Amazon and Google both have big offices in Ontario (Toronto and Waterloo, respectively) which are growing quickly. Easier time with immigration issues, a low Canadian dollar (cheaper salary costs), and very low health-care costs for the company. Why would they not?
Bias note: I work at Amazon Toronto. (We are hiring! my username@amazon)
Indeed, Microsoft has an office in Vancouver for the same purpose. You don't even need to produce anything in that office - after a year there an employee becomes eligible for the L-1A/B visa, which is not capped like H-1 and has an additional bonus of having the employee bound to the employer (there is no "transfer" of such a visa so to change the job the employee will have to compete in the H-1 lotto). Not every company can afford a year-long on-boarding process but if you have a pipeline of foreigners coming in it's a robust solution since you can get anybody on any salary and in a bound time.
My theory why this is not happening is the US at-will employment laws. Opening offices in foreign countries has a few downsides. In addition to the extra recurring costs to rent a building, most (if not all) first and second world countries in the do not allow employment-at-will. Instead they require extensive documentation when someone is fired, and are subject to the wrath of employment tribunals.
US companies want to eat their cake and have it too. By importing H-1B workers, they can fire them for any reason whatsoever. So it is more a question of low cost labor, and the flexibility to fire for any reason which is driving H-1B demand.
If you don't mind me asking, is your salary compared to the people in Canada quite high? (Kind of like in the U.S.) I know that in some countries making money as a software engineer is as lousy as working in a bakery.
I get paid more than most developers in Toronto, afaik. I get paid less than developers of the same level as me in the Seattle office. I moved back from Seattle, knowing that.
It always comes down to income vs cost of living ratios and differences. I've heard the best one within Amazon is the Bangalore office.
Only housing is higher in the bay area as compared to Toronto (disregarding exchange rates - assume one is paid US/CDN and pays rent in USD/CDN).
So if you pay $1000-$2000 more in the bay area (not unrealistic - I just did a deep-dive on a move from Toronto to SF) your base salary in CDN should be in the area of $125k - $175k if the issue is cost of living.
From what I've seen, Toronto salaries are about half that, I've seen positions advertised for as low as $65k and the highest I saw was $110k (both CDN) for an engineering manager.
Amazon and Google both have big offices in Ontario (Toronto and Waterloo, respectively) which are growing quickly. Easier time with immigration issues, a low Canadian dollar (cheaper salary costs), and very low health-care costs for the company. Why would they not?
Bias note: I work at Amazon Toronto. (We are hiring! my username@amazon)