By admin
Canada Seeks to Attract Tech Workers Affected by U.S. H-1B Fee Hike
On September 19, 2025, the US President Donald Trump announced a proclamation hiking the fees of the new US H1B Visas to $100,000. H1B visa was majorly given out to talented high tech workers. These tech workers were considered to be the “secret weapon” of America by renowned American physicist Michio Kaku. Hence, it is no wonder that these workers are also highly sought after in the world.
In the shadow of H1B visa fee hike many countries like Canada have seen this as an opportunity to retain local talent and recruit foreign workers. At the end of the 2025 Global Progress Action Summit, Canadian PM Mike Carney while addressing the reporters cited opportunities for Canada in the aftermath of H1B visa hike.
He told them that many talented tech workers are not going to get H1B visa and Canada is going to give some offers to those who will be left out. This was preceded by his comments given on September 22, 2025 at Council of Foreign Relations, New York, USA. In his comments he stated the importance of H1B visa hike on retaining Canadian talent in fields of research and AI.
What are the measures taken by Canada to retain Tech Talent?
Starting with a work permit helps a foreign expat get permanent residency as work experience gained while in Canada facilitates and strengthens his or her candidature for Economic Immigration Programs. In Canada, work permits fall into two categories namely Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) and International Mobility Program (IMP). TFWP needs a Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) while IMP is LMIA exempt.
LMIA allows Canada to explore its labor market and assess the same for local candidates. In the case a local candidate is not available then only a foreign worker is allowed a work permit under TFWP. TFWP consists of several streams including Global Talent Stream, which was introduced to help employers in Canada, fast-track the hiring of foreign tech talent. Its major objective is to establish a two week standard processing time for work permits under Global Talent Stream.
IMP on the other hand is exempted from LMIA.
In September 2024, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada introduced a new work permit under Tech Talent Strategy. This falls under IMP and gives skilled foreign workers with a job offer from one of the eight employers participating in Global Hypergrowth Project access to LMIA exempt work permit.
Canada’s Tech Talent Strategy also includes a streamlined work permit for H1B specialty occupation visa holders. This initiative met its cap of 10,000 applications in one day on July 16, 2023. Other options for foreign workers in tech include Intra Company Transferee Work Permits. This helps companies to call key foreign employees from their offshore locations to their Canada Office.
Foreign Nationals can also apply for Canadian PR through Express Entry System.
To be eligible for Express Entry System, one must be eligible for three federal immigration programs namely:
- The Federal Skilled Worker Program
- The Canadian Experience Class
- The Federal Skilled Trades Program
In 2023, Canada launched category based selection draws to help Canada meet its requirements in sectors that demand labor. STEM is one of the categories listed in category-based selection draws. This gives STEM workers an advantage over other general candidates in terms of requirement of lower Comprehensive Ranking Score. Albeit the last time such a draw happened was on April 11, 2024.