Microsoft Expands in Canada Amid U.S. Visa Crunch
Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it will open a software development center in Vancouver, giving it a place to employ skilled workers snagged by U.S. immigration quotas.
It may signal the start of a new hiring trend, with other U.S. high-tech firms following in Microsofts footsteps to Canada, where lawyers say it is easier for foreign nationals to obtain work credentials.
This is a smart move for the company on one hand. Since the beginning, MS has concentrated development in Redmond, continuously expanding as the company grew until it owns so much of the town that there is serious concern that there are not enough actual residents there. Satellite offices at MS might as well not exist at all as far as most of the Redmondites are concerned. Moving Research and Mobile to the other side of the 520 sent a pretty strong signal about their relative importance. Those folks might as well be on mars. Now imagine what it will be like in Vancouver. It is time for this company that has tens of thousands of workers to spread out a bit. I would imagine that they are also losing applicants because of the high cost of living in the Seattle area as well.
However, the one thing that MS is forgetting to state in all of this is that by opening offices in Canada, they are saving money. They could get all the qualified applicants they could ever want if they would pay them well relative to the rest of the industry. Since MS isn’t willing to be competitive with salaries, they have become dependent on the modern day equivalent of indentured workers, H1-B visa holders. Now that congress has been (wisely) closing that loophole, MS is taking their ball and going home. That will show those employees wanting more than a %2 raise from the most profitable software company in existence!
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