Double Blind

Microsoft is setting up a building in Richmond, BC. There are plenty of articles (e.g. at the Tyee) with speculation, but ignore everything you are hearing about it since the following is closer to the truth:

The USA H-1B visa has been the standard route for tech companies to get people from foreign countries to work in the USA. There is a restriction of 65,000 H-1B visas per year and thus it is very difficult to obtain. What happens is that for one day in the year, the “window of opportunity” opens and companies can apply for H-1B visas for their prospective employees. Since the USA receives far in excess of 65,000 visas, a lottery process ensues and companies are told months later which people received and which did not receive the visas.

Frustrated at the process, Microsoft is going to try another route: The L-1 visa, which has no restriction on quantity. All that needs to happen is that you have to be an employee of a foreign subsidiary of a US company for a year and then you can come to work in the USA for five years once you get the L-1.

An interesting quirk of the USA immigration system is that if you are married, your spouse can come to the USA but not work if you have an H-1B visa. If you have an L-1 visa, your spouse can come and work in the USA.

Anybody in the Lower Mainland that wants to get a job with Microsoft that doesn’t want to move to Redmond, WA, you are totally out of luck. I continue to find it funny how the local politicals say that this is a huge economic coup for British Columbia when actually we’re just serving as an immigration bypass for US corporations.

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