Granted this was over five years ago, but as a american citizen with Canadian work permit and SIN I was able to get mbna to approve me. They denied me at first but I phoned in and had them pull my US credit report. They asked me all sorts of security questions like where I used to live but ultimately approved the card.

If you are earning Canadian dollars it makes sense to go with a Canadian based card rather than a U.S. card with no foreign transaction fee.