HN user
There is (was?) a program in Alberta to fast track PR for any H1B holder - so if any highly skilled foreigners in the US just made it to the border they were welcome. Of course you end up working in Alberta !
Without a visa though you are at the mercy of the highly paid and highly educated experts on international affairs and terrorism that man the passport desk at the airport.
If they think you have stayed too long, visited too often or they just don't like you - you are denied entry. Once denied entry you have to jump through all sorts of hoops to ever be allowed to visit the US.
There are 2 parallel systems. Permanent Resient takes a few years to process, requires higher education but has very few limits. Then each province has a fast track for needed skills, you must have a job offer and have some specific trade/qualification but it takes < year. IFAIK you can change jobs once you get there.
That is still a problem, especially in BC. Everybody wants to live in Vancouver, so they can pay peanuts
That is one problem with moving to Canada - you will have to become bilingual in sarcasm+irony. There are federal programs to help with this, or you can inrole in monty python-immersion school.
If you kick out all the Indians/Chinese/Russians then American kids will all switch from law school to doing physics PhDs to take all the superbly paid jobs in American industry. It's only the presence of foreigners that is causing Americans to fail science and forcing them to aim for law and MBAs in their struggle to find a job.
The only restrictions are you can't vote in federal elections and can't join the army. To keep PR you have to be resident for 3 out of every 5 years, but after 3 years you can get Canadian citizenship.
You can work for anyone or no-one, start your own business or continue working for a foreign company.
You are subject to intensive interogation by Canadian immigration every time you enter the country. You will be grilled for several seconds on topics such as 'how are you?' and 'did you have a good flight?' - other than that it's the same as entering America.