Apparently they increased the price to get citizenship to 650$.
In terms of actually getting in, last I checked it's a point system. If you don't have any family then you would need to prove you have something worthwhile to offer. They also look at your finances I believe.
That's a very nice system, I didn't know that. But how does Canada benefit from people paying taxes to the US government?
What's going on over here?
Skilled migration and marriage are the main routes of immigration in Canada, AFAIK. And skilled migration is fairly straightforward if you've graduated from a Canadian university.
Ah, I see. When I filed tax return last time, I noticed the list of countries the US has tax treaties with in the hall at the tax department, but I didn't know this was one of the points of those treaties.
Graduate schools in Western countries usually pay your tuition full, plus offer a decent salary. When I applied to U Toronto, the physics department offered to cover tuition fees + around 21000 CAD income, if I remember correctly. Which isn't that much for Toronto, actually.