was hardly any information about Toronto / Canada online. Yes there was info about immigration but nothing that painted a complete picture. I needed that data and something to help paint that picture for me. Everyone in the world knows about Silicon Valley or NYC but about a place like Toronto less so. The idea with my site was to help people better make a better decision about moving to Canada. and I like it here my whole family is happy we took this call which is also why I felt more confident telling people about Toronto.

You didn’t mention what work you do? Are you in tech or finance? The previous waves of immigrants that came to Canada were very different and were from more traditional professions. The bar was not high enough and this caused many to have a hard time finding jobs I feel this might have led to that reputation. With FSW and now Express Entry the bar is much higher and its for skills like finance, management and tech that are needed by the local economy. I found that companies here struggle to find dependable and experienced talent. People who have previous work experience in Silicon Valley or other major tech centers are quite valued.

I’m still looking into head hunters, recruiters and job consultants that I can recommend on here. One good thing especially for you would be to get on Linkedin and start sending out feelers to companies as soon as you get your PR confirmation.

Mention you have the PR and an legally work in Toronto anytime. Also say you are currently in the valley and looking to move to Toronto. This was my approach to trying to understand tech jobs in Toronto and I got a great response. Once you have the PR you can even fly in for interviews, etc. H1B creates a captive mindset its important to realize that once you have PR your free to take your time to pick a great company and negotiate like a local no more H1B transfer and other immigration formalities.

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Hi ,

I am actually from tech background (B.Tech & M.Tech in Electrical Engineering from NIT) . Presently working as Sr. Project Manager cum Solution Architect for IOT solutions.

I am there in Linkedin but for finding jobs & doing effective networking, i will go ahead for the paid version :slight_smile:

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Hi,

I am Veena and my husband’s name is Omkar. I created this account for the both of us.

We have been in the US for 9-10 years. We came for higher studies and then started working here. I am a software engineer and my husband is a mechanical engineer. I have been in the Bay Area for over 5 years and my husband moved here 2 years ago. We have stayed in multiple places in the US and find the Bay Area to be the best (now only if it wasn’t so expensive! :expressionless:).

US has almost everything but we haven’t been able to find stability here. There’s always that uncertainty when the time for extension comes up or when there are mass layoffs happening in the industry. Parents can’t visit for longer than 6 months. We got fed up of these restrictions and decided to start looking for a different country to move to. We explored a few options and even considered moving back to India. I had pushed Canada to the back of my mind for some reason but recently when I was reading some posts on Quora, I came across one by and that had a link to Mov North. That got me interested and we started considering Canada as a serious option.

I am still new to this process of understanding about Canadian PR so I guess I am going to be active on this forum. This is a great place to learn and help each other out. Thank you for creating this, @anon25417004! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Hi ,

Thanks for the initiative

Our case is almost similar to any other person working in US on work permit, we both are working from Dallas, TX for last 2.5 years and total exp of 9 years (offshore from India). I am trying to apply for Canada PR with exact same reason as yours that its like in US we will be waiting forever for GC.

I have few questions for the process, will keep bugging you :slightly_smiling_face:

Regards,
as

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Sure thats why we are here :slight_smile:

Hello,

I’m Albert from Accra, Ghana. I work as a freelance software developer. Just started the PR process (ECA report and IELTS). Very happy to be here.

Thanks
Albert

@alag welcome to the community I hope we can help you though the process and after. What kind of tech do you work on?