As the Trump administration moves to limit some skilled workers from entering the U.S. on a specialized visa, the Canadian tech sector is champing at the bit — hoping the new restriction will send talent up north.

The H-1B visa, whose champions include Tesla founder Elon Musk, is a common immigration pathway for international tech talent recruited by U.S. companies. But the White House is slapping a $100,000 US fee on new applications for the visa, forcing companies to pay steeply for their recruits or otherwise find workers in the U.S.

H-1B visas were already hard to get, as thousands of foreign students learn every year upon graduating from U.S. universities, says Becky Fu von Trapp, an immigration lawyer and founding partner at Von Trapp Law PLLC in Stowe, Vt.

"They want to stay in A

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