Issue#35 Immigration should be a temporary problem

If you are in Canada/ US thinking about a pathway to Permanent Residence, this article is for you.

Immigration in much of the developed world has a basic problem. Its getting harder to transition from temporary to permanent status.

This is not breaking news. It has been building up for a while now.

During the 2023-24 academic year, the US had 1.1 million enrolled international students. Compare that to the roughly 140,000 Green Cards the US allocates to skilled-immigrants each year.

It’s TINY in comparison.

And we aren’t even accounting for workers on the many work visa programs. Neither are we considering the entrepreneurs, extraordinary ability workers who can get direct permanent residency from abroad.

All of these folks will compete with the students for the same 140,000 employment-based Green Cards.

So, what about Canada? There are over 3 million temporary foreign residents in Canada as of Q3 2025. Many of them will want to become PRs. Meanwhile, Canada has planned 380,000 new PRs for 2026.

That’s just 1 spot for every 10 temporary foreign residents in Canada.

The reason I’m writing this newsletter is that a few (very!) short years back, I was facing the exact frustrations many of you are - “What do I do?!? I have no straightforward pathway to PR!” Navigating that challenge and now, having lived as a PR in Canada for 4 years has made a few things very clear -

Immigration is a problem that MUST be solved. Even at the cost of significant upheaval.

Exploring challenging pathways that need significant time and effort? Start planning Looking at other countries? Move sooner rather than later.
Want to move back to your home country? Don’t waste any more time

This about a serious problem you could face. Not having PR/ citizenship - that is, immigration certainty, makes that problem much worse.

Health issues? You can’t stop working or cut your hours.
Hate your work? You can’t switch jobs easily or even just quit.
A loved one is sick? You have to think twice before traveling.

And possibly the worst one from an immigration perspective, troubles in your marriage? Your immigration status may be connected to your spouse’s. Even worse, you may be forcefully separated from your child, if they are born outside your home country.

I experienced this firsthand during Covid. I was in the US at the time.

I was on a visa type that would be barred from re-entry to the US. This meant, if I had to go to India to help my parents/ in-laws, I would not be able to return to the US. If I had PR, this would not have been an issue.

I DREADED getting a call from India that either parents/ in-laws had fallen sick.

Most of all, I HATED that immigration had put me in the impossible position of having to choose between my husband and my family.

Fortunately, my Express Entry application was already in place. I hoped desperately for the situation to be resolved.

I’ve seen several rationalizations for not taking action on immigration:

1. “If it crashes and burns, I’ll just leave”

If this is in your head, you may not have considered this: There’s a world of difference between leaving on your own terms and being forced to leave.

Its the difference between finding a new job versus being fired/ laid off.
There’s a reason people don’t usually stick around until they’re laid off. They choose to find a new job and leave on their own terms.

Both are disruptive. But the former is empowering and the latter can be really painful.

No one likes being rejected. And when that rejection comes with being kicked out of the country, the impact of that to your well-being can be significant. Having a deadline also leaves you with fewer good options and less time to prepare.

Why wouldn’t you choose to leave on your own terms, if you could?

2. “I did it once, I can do it again”

Every immigrant has said this wistfully a few times in their lives:

“The first 2-3 times I moved, it was 2 suitcases and a backpack. Last time, it was a truck!!”

Yup, your needs change over time. I’m sure you’ve noticed.

There’s a reason international moves are largely a young person’s game - they tend not to have families. They also haven’t typically acquired homes and cars, investments and tax complications.

The longer you stay, the more plugged into you get into systems of the country. And the harder it is to establish yourself into another system. The stronger your emotional connection to the place and the harder it is to uproot.

You may still have it in you to do it. But be honest with yourself - it does get harder the longer you stay.

3. “Work is really busy right now”

Why are you building a career abroad? Is it just to learn skills and gain exposure? Isn’t the goal of working to support a life abroad? If that’s the goal, not having immigration sorted out is a MAJOR hole in your plot.

Its like assembling a couch with no legs.

4. “Things are fine right now”

I’m glad they are! All the more reason to get immigration sorted now. Surely the worst possible time to deal with a hard, challenging problem, is while you’re facing another hard, challenging problem, right?!?

Tamanna Ramesh is a food scientist-turned-business strategist and career coach in the US.

In mid-September, she received the call we all dread deep down - Her dad was in intensive care. The situation was unclear. It all happened really fast.

Within mere hours, she was on a flight to India on what would be an emotionally difficult trip.

She lost her father just as she was boarding her flight.

She expresses her grief profoundly and powerfully in a LinkedIn post and I will not try to re-capture here what she has already shared so eloquently herself.

As Tamanna reflected on some of the hardest weeks of her life, among the many things she felt grateful for, was the fact that she had a Green Card.

That one thing stuck with me.

There’s no doubt this was a difficult experience. But she was saved the absolute HELL many visa-holders in the US face when their family faces the worst -

Being torn between their immigration situation and wanting to be there for their family.

Needing visa stamping. Having an application in process. Fearing international travel due to hostility at the border. Worrying about getting stuck abroad due to visa processing delays.

These are REAL anxieties. Anxieties that pit their life in the US against being with family in a needless, shattering binary. I share Tamanna’s story also because she is passionate about immigration too. She helps guide immigrants in the US on EB1, which she herself successfully pursued.

A few years after Rohin got PR and moved to Canada from the US, he realized something. He had stopped getting cavities in his teeth.

And this was a significant improvement for him. He had battled cavities his entire life. Despite not having any obvious issues.

But what does PR have to do with cavities? They are are about as related as tires and toothpaste!

See, stability is more than just knowing you aren’t going to get kicked out. Its a mindset shift. You unpack your bags. You spread out a little. You put down roots. You address more of your needs.

And for Rohin, that need was going to a dentist regularly and not just when he had issues. This meant regular check-ups, cleanings twice a year. Some good, old-fashioned “Prevention is better than cure” stuff, y’know?

Having the trappings of a good life - a nice place to live, a decent car, good salary, vacations - can make things tricky. All the material stuff convinces us that life’s good. What more could one want?

But the intangibles? Those are harder to spot. Investing in the future. Building belonging. Developing a robust support system. Traveling abroad in total peace. Spending more time with family in your country of origin. Taking professional risks. Not having immigration run your life.

This is why you need PR. Because life needs depth. It needs stability. It needs more than just a place to live, a means to earn and living a life that looks great on the surface.

Life needs the ability to think and plan. Belong and cherish. Travel and be there for family in your country of origin. It needs space to take professional risk. Engagement with interests and hobbies.

Attention to those million little things that get pushed back to the “not right now” bucket, when you are on survival-mode.

PR and citizenship are more than just a legal status. It is the ability to live expansively, instead of defensively.

Great question! I want you to make improving legal stability your HIGHEST priority.

This means that to get to getting to legal stability, all options are on the table. This also means accepting a bit of temporary disruption and pain, to get to long term peace.

You may need to learn French, if you’re in Canada. Or move to a province that has better PNP options. In the US, this may mean working towards an O-1 visa or even Green Card via EB1. Maybe move to a whole other country entirely. Or back home!

This is a challenge. Because just continuing on when things are fine is the easier thing to do. Confronting the worst and working to preempt it, is NOT. It is much easier to assume that things are fine, will remain fine and if anything happens tomorrow, that’s tomorrow’s problem, not today’s.

But as Warren Buffet said once, “If it can’t go on forever, it will stop.” Trouble is, you do not know when it will stop.

A forever-temporary status simply cannot go on forever.
It either stops when YOU say it does.
Or when someone else says it does.

Whose terms should you run your life? Yours or someone else’s?
That’s a choice you have to make.