A Damning Look at the Canadian Tech Sector

Re:A Damning Look at the Canadian Tech Sector by peterarmstrong on Thursday September 13, 2012 @04:16PM (#4518341)

The challenge is that as a Canadian it's a lot easier to get a TN-1 or H1-B as an employee than as a founder. So the valley is full of Canadian expat employees, not founders. Hopefully some of those will return to Canada and become startup founders. (That's what I did.)

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Re:A Damning Look at the Canadian Tech Sector by zmitri on Thursday September 13, 2012 @04:54PM (#4518543)

Yep. Need to have x00K in the bank to legally work for my own company.

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Re:A Damning Look at the Canadian Tech Sector by enraged_camel on Thursday September 13, 2012 @04:47PM (#4518506)

>>The challenge is that as a Canadian it's a lot easier to get a TN-1 or H1-B as an employee than as a founder.

It's the same in the US. If you're an immigrant, it's incredibly difficult (if not outright impossible) to get a work visa to work at a company you founded. There are a few "founder visa" type bills being discussed in the Congress, but all of them require the company you have founded to have a hefty revenue as well as a handful of employees. In other words, they are only for founders who are already successful.

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Re:A Damning Look at the Canadian Tech Sector by peterarmstrong on Thursday September 13, 2012 @05:10PM (#4518639)

That's what I meant: the TN-1 and H1-B visas are the US visas that Canadian employees get in the US.

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