Canada to benefit from Trump's immigration bans

The Trump administration’s decision to suspend new work visas for skilled foreign workers

will have huge implications for countries like Canada and Australia. The Trump measures include the suspension of H-1B visas and new green cards for permanent residents. More than 500,000 skilled and highly skilled immigrants could be affected and will look at other options.

Canada, for instance, is eager to attract such skilled workers and introduced a Global Talent Stream in 2017, bringing 40,000 workers to Canada during the subsequent two years. This program is geared to make it easier and faster for skilled immigrants to enter Canada and to obtain permanent residency and citizenship relatively quickly - companies often can get visas for highly skilled workers in just two weeks.

Canada is already one of the most popular immigration destinations and relative to its population, Canada takes in three times as many legal immigrants as the USA. The country annually receives more than 350,000 newcomers, of which more than 176,000 are accepted as federal or provincial/territorial economic categories. Trump’s policies have just ensured that such skilled migration to Canada will increase substantially throughout 2020, at least in so far as the Covid regulations allow for such migration.