My outfit, TandemLaunch, has built 20+ deep tech companies in Montreal with people from all over the globe (some 40+ countries of origin). Depending on your background, there might be opportunities for you in one of those. Our companies range from early stage to those with 100+ employees so there are opportunities along the entire risk/reward spectrum (see here http://www.tandemlaunch.com/#portfolio). Obviously there are plenty of other great companies in Montreal as well.
Happy to help with any local insights if you are considering this beautiful city (including with immigration since we have literally done this 100+ times).
cheers Helge
We work with 50+ universities across the globe on the fundamental research and then incorporate the results in new tech companies like those above. Great fun :)
He was a research physicist that worked on developing High-Dynamic Range screens, so he's interested in businesses kinda like that.
The winters are extremely cold but if you don’t mind that it’s fine. Not sure about the salaries but I hear they are lower but so is the cost of living.
Only London and Paris are much bigger.
Mtl is about 4 million people, it's almost the same size as Madrid or Berlin or Barca. A little smaller than Amsterdam but really bigger than most else.
But it's tier 2 size in North America, but a strong tier 2.
It's really weird how people in NA don't know about Montreal. It kills most places for culture.
Montreal metro is 4 million. But Montreal has a special dynamic, by fact of being an island. It's not as well connected as Manhattam.
So there are two "bumps", one north and one south (Montreal has its own definition of North/South, btw)
Also, the 'division' is not geographic, it's cultural. East Montreal is French, West is English and it's bizarre how little social crossing there is. I live among the French and they don't even know about major things happening in the West Side.
It will get better when they build the new bridge though
Also, definitely not trivial, even as an American with a technical degree. The paperwork & process isn't hard but getting a TN sponsor is non-trivial.
Quebec also has their own immigration rules and you have to apply with them as well as with the Federal government. Not sure how TN's work in QC, but I know only Canadian PRs and Citizens can move there; if you're a temporary resident from outside of the province you need to talk to QC Immigration.
Caveat: this is based on old NAFTA rules, not sure how they work or if there are changes under the recently-signed "NAFTA 2.0."
Can you shed some light on this?
For a typical software engineer, taxes take away 25% of gross pay in Ontario while it's over 30% in California and New York. Cost of living is much less(by 30-40% if you rent) in Toronto compared to Cali/New York. Of course, you will also earn 40% less in USD. So it about evens out
Most new construction apartments are quite small, and the older, larger ones command a significant premium. You can move out of the downtown core (to North York, Scarborough, etc) but then you're committed to a long commute on the slow TTC or sitting in traffic on the 401.
MTL is much cheaper, but salaries also lag even further.
Also according to my calculations from the data on numbeo, the equivalent of (pre-tax) $135,000 USD in NYC is $110,000 CAD in Toronto. It is of course easier to get 135k in NYC than 110k in Toronto, but the difference isn't nearly as big as the CAD/USD differences and wage gap makes it seem. And if you can get a job in the Waterloo-Kitchenner area, CoL of course plummets. Freelancing for clients in the US or working remotely also has great advantages.
[1]https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...
I'm talking about the average for the whole salary, not the marginal rate for the highest bracket. It looks like you have to earn $250,000 CAD to get a 40% average, but that's a very high salary by Canadian standards.
The salaries in Canada, however, are just not up to par with the US. The CAD to USD currency rate is also not amazing (0.77 CAD to 1 USD last I looked).
I work remotely for an American company, but if I didn't it would be a huge pay cut for me.
Either a Travel+Toursim visa (depending if you're nationality of origin is eligible) or a Visa sponsored by an employer.
Happy to chat about what it's like to live in Montreal if anyone's curious.
More students per capita than anywhere (depending on how you define 'city' because of course Boston is a big one, but Mtl has 5 Unis right down town within a few Km of each other).
And 1/2 of the city is French, and it's like being in another country.
It has an intellectual/creative tradition from French culture, also, it's actually a global leader in AI, and not just one of those cities making pompous statements: UMtl has the largest AI research facility in North America, and $100M in spending announced, and ElementAI has raised hundreds of millions so this is no joke.
But the winters are very cold. And salaries lag. And taxes are high. Healthcare is universal and you will get service ... but it's not as good as in the US when you are covered.