Need a visa, eh?

Earlier this week I wrote about one of the things the US has been doing (or at least thinking about doing) to discourage travel to this country. Obviously, one of the biggest disincentives to travelling to the US is the whole border experience, even for citizens. It’s even more complicated for many of those who would like to stay and work in the US.

One of the most common visas for those who want to work in the US, particularly in the technical fields, is the so-called H-1B visa. The problem is that the H-1B is subject to a quota and a maximum duration, and has been wildly oversubscribed in recent years. Even for those who get into the US on the H-1B, the next six years are an ongoing period of continuous uncertainty, dependant as they are on a single employer for both the current visa and, if they want to remain longer, the next visa as well.

This in spite of the fact that other countries have attempted to lure away highly skilled technical people with their own versions of the H-1B. Those too were fairly limited in scope and duration, and didn’t really impact the number of people seeking H-1Bs into the US. Now, though, times are getting tougher, and H-1Bs are losing their jobs in increasing numbers. Losing a job means also losing the right to live and work in the US (since the visa is dependent on a particular job for a particular employer in a particular location), which means a high level of trauma for people otherwise used to the relative comfort of professional life.

Now, though, the Province of Alberta, Canada has decided to take advantage of the situation with a new advertising campaign. The headline of the full page ad in the Philadelphia Inquirer today was “Milk has an expiry date. You shouldn’t.” The Province is offering permanent residence visas to live in Alberta for certain temporary skilled workers, and is even holding information sessions in cities across the US to recruit for it.

Strangely, the URL in the (expensive) ad appears to be wrong, but the Province may well attract some very talented people who are tired of jumping through the hoops needed to live and work in the US.

Do you know someone who might be interested in checking out what Alberta has to offer?