Moving to canada

[kevinUsa]

Long post warning! But worth it for folks in their early career.

Some food for thought for folks who are around 25-35 years old and on H1B with No Priority date (PD) or 2017 or later PD.

Little about myself and my story, I am a 31-year-old, married, spouse, on H4 and Perm pending, with a new-born USC kid, and have been in the states for close to a decade. I came for my master's (non-IT) and worked for decently good companies. My H1 didn’t get picked in 1st two years of OPT, which made me explore backup options. Accidentally, I met a guy through our mutual friend who was working on his Canada PR. I joined him too in that journey. Luckily, my H1 got picked in the last attempt but kept pursuing the Canada PR option as a backup, eventually getting it for both me and my wife. Though it was a backup initially, I am now making this my primary option, even though my company is sponsoring my GC.

Thoughts provoked me for taking this step.

Work-life: Being in need of sponsorship, I missed out on some opportunities that felt very interesting work-wise. Also, I had to let go of some considering all the immigration hassle I will have to go through and how it would affect my travel plans for the upcoming year. I even tolerated bosses that were almost dictators (non-desi) and micro managers, just for sake of avoiding conflicts with visas.

Mental Peace: Having the backup made me realize how instability affects your mental health. I was more at peace when recent layoffs happened compared to 2020 when I didn’t have PR and there were no layoffs in my company. I saw 15-20% of my mental energy was spent either collecting documents, filling out visa-related paperwork, or thinking and following visa-related news and articles. This time can be effectively spent with family, personal well-being, or side hustle. For every event I attend in desi groups, 30% time is spent on visa-related rants. Some folks have not left US borders for almost a decade in sheer fear of not being able to back if something goes wrong.

Layoffs: More than the fact of losing job, it’s the stress of finding another one in 60 days that is a hard pill to swallow. Based on where you stand in your life, you have to sell all your belongings, car, house, furniture etc in those 60 days while you are searching for job. Then uproot spouse and kids too from their lives for no fault of theirs. Making any big purchase decision comes with intangible factors of uncertainty. If you are a citizen or permanent resident of a developed country, you can take time to reflect, up-skill, or even venture out into entrepreneurship and even drive Uber to get by tough times if you don’t have emergency funds. Most developed countries even give you unemployment benefits when you lose job, so you don’t have to stress so much.

Traveling: I experienced firsthand how it feels when your closest family member is in poor health condition and you are struggling to travel because of a visa situation. Thinking about visiting family makes you go through the stress of a visa, may it be for coming back to the US or even transiting from another country, let alone the hassle of applying/spending for a visa to visit any other country. You miss most of the important events (weddings, festivals, and bad times when your family needs you the most) to the point where you slowly become a pseudo-family member who cannot be counted on except for monetary help.

House: Your risk appetite is higher when you are a permanent resident of a country. You may not be able to afford a 3000-5000 sq.ft mansions (getting common in the South-east) but you can have a comfortable 1500-2000 sq.ft home in most places in the world. I grow up in a 1,000 sq.ft apartment with a family of 4 and it felt sufficient, and my dad grew up in a house smaller than that with thrice the family size.

Immigration status: Temporary visas are mostly bridges between you immigrating to a country and becoming a permanent resident. In our case, this has become an endless bridge that can collapse at any moment. I do not see any willpower in any political party to ever change that. Also, this is beyond our control. If we continue on this journey, most of us won’t even because GC holders at retirement, which means we either work till death or are forced to leave the country at retirement, unless you have a USC kid who will sponsor your GC but you will probably in your 50s by then.

Message to folk in their 20s and early 30s: We have more than half the life to live, why to live in such a limbo? We may want to try different career paths, maybe explore entrepreneurship, run a restaurant or take a sabbatical and go on a world tour, why restrict ourselves. US does provide fantastic opportunities, knowledge, and money. Grab all of it as much as you can and leverage that to move to a place of stability. May it be India, Canada, Australia, or any other country that offers what you are looking for without being unreasonable. It may feel like a step back but would help to take a leap in improving your life. We are like frogs in boiling water just need to know when to jump out. In your 20s when single, it feels inconvenient, early 30s its difficult and 40s it feels almost impossible to make these moves. If you still want to pursue the American dream, maybe up-skill and strive in your career and make a goal to come back on L1A, or EB5 by earning money in whichever country you end up in. Lastly, World has enough for our needs, not our greed (not my lines).

If this post helps any individual to improve their life I would consider it a successful post. Nothing wrong in sticking to what's going good for you. Your situation might be unique and these may not apply to you. This was for a general audience

[kevinUsa]

https://m.facebook.com/groups/630370187740345/permalink/1366305100813513/?mibextid=Nif5oz

[kevinUsa]

Janalu Canada lo edo undi anukuntunnaru infact ikkada snow tapa em ledu

[TOM_BHAYYA]

2 minutes ago, kevinUsa said:

Janalu Canada lo edo undi anukuntunnaru infact ikkada snow tapa em ledu

Nuv aa @Jason Bourne manchi ga poyi gas stations pettukoni lachhal lachhal india ki pampukuntu mammalni mathram ikkade visa tensions tho ekkada heart attack osthadha ani fixxxxl fattukoni bathakamantunnava

[kevinUsa]

3 minutes ago, TOM_BHAYYA said:

Nuv aa @Jason Bourne manchi ga poyi gas stations pettukoni lachhal lachhal india ki pampukuntu mammalni mathram ikkade visa tensions tho ekkada heart attack osthadha ani fixxxxl fattukoni bathakamantunnava

Abba abba

[csrcsr]

1 minute ago, kevinUsa said:

Janalu Canada lo edo undi anukuntunnaru infact ikkada snow tapa em ledu

Em ledu anadam too much snna

Manchi infra laga undi , there are fewer jobs to us, weather Chicago Minneapolis level kana takbe undi, jobs baane unayi antunaru anna 

Cons

Major housing, taxes worst undi

Jobs are only located in 3 placesToronto Vancouver and inka edo oil hub forgot province name.

Free health care but emina problem vasthe biscuit unless emergency they put us in back, e punjabi domination kuda penta laga undi

But some companies near shore laga chala petayi 

 

[futureofandhra]

2 minutes ago, csrcsr said:

Em ledu anadam too much snna

Manchi infra laga undi , there are fewer jobs to us, weather Chicago Minneapolis level kana takbe undi, jobs baane unayi antunaru anna 

Cons

Major housing, taxes worst undi

Jobs are only located in 3 placesToronto Vancouver and inka edo oil hub forgot province name.

Free health care but emina problem vasthe biscuit unless emergency they put us in back, e punjabi domination kuda penta laga undi

But some companies near shore laga chala petayi 

 

Easy pr n citizenship which is biggest prize 

[Vaampire]

Actually canada is not a bad option. You can get PR much easily. Okka normal job plus okka chinna business tho happy ga undochu anukuney vallu consider cheyochu. 
 

[kevinUsa]

1 minute ago, Vaampire said:

Actually canada is not a bad option. You can get PR much easily. Okka normal job plus okka chinna business tho happy ga undochu anukuney vallu consider cheyochu. 
 

evaru chepparu sir anta easy ani 

[Vaampire]

2 minutes ago, kevinUsa said:

evaru chepparu sir anta easy ani 

I was comparing with US GC. Canada lo PR ravadaniki enni years paduthundi sir?

[kevinUsa]

4 minutes ago, Vaampire said:

I was comparing with US GC. Canada lo PR ravadaniki enni years paduthundi sir?

currently konchem kastam ga undi 

[8pm]

37 minutes ago, kevinUsa said:

Janalu Canada lo edo undi anukuntunnaru infact ikkada snow tapa em ledu

Mari nuvveppudu 10stunnav india ki

[Vaampire]

Just now, kevinUsa said:

currently konchem kastam ga undi 

Oh ok.

2 of my first cousins got canada PR bro. Idhariki less than 5 yr stay in canada ney. 
 

from what i heard, some people working in US moved to canada locations with internal transfers and got PR’s in fast process. 

[baabaa]

Canada telugu batch plan is to get Canada Passport and then jump to India with remote jobs so they can come and go anytime or jump to US on TN/H1B.

Naku telisina friends andaro PR lo 3 yrs eppudu finish avutundi ani kaapu kasukuni koorchunaru. PR status lo 3 yrs ayinaka canda passport vastundi anta.

[kevinUsa]

6 minutes ago, baabaa said:

Canada telugu batch plan is to get Canada Passport and then jump to India with remote jobs so they can come and go anytime or jump to US on TN/H1B.

Naku telisina friends andaro PR lo 3 yrs eppudu finish avutundi ani kaapu kasukuni koorchunaru. PR status lo 3 yrs ayinaka canda passport vastundi anta.

almost andaru ante le