For decades U.S. companies have sought out and successfully recruited talented foreigners to work for their American based businesses in a specialized, specific capacity. Classified under H-1B visa immigration status, “which helps employers hire foreign-born workers for high-skilled, high-paid jobs,” said Seattle immigration attorney Tahmina Watson, she’s seeing a ‘seismic shift’ in visa approvals, reports Geekwire in its December 2017 article.
Seattle corporate immigration attorney, Lola Zakharova says, ‘the spike in H-1B rejections’ is related to President Trump’s executive order titled, “Buy American, Hire American” which reportedly tasks the Departments of Labor, Justice, Homeland Security and State “to suggest policies to reduce fraud and abuse of the H-1B visa,” reports Geekwire.
These changes could be a further boon for tech development in Vancouver, already underway with the “Innovation Corridor” initiative started in 2016, says Jim Pettinger, President of UCanTrade, Inc.
As reported by the New York Times in their October 2016 article, “Next Big Tech Corridor? Between Seattle and Vancouver, Planners Hope” , Microsoft president, Brad Smith said, ‘[Canada’s] more open immigration policies [were] an important factor’ in its reported $120 million investment in new Vancouver offices back in June 2016. Microsoft was reportedly aiming to hire more than 750 people in the city.
Microsoft’s commitment to the Cascadia Innovation Corridor appears to have ‘deepened’ as it has reportedly backed a Seattle-Vancouver high speed rail study which was announced at the second Cascadia Innovation Corridor conference, held in Seattle this past September. “By linking our two cities together through cross-border collaboration, research, funding and educational opportunities,” said Smith, “we will spur new economic activity and opportunity that creates a better future for everyone.”
TradeTips blog is published by UCanTrade, Inc., your cross-border experts since 1984.
Subscribe to our TradeTips Newsletter for the latest import/export events and trade news, and/or call us at (360) 380-6900.
Website: www.UCanTrade.com
Phone: 360-380-6900
Email: info@UCanTrade.com
Twitter: @UCanTrade
1-360-380-6900