What Vancouver gets right that Seattle (and the U.S.) gets wrong

Emily Parkhurst
Staff Writer- Puget Sound Business Journal

Microsoft announced this week that it’s more than doubling its work force in Vancouver, B.C., going from about 300 workers in the city to 700 by the end of next year, with plans to invest $90 million in the Vancouver facility.

But that’s not the surprising thing.

Back in 2008, Microsoft opened an office in Richmond, B.C., just south of Vancouver. That office was primarily a place where workers who couldn’t get U.S. visas would work for a few years, then transfer to Redmond or another U.S. office.

Now, though, Microsoft says 80 percent of its employees in Vancouver are Canadian citizens.

“We do hire a lot of Canadian workers who come to Redmond for various positions in the business. I don’t think this will change that significantly,” said Karen Jones, Microsoft’s vice president and deputy general counsel for HR law.

As Microsoft develops a larger presence in Vancouver, she said, Canadian citizens will stay in Canada instead of transferring to the U.S.

So how did Vancouver change from a funnel for foreign workers eventually coming to the U.S. into a permanent stop?

The answer is in the Canadian immigration system. More here.