Changes to America’s renowned H-1B program – including a $100,000 fee for new applications – has made headlines around the world. International workers who aren’t already on H-1B visas and companies that depend on global talent are both worried about their futures.
Unsurprisingly, this has led to many comparisons to Canada’s immigration programs, including one we wrote. However, the spotlight on immigration has overshadowed other advantages that make Canada an exceptional place for growth-focused tech firms to expand.
We’re aiming to remedy that problem. Here are four big advantages – including immigration – that growing international companies will find in Canada.
Global talent: available
If there’s one word to describe the Canadian business immigration system, it’s “stability.” For the United States, it’d be “chaos.”
As a lottery, the H-1B program adds significant uncertainty to the business environment – with 470,000+ applications for the lottery in 2025 and just 85,000 available visas, the chances you’ll get an H-1B visa for your employee are slim. Oh, and they close the lottery group when they reach a certain cap – in 2025, if you didn’t get your application in within the first 18 days you were out of luck. Processing time for an H-1B is 3-8 months, too, so that employee isn’t moving to the United States anytime soon. And now, it costs $100,000 to simply submit the application (and you don’t get a refund if the application isn’t successful!).
The Canadian advantage is simple – the Global Talent Stream isn’t a lottery, it accepts applications year-round and eligible applications will always be approved. Costs are minimal and the visa can be available within a matter of weeks.
Save money, get more runway in Canada
When CBRE released its new Scoring Tech Talent report, it provided the following overall costs for opening a 60,000 sq. ft. 500-person office:
- Boston – $2.8M (rent) + $63.2M (workforce) = $66M total
- Raleigh-Durham – $1.9M (rent) + $56.2M (workforce) = $58.1M total
- Pittsburgh – $1.5M (rent) + $47M (workforce) = $48.5M total
- Waterloo – $1.2M (rent) + $38.5M (workforce) = $39.7M total
- Calgary – $1.5M (rent) + $37.8M (workforce) = $39.3M total
- Vancouver – $2.3M (rent) + $39.4M (workforce) = $41.7M total
The thing you’ll notice is that all of the Canadian locations are far less expensive.
The cause? A combination of factors, but the biggest driver is exchange rate, which consistently gives you a 25-35% savings over the United States. That helps to explain the lower salary costs and, generally, less expensive commercial lease prices. It might also surprise you to learn that Canada’s payroll taxes and benefits costs are much lower, too.
Want to explore this more? Check our interactive Tech Talent Calculator, which allows you to build a tech team and compare salary, benefits, taxes and more across 15 North American markets.
More/better tech talent
In the most recent CBRE report, Canadian communities held six of the top-20 spots – 30% of North America’s best tech talent markets are in a country that’s just a tenth of the size of the United States. Canadian talent markets are growing faster than American ones, they have a higher density of tech talent and they’re younger, too.
Where is this youthful tech workforce coming from? Canadian universities. Canada is home to four of the twelve largest computer science programs among North America’s top-25 tech schools. The University of Waterloo alone has nearly 5,000 students enrolled in computer science and software engineering.
The Canadian advantage is that we have far fewer tech hubs and a far greater concentration of tech talent in those hubs.
Welcome to your stable operating environment
Uncertainty is a killer in the business world.
While no country can claim to eliminate uncertainty – there’s little Canada can do about America’s current policy of slapping a tariff on anything that moves, for example – there are basic pillars of stability that can lead to a more predictable operating environment for your company.
Unlike the United States, Canada has a broad political consensus on supporting businesses and building an environment where businesses can thrive. We may change governments, but you’re unlikely to see the wild policy swings you might encounter in the United States. Canada also has a strong social and cultural stability – you don’t see the violence and daily disruption that grabs headlines in America.
Canada is boring, and boring is good for business.
Get your Canadian advantage
If your tech company is looking to expand, it’s time you start taking a close look at Canada. At some point, the strongest argument was that we simply cost less, but the reality is that we’re now beating the United States on the basics. Our talent is better, younger and more highly concentrated. We give you access to a global talent pool. We’re a stable place to build your company.
If you’re looking to grow, let Waterloo EDC help you.
Our organization was set up to help companies like yours expand into Waterloo, Canada. We can help you do comparative research, identify talent sources, meet local business leaders, connect with recruiting and legal expertise and more. You don’t have to pay for our support, and there are no strings attached.
Key Takeaways
Here’s what you need to know about Canada’s clear advantages for high-growth tech companies:
- Canada’s immigration programs are considerably more reliable and efficient than in the United States, while costing companies far less in government fees
- Operating costs in Canada are lower than in the United States, thanks mostly to lower salaries and taxes, cheaper benefits and commercial real estate and a consistently favourable exchange rate
- The United States holds no real talent advantage over Canada – in fact, only the Bay Area and New York can compete with the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor in terms of talent market size and graduate quality
- The operating environment in Canada is more stable than the United States, with broad consensus on basic economic and social norms