Freshbooks is awesome. I started using it about 6 months ago and it reminds me of 37signals products in the sense that just using it you get the idea that it would be a good place to work.
They totally understand that if you are going to get great developers you should expect that they will have side projects. Side projects hone skills and expand horizons.
Depends where you are coming from. Basically, the way I understand it is like this:
Platinum: From Great Britain, automatic acceptance, some sort of old law that is still on the books.
Gold: From United States w/ BSc, BASc, BEng, BMath, CS, etc... If you have a white collar job offer it is basically a shoe in.
Silver: A whole host of countries (New Zealand, AUS, Israel, Germany, China, Korea) w/ a family member or a job offer.
Bronze: A refugee. Or from a country like South Africa. Harder to get in. Get on a waiting list, wait for years till something gets triggered.
Denied: Palestine, Iran (except to study, or unless you are Bahia)
Check with a lawyer though. I'm certainly no expert, I just repeat the experiences of my friends.
-Quote-
If you meet these minimum requirements, your application will then be processed according to the six selection factors in the skilled worker points grid. The six selection factors are:
your education
your abilities in English and/or French, Canada’s two official languages
your work experience
your age
whether you have arranged employment in Canada, and
your adaptability.
-End Quote-
http://www.freshbooks.com/careers/
(tell 'em in the email that you found out about the opportunity from Hacker News, the founder loves ycombinator)