H1B, Why do we hire Canadians when there are enough qualified Americans?

With all the discussing on twitter right now about H1B and foreign workers, I’m wondering why firms hire and sponsor Canadians instead of prioritizing students from the US?

There are more than enough 4.0s from top Ivy League students with excellent resumes for the job, but when looking at firms like Evercore, or even Blackstone’s Private Equity Analyst program, there are multiple Canadians that got hired.

Are Canadians that much better than Americans that we sponsor their visa and also take a job from an American?

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Think about how much Canadians have to grind just to get a spot at the Big 5 (essentially LMM-MM by U.S. standards). It's such a competitive process that any Canadians good enough to make it beyond the Big 5 and get to the States are truly cracked. Also, I wouldn't say it's because they have "better" resumes than your 4.0 HSW kid, but more so because they fit the "non-target grinder" image. This is why a lot of those placements are at complete sweatshops like MoCo where the firms know they are selecting for hard workers with a perpetual chip on their shoulder/slight insecurity that will make them work 100 hours a week with no complaints because that is still better than ~$76M junior mining deals at Scotia.

 

Canadian in the US here. 

a. we typically don't come on H1Bs, we come on TNs.  Canadians in fact don't require sponsorship or even a visa so they're not that much more administratively challenging than hiring an American

b. talent arbitrage; do you want to take the 80th percentile of NYU or  the 1% of Ivey/Queens?  Not arguing school quality but as everyone knows, there are a lot of not super-talented people at great US schools.  Same with Canada but now we're talking about the top 1%

c. stickiness - Canadians are less likely to drop a firm after a year and chase something else, due to the fact they're trying to convert into a green card / don't want the hassle of doing the TN again

d. Canadians are culturally similar to Americans so they blend in easily

 

Canadian in the US here. 

a. we typically don't come on H1Bs, we come on TNs.  Canadians in fact don't require sponsorship or even a visa so they're not that much more administratively challenging than hiring an American

b. talent arbitrage; do you want to take the 80th percentile of NYU or  the 1% of Ivey/Queens?  Not arguing school quality but as everyone knows, there are a lot of not super-talented people at great US schools.  Same with Canada but now we're talking about the top 1%

c. stickiness - Canadians are less likely to drop a firm after a year and chase something else, due to the fact they're trying to convert into a green card / don't want the hassle of doing the TN again

d. Canadians are culturally similar to Americans so they blend in easily

Hey boss, can you expand on the not needing sponsorship or even a visa as a Canadian? Thought you definitely did require that to get a job in IB in the U.S.? 

 
synthetic

Canadian in the US here. 

a. we typically don't come on H1Bs, we come on TNs.  Canadians in fact don't require sponsorship or even a visa so they're not that much more administratively challenging than hiring an American

b. talent arbitrage; do you want to take the 80th percentile of NYU or  the 1% of Ivey/Queens?  Not arguing school quality but as everyone knows, there are a lot of not super-talented people at great US schools.  Same with Canada but now we're talking about the top 1%

c. stickiness - Canadians are less likely to drop a firm after a year and chase something else, due to the fact they're trying to convert into a green card / don't want the hassle of doing the TN again

d. Canadians are culturally similar to Americans so they blend in easily

Expand

Hey boss, can you expand on the not needing sponsorship or even a visa as a Canadian? Thought you definitely did require that to get a job in IB in the U.S.? 

you should consult a credible source but my understanding is TN is a NAFTA privilege and allows Canadians and Mexicans that are professionals in certain fields to work in the US under a non-immigrant status that does not require USCIS approval (it's all done at the border).  Technically, investment banking is one of the categories that does not fall under the TN but banks have been getting around it.  The most practical path for many is TN as a young person to NYC, which has a very deep pool of single, young people, and then marry a US citizen ---> Green Card.  Otherwise you have to change status from a TN to H1 (which is a lottery system) and then apply for GC.  

 

If you aren’t good enough to get a job in banking just say that. The process should be a complete meritocracy, with the best candidate irrespective of nationality getting the job. Funny how the people crying about DEI programs (I am against DEI too fyi) want their own DEI programs to disadvantage internationals even more.

 

Thats not what the H1-B visa program says. Its if you can't find a qualified American. This is displacing American jobs

 

There are dozens of qualified people who don't get offers. This is an easy job

 

As an American, the vast majority of Americans are low iq, lazy, and entitled. Nobody ‘deserves’ a high paying job, the best person irrespective of race or nationality should get it. As someone who went to a public HS, I actually agree with Vivek’s point on culture as it’s something the majority of Americans lack.

 

The point of H1-B is if the US labor pool just cant supply those jobs. Its not to hire internationals that are 2% better than Americans like its being used now

 

H1B is to complement the US jobs market, not to overlap it with internationals. Obiously the bigger your potential pool of applicants the better the outcome.

I bet the UBS justification is going to say couldn't find any American qualified which is a lie

 

Are we really so far gone that we have resorted to hating on what might just be the friendliest neighbour in the world?

 

How many internationals do you actually hire? It’s a nonissue compared to the tech issue atm.

The only area of top finance this actually occurs at a meaningful level is HF, and that too is because we can’t train you to be not retarded 

 

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