Hi,
My husband and I are on H-1B visas currently. Our 6 years complete at the end on this year. My I-140 is approved however we are not getting visa extensions here. We are considering applying for Canadian PR but since that process takes more than 6 months, I wanted to know if there was a workaround where we can come to Canada on work visa and then continue with the PR process? What would be the process for this? I am into IT whereas my husband is a mechanical engineer.
Regards,
Veena
Can I ask why your visa extension is not happening even after you have an I-140? If you wish feel free to ignore this question or reply using the a private message.
You have a couple options. the first would be to file for Canada PR (Express Entry) from the US and take a long holiday outside the US while you wait for the invite. The other is to move to Canada on a work visa and file PR when you get there. Having a job in Canada when filing under Express Entry almost guarantees you a PR.
Another recent change thats in your favour is that the government has reduced work visa processing time down to less than 2 weeks. Either ways you will have to begin your hunt for a job in Canada soon. I’m working on a blog post to help people with this hoping to publish it later today.
I have been working on the same content management system for the last 7 years and the demand for that has gone down considerably now. You would think that the skills could be transferred but when I apply to jobs, they need the exact CMS and not just the transferrable skills.
Since that wasn’t working out so well, I completed a web developer bootcamp certification through Udemy and started looking at UI positions but every one has rejected stating that my experience has been in other languages and tools and that the certification would not get me a job.
On top of that, since my 6 years of H-1B are completing, a few employers that I spoke to said that they were not willing to file, even though I have my I-140 approved. One of the reasons is the longer processing time since premium processing is currently unavailable. Another reason being that a lot of job openings are only for citizens and GC holders.
It’s frustrating to see that your experience and skills don’t count, especially in Silicon Valley. Even if I do get something now, it does not give me that assurance of stability until I actually have the GC in hand. And I don’t think I want to spend another 12-15 years waiting for that.
Thanks for all your help! 
Which Content Management solution you are referring to here? Not SharePoint right?
It’s called TeamSite. It was last acquired by OpenText.
I’m a little surprised by this. I agree that most recruiters have filters in place and rarely look beyond those but one can always turn to their network. Linkedin is worth its value because of this sometimes it just takes a lot of rejection to find something that you’re looking for. I would recommend looking for jobs on Linkedin and seeing which ones you’re connected to though a first degree then reach out directly.
I am already doing that. I have the Premium membership for LinkedIn as well but the demand has actually gone down for the TeamSite CMS. I have also noticed that at the moment, most of the US companies which I came across aren’t willing to transfer H-1Bs. One of the reasons cited for this is that premium processing is unavailable.
On another note, I wanted to check if Toronto has a good number of mechanical engineer/manufacturing engineer jobs since my husband is into it? What are some cities where there would be a decent number of IT and mech jobs?
I am about to begin my Canada job search soon and plan to use LinkedIn. What are some other job sites which are more popular for job search in Canada?
Its possible that your experience being so specific to just one CMS limits the opportunities you are seeing. It might be useful to take a step back and highlight the work instead of the technology. As in speak about you work in content management for the company as opposed to specifically on Team Site.
Linkedin itself has a job and salary site. https://linkedin.com/jobs and https://linkedin.com/salary. Additionally https://www.indeed.ca/ is pretty poular here. Along with https://www.glassdoor.ca
Thanks for your inputs, !
Hi,
Thanks for all the helpful replies, but the Topic says “Moving to Canada: Options” and most of the discussion is abt H1b and i-140. Could someone please share the actual Canada moving options and how to proceed for those options.
Your right the thread could do with a better title. As for moving details I have a separate “topic”. Do you have any specific questions maybe about moving your car or finding a house. Happy to help.
Thanks I meant to say like Express Entry, PNP ( in case people have less CRS scores) or any other
I changed the thread’s title. Hope that helps!