Obviously, governments and borders are outdated. I lived in 5 different countries (Russia, Switzerland, Italy, US, Denmark), and I couldn't help but wonder — why, why all this paperwork?
Is it really hell? How hard is it for a Canadian to live and work in the United States? I know quite a few Canadians who live and work here in the United States. (Indeed, I know people from all over the world here who are living here long-term and who are gainfully employed.)
AFTER EDIT: I am sincerely interested, and I think "hell" may be a bit of an exaggeration, so I'm not sure what's objectionable about this question. But let me know if you have an objection, okay?
It depends on your personal situation and there is great degree of arbitrariness.
Canadians can enter the country for 6 months without a visa. This makes it is easy to work illegally for people who are willing to take that risk.
There is the TN visa, which is easy to obtain. But it's only for 8 specific professions. I for one worked as a Computer Systems Analyst. A job title I never heard before that. Once you have this visa it's bound to your employment, when you loose your job, you have to leave the country in 10 days. This is a temporary visa and you can not apply for a green card.
Then there is H1B. This visa allows you to apply for a green card, but you can only apply for it on one specific date per year, if you can get it depends on a lottery (!), which decides if you can work 6 month later. Also it requires a mountain of paperwork, which however the companies lawyer will normally take care of. From there it takes 2-3 year to get a green card.
Personally I find it really strange that we (the U.S.) aren't working every day towards having an open border with Canada (it doesn't seem to be just Canada that doesn't want it).
I guess you'd need limitations on health care and an awareness campaign about it (so that confused people didn't travel in an attempt to save money), but other than that, I think the only stopper is the slightly higher level of paranoia the U.S. shows towards foreign visitors.
The TN visa is arbitrary and random. You are at the whim of an uneducated border officer, who gets to unanimously decide on whether you get to work in the US or not. Furthermore, its renewal is also at the whims of said officer. You better hope he's in a good mood, or you can say goodbye to GoogFaceMicroZon!
Try explaining to them why you have a degree in Electrical Engineering but work as a Data Scientist. My friend tried, and it would be funny if it didn't almost cost him his job. He literally got in due to a shred of mercy caused by his girlfriend's tears at the possibility of a refused visa.
The USA sometimes feels like a dystopian nightmare, mainly populated with idiotic yes-men and ruled by Machiavellian bureaucrats. There are a few niche ecosystems that are impressive, but they are by far the minority.
Don't renew at the border, don't change jobs at the border. Renew while in the country where your company lawyers send a small booklet of paperwork. Since there is no personal aspect to it, and everything is definitely in order, it gets approved and it only takes a few weeks. It's a far more objective process. It's what I've done twice so far.
You can theoretically only do the border visa part once.
Also remember to have the documentation when you cross the border, in case some border guard forgot to stamp your passport with your renewal number, which has happened to me.
Their computer systems are so bad (or they are so untrained) that they can't just look it up by passport number. It's supposedly a pretty complicated process on their end at the secondary screening office.
The TN program is easier than that. For the EEA you have to go down to the immigration registration office and, well, register.
For the TN program you simply present yourself to the immigration officer when you enter the country (this part is something that even a citizen will have to do), show them your documentation, pay $50, and you're done. You don't even have to fill out a form.
right. freedom to move is a basic human right, and should be recognized as such. My hope is that in a 100 years or so, we will view these times as barbaric, and be shocked at the fact that at some point in history people couldn't move freely, as we are shocked by slavery today.
