Ask HN: Working in Canada?

[throwaway_s41]

Hi,

I am in the process of shutting down my failed startup in India and am thinking of applying for developer jobs (preferably in Rails) in Canada. I do not have a Visa and was wondering if Canadian startups/ product development companies are open to sponsoring visas for the right candidate. I have a fair bit of development experience and come from a really good college here.

I read through the immigration websites and did not find anything that stood out to be such a massive hurdle. Now, given the realities of the US H1B visa lottery, doing something similar in the US is practically impossible right now.

So people who have gone through this, can you give me some idea of how feasible this is? Should I bother applying at all or is it too impractical for a company to go through the visa hassle? Anything else that I should know/ consider before I start applying for jobs in Canada?

Thanks a ton for your time.

[GABaracus]

In my experience, most Canadian businesses won't consider you without the correct visa. I haven't really heard of too many companies sponsoring someone.

Have you considered doing some contract work through oDesk or similar? If you establish some contacts with American / Canadian companies and prove your value, they may be more inclined to help you come over.

[francoismathieu]

There you go: Start-up visa

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/business/start-up/ind...

[throwaway_s41]

Thanks for your reply. I don't want to start a company there, at least not yet. I want to work for someone there; something along the lines of a temporary worker (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/apply-who.asp) or even a federal skilled worker(http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/index.asp). The processing time for an FSW is about 19 months, too long for a typical employer to wait.