Before 2024, the strategic math for employers moving talent across the Canada-U.S. border was predictable. Canada offered cost-effective salaries, manageable processing timelines, and a relatively clear path from temporary work authorization to permanent residency, typically within a 24-to-36-month window. For companies managing employees on both sides of the border, Canada was the obvious choice for workforce mobility.
That math changed.
"Pre-2024, a lot of the advice from an employer standpoint: moving talent to Canada was cost effective, the process was very straightforward," said Sunny Dhillon, Co-Founder and CEO of My Visa Source. "That all went away."
Canada pulled back its immigration targets. The United States tightened enforcement in ways that affect not just undocumented individuals but anyone crossing for business. Together, the two shifts have created a cross-border environment that requires a fundamentally different advisory approach.
Canada’s Recalibration
For most of the post-pandemic period, Canada actively competed for international talent. That changed in late 2024, when the federal government announced it was reducing permanent resident admissions by roughly 20 percent. The 2025 target dropped to 395,000, down from 485,000 in 2024, with further reductions planned through 2027.
The impact was not evenly distributed. Provincial Nominee Programs, a major channel employers had used to place talent in specific provinces, were cut by nearly half. Express Entry shifted to a fully category-based model, prioritizing the occupations the government identified as highest need: healthcare, construction, trades, and STEM. Employers accustomed to routing workers through broader economic immigration streams found their options narrowed.
The pathways that remain are more specific. Construction and healthcare workers can still find routes into Canada. Getting there requires matching a worker’s profile to the right stream, at the right time, in the right province. Broad assumptions about eligibility no longer hold.
"Canada has become more defined in the type of talent they're looking to attract," Dhillon said. "Depending on the industry, there still are options. But it really is case by case now."
Shifting Ground in the United States
Canada’s recalibration coincided with a very different kind of shift across the border. The Recent policy changes expanded expedited removal authority and stepped up interior enforcement at a scope not seen in recent decades. A January 2025 Federal Register designation expanded expedited removal to cover anyone inside the U.S. who cannot prove they have been in the country for at least two years, with no geographic limitation.
The practical effect extended further than enforcement headlines captured. Canadian citizens traveling for business, a routine that once carried minimal friction, found themselves navigating a more formal entry process. The assumption that a Canadian could cross for a short trip without formal documentation became a genuine exposure.
"It used to be very easy for Canadian citizens to travel, do business trips," Dhillon said. "That has really changed. We're advising on temporary authorization with work permits rather than just entering the country without any kind of document in hand."
For Canadian businesses looking to expand into the U.S., the current climate requires careful pre-authorization before any workforce deployment. Speed assumptions built on the old regime no longer apply.
Case by Case, Not Country by Country
My Visa Source has responded to both shifts by moving away from broad-stroke advice toward individualized analysis. Each situation is evaluated against the specific worker profile, the specific industry, and the specific regulatory conditions in each jurisdiction at that moment.
For some corporate clients, the right strategy is now to secure a U.S. temporary work permit and hold while conditions clarify on the Canadian side. For others, particularly in construction or healthcare, Canada still offers a viable route, but only if the profile matches the current category-based requirements. The era of a single strategy applying across a workforce cohort is over.
"Our approach has become much more conservative," Dhillon said. "It very much has become: cater to the individual case, whereas it used to be a broad approach."
That conservatism extends to business travel. Where employers once assumed short cross-border trips needed no advance planning, the firm now advises clients to arrive with authorization in hand.
The shift in approach also reflects a broader change in what clients need to hear. An employer moving 15 engineers from India to Toronto in 2022 had a clear template to follow. That same employer in 2025 is navigating reduced PNP allocations, category-based Express Entry thresholds, and U.S. enforcement conditions that may affect employees already working south of the border. No two situations resolve the same way.
The Cross-Border Calculation
One reason this environment has become so consequential is that decisions in one jurisdiction routinely affect outcomes in the other. A work authorization choice made in the U.S. can close off a Canadian residency pathway. A provincial nomination in Canada can interact with a pending U.S. application in ways that are not obvious without visibility into both regulatory systems simultaneously.
The firm’s Canadian practice and U.S. practice operate under separate regulatory frameworks. Their lawyers collaborate on client matters to identify cross-border considerations before decisions are made.
"If you make a decision in the U.S., this is how it's going to impact you inside of Canada," said Sonia Mann, Co-Founder and COO of My Visa Source. Firms without access to counsel in both jurisdictions may face limitations in providing that level of coordinated advice.
For employers managing people across both countries, that cross-jurisdictional visibility has become a necessity. Both systems are moving too fast, and in too many different directions, for a single-jurisdiction perspective to be sufficient.
My Visa Source closely monitors immigration policy developments in Canada and the United States.
