Well if you have quick look it would suggest there are more Canadian migrants in the US than Brit migrants
Some rough numbers suggested they made up 10% of the US migrant population
or 2.5 x the number of Americans who moved north
Then factor in the relative population sizes .

Basically his contribution at his law firm is not valuable enough for them to get him a work permit.

Just another entitled white kid. We have enough of those in Canada.

After he leaves Canada in the next short while & gets back to Wales, I'm guessing unless he can find another 'short work permit' somewhere, that his website will die a quick death.

There are certain professions where you can obtain a visa and head south if you are a Canadian Citizen.

A friend of mine is a graphic designer and was able to relocate to San Fran with not too much hassle.

The list of professions is small but it does cause a brain drain in Canada in those professions because wages in Silicon Valley and NYC are 50 to 100% better.

Good for them then!!!

He'll be at the pub wondering why he can't jump the queue to get served at the bar.

When no one at the bar will give a toss about who he is or where he has been, then when he gets blathered, his next adventure will be running as an MP, all because he has a world of experience, one year at a time

Well with the introduction of NAFTA that made it easier for citizens of Mexico and Canada to seek work in the USA or each others countries. The TN visa for the US is very popular but is limited to the following professions
http://canada.usembassy.gov/visas/do...-by-nafta.html
Graphic Designer
Baccalaureate or Licenciatura Degree; or Post-Secondary Diploma or Post-Secondary Certificate, and three years experience

.[/QUOTE]


It's my understanding is that the proposed freedom of movement idea would be for everyone of the participating countries. Is this not the case? If it is the case, then for someone like my FIL to move here sure as hell would be a burden. Isn't having eligibility criteria what we have at the moment? It just seems some people don't meet them. That isn't the fault of the current system.

This. It seems the whole "commonwealth freedom of movement" thing is a whinge-fest dreamt up by this James Skinner fellow. It's not actually a real thing, it is so completely flawed as a concept that it has no hope of ever becoming a real thing, and is really not worth getting exercised over.

You're absolutely right of course. But for me this is a bit like a wobbly tooth that I just can't leave alone. It's the hypocracy of trying to give this some sort of veil of official mandate. What they actually mean is - I can't get in and I want to, so we should change the rules so I can.

I never said that Canada ranks lower than the US, I said it ranks low among OECD countries, which it does.

I also never said America is the best country ever, but the reality is that Canadians own a huge amount of real estate in the sunbelt in the US and if there was freedom of movement, a lot of retirees at least would decamp to the US. Regardless of the healthcare situation.

Great, Canada ranks 30th and the US ranks 37th. There's an incentive for an American to put up with a Canadian winter if ever there was one, not.

Well exactly, this is what gets up my nose when people say how great the healthcare is. Well, better access to it perhaps and less paperwork to plough through compared to the US but really the care itself is no better and saying the Canadian healthcare system is better than the US is really damning with faint praise.

Anyway I have to say I've taken to going to the US to see the dentist because I've found one who is far better than anyone I could find in Calgary and he charges less to boot.

TN-1 though is a non-immigrant status and CBP in recent years seem to be taking the approach that you can't maintain non-immigrant status past one or two "renewals" (more accurately, re-applications). Not unless you've actually lived in Canada at some point during that period.

It varies with the inspector you get obviously and what mood s/he is in but really do you want the future direction of your life decided by a CBP inspector at a POE once every three years?

I remember talking to a Canadian engineer who had been on TN-1 for 15 years (back when it had to be renewed annually) and he gave up and moved back to Canada because after his kids grew up his wife was bored senseless because spouses are not allowed to work. The company he worked for was a small outfit so LPR status was apparently not on the cards.

Yes Canadians have freer movement into the US than other nationalities do, but I wouldn't call it "free" movement.

U.S. border guards bar skilled Canadian from his job - British Columbia - CBC News

Is that a novel, albeit painful, tooth extraction method?