As vicious infighting in President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement over the controversial H-1B visa magnifies uncertainty for foreign workers in the U.S., Canada last week approved a new fast track program to entice holders of the visa into taking their skills northward.

The budget Canada passed Nov. 17 contained a provision intended to strengthen the country’s “innovation ecosystem,” address labor shortages and “attract top talent in healthcare, research, advanced industries and other key sectors” through “an accelerated pathway for H1-B visa holders.”

The budget did not provide details of the program but said it would roll out “in the coming months.”

The move followed Trump’s proclamation in September imposing a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas issued to people outside the U.S.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, three days later, in a speech in New York at the Council on Foreign Relations, said, “I understand you’re changing your visa policy.”

Canada’s Consul General for Silicon Valley and San Francisco, Rana Sarkar, told this news organization that his country was seeking to strengthen its economy and make it more self-sufficient and resilient to “global shocks.”

The H-1B, heavily used by Silicon Valley technology companies, has become an explosive issue for Republicans, pitting supporters of the tech industry — who promote the need to lure skilled workers from competing nations — against anti-immigration hardliners, who see the H-1B as a mechanism for taking jobs from Americans.

Trump, in his first administration, cracked down on the H-1B, dramatically boosting denial rates for new visas in 2018, mostly targeting staffing companies. A rule issued in his first term that raised minimum H-1B pay was killed by a lawsuit from the Bay Area Council, Stanford University and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

However, Trump has become close to tech industry leaders, bringing some in as advisers, and receiving millions of dollars in donations for his inauguration and new White House ballroom from companies and CEOs. Recent statements by the president in support of the H-1B have fueled a conservative backlash against the visa. Meanwhile, Trump’s administration generated more uncertainty for H-1B workers when, earlier this month, it stripped the ability for people holding the H-4 visa — for spouses of H-1B workers — to receive automatic extensions for their work permits when their renewal applications have been submitted but not fully processed by immigration authorities.

The H-1B is intended for skilled foreign workers, but researchers have found that staffing companies — which supply contract workers to tech companies, including Silicon Valley giants — employ many holders of the visa at salaries below prevailing wages.

Annually, 85,000 new H-1B visas are issued by lottery. Tens of thousands of H-1B holders are estimated to work in Silicon Valley. This year, Meta received 6,294 H-1B approvals, Google received 5,552, and Apple received 5,382, federal government data show.

“It’s natural to expect that Canada wants to pull the globe-leading talent that we have in Silicon Valley,” said Peter Leroe-Muñoz, senior vice-president of technology and innovation at the Bay Area Council, which represents businesses including Google, Apple and Meta. “They believe there is present opportunity to poach skilled immigrant talent from the U.S.”

It’s not the first time Canada has sought to capitalize on America’s divisions over immigration by poaching prized technology industry workers from the U.S., particularly Silicon Valley.

In 2023, Canada unveiled a program tailored to lure H-1B workers away from Silicon Valley. The “H1-B specialty occupation visa holder work permit” program hit its maximum of 10,000 applications the day after it launched.

A decade earlier, Canada put up a billboard by U.S. 101 between San Francisco and Silicon Valley that said, “H-1B problems? Pivot to Canada.”

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