Indians are now choosing Canada over the United States because of the outdated US immigration policies, immigration and policy experts have said testifying before a panel of US lawmakers, underlying that the per-country quota on issuing the green cards is driving Indian talent away from the United States. Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee-Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, National Foundation for American Policy Stuart Anderson said the backlog is increasing and, within a decade, more than 2 million people will be waiting in line for the green cards and they might have to wait for years and decades.
Without Congressional action, the total backlog for all three employment-based categories (EB 1, EB 2, EB 3) for Indians would increase from an estimated 9,15,497 individuals currently to an estimated 21,95,795 individuals by fiscal 2030, Anderson said, as reported by PTI.
In March 2021, employers filed 3,08,613 H-1B registrations for cap selection for FY 2022 for only 85,000 H-1B petitions, which effectively means over 72 per cent of H-1B registrations for high-skilled foreign nationals were rejected even before an adjudicator evaluated the application.
On the other hand, it is easier for international students to work in temporary status and then acquire permanent residence in Canada. Jennifer Young, CEO, Technology Councils of North America, said Canada’s pre-pandemic immigration rules allowed its companies to hire high-skilled foreign talent in even four weeks.
India has been contributing significantly to the number of international students in the United States. For example, out of the US’s total full-time graduate students pursuing Computer Science, 75 per cent is from outside. In the 2016-17 academic year, two-thirds of the international students were from India. According to an analysis of the US government data by the National Foundation for American Policy, this share has declined by more than 25 per cent between 2016-17 and 2018-19.
At the same time, Indian students studying at Canadian universities rose by 127 per cent, from 76,075 in 2016 to 1,72,625 in 2018, according to the Canadian Bureau for International Education.
