Quite a few people have mentioned Canada's skills-based system. This sounds far and away better and clearer than the unmanageable "Founder's Visa".
BUT REGARDLESS, America will not be "The World's Tech Leader" with American elementary and secondary schools in the shape that they presently are in (and more multiple choice testing isn't it either..). Funny how this never gets mentioned in these "Tech Leader" debates (cultural math phobia might even deserve being addressed here).
Having been on the receiving end of Canada's 'skills based system' I can testify that it is less than perfect, to put it very mildly.
After waiting for five years for paperwork to come through we packed up and moved back to the Netherlands, I could simply not justify having my child in school with a potential culture change in case our application would get denied in the middle of his secondary education.
The Canadian system is on paper very entrepreneur friendly but in practice a lot less so.
For maximum irony, after they figured out that we really did move back to Europe and took our investment with us (as far as that was possible, some of the real estate is still up for sale even today) we got our papers within a couple of weeks. So, after we left it was no problem to give us our status, but as long as we were there there wasn't any way to get the process unstuck.
Total frustration. If you plan on moving to Canada, make sure you get your paperwork BEFORE you start anything or make any investments, no matter what the local, provincial or federal government promises you that they will do, once your negotiation position is hollowed out by your investment or move their incentive to give you any status disappears.
And make sure you apply for health care within 30 days of moving there, otherwise you are in for a world of trouble.
joe_the_user says:
"America will not be 'The World's Tech Leader' with American elementary and secondary schools in the shape that they presently are in"
Unconvincing.
Despite the current state of affairs in elementary/secondary schooling the US graduates more Ph.D.'s in most fields than can find suitable jobs Excluding occasional shortages there are more than enough excellent students in the US education pipeline to more than fill all advanced degree job openings in the US.
BUT REGARDLESS, America will not be "The World's Tech Leader" with American elementary and secondary schools in the shape that they presently are in (and more multiple choice testing isn't it either..). Funny how this never gets mentioned in these "Tech Leader" debates (cultural math phobia might even deserve being addressed here).