How do I get out of Canada???

Hi, 

Does anyone have any advice on how to move from Canadian Banking (for me Corp Banking) to U.S. Banking?

I would need an H1B/Sponsorship to get into the US so wondering if anyone has any advice/suggestions on ways to make this transition and thoughts on current climate to do this with Biden in the house now

2 Comments
 

It will likely be difficult navigating the move from CB from Canada to US. Frankly I'm not sure why you would even want to as scale, pay and upward mobility for CB is pretty comparable across the two. H1B for a fresh applicant is out of the question. Firms will only sponsor H1B if you're already working for them, and it is a crapshoot lottery at the end of the day. However, Canadians can leverage the TN visa so you're not out of luck there. Frankly the brain drain from Canada to US is most doable for IB or the buy-side, of which there are many more entities / sophistication in the US where Canadians can fill in the gaps / compete (ex. EBs have M&A services but not CB). There is no reason for a GS/MS to hire a Canadian for CB.

Ultimately if making the move for whatever personal reason is most important to you, I suggest looking into a top 25 US MBA or pivot into IB first within Canada. I will note though that from what I've seen, the only Canadians that make it to the US as IB laterals are 1) the 1-3 bankers in Calgary that transfers intra-firm (so GS Calgary to GS SF/TX), and for some reason RBC M&A guys. There is surprisingly little transfers elsewhere intra-bank amongst the Big 5 and EBs on both sides of the border (Evercore, Lazard). 

 
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