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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft will open a software development office in Vancouver, Canada, later this year, in part as a way to retain talented workers who can't stay in the U.S. because of immigration laws.

Software developers from around the world will staff the center, which will allow Microsoft to keep skilled workers who are affected by U.S. immigration issues, the company said in a statement Thursday.

Microsoft, along with other high-tech companies, has been a vocal supporter of legislation that would increase the number of foreign workers allowed to stay in the U.S. Proposed amendments to the current foreign worker regulations were part of a larger controversial immigration bill that stalled in the U.S. Congress last week.

Without new regulations, companies across the country are competing for 65,000 H-1B visas issued each year.

"This is especially a problem for Microsoft because it's so big and doing so much hiring," said Susannah Malarkey, executive director of the Washington Technology Alliance, an association of companies promoting education and an entrepreneurial environment in the state. "If you can't use visas to bring people in, you have to take the jobs to where the people are," she noted.

Companies like Microsoft can "either create a worksite in the country of origin of these people or lose out on them altogether," she said.

In addition to its Redmond headquarters, Microsoft already has development centers in Ireland, Denmark, Israel, and North Carolina. The Vancouver location is in part attractive because of its proximity to Redmond, Microsoft said.

Microsoft did not reveal the Vancouver facility's size or precise location.

New software development center to be opened in fall 2007.   Read the press release here.. 

A Microsoft software development shop in Vancouver?  So close to the mothership...This will be interesting. 

As most of you know Vancouver is hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics.  There are rumours that the Olympic Committee has sucked all of the local talent dry.  Of course that is great news for all those looking for work.  You can put your resume on the market and get a flood of new prospects daily.  For those of us on the other side of the coin who are looking for the few that are really top notch the job is just getting harder and harder and much more expensive!

Vancouver is really becoming the place to be for technology.