Mrgayle80

Hi All,

Firstly I would like to say this is great forum I have gathered a lot of information and also had some laughs – especially from the difference between Canada and UK thread lol

My Girlfriend and I are considering the possibility of moving to Canada from London, UK for 1 year to live and work to experience life there and then decide if we want to live there, with Vancouver being the destination.

We have friends there and have visited there many times and we both love it, very nice city with nice people and IT jobs and prospects.

I am 36, I work within IT and been for the last 15 years. I went to college and obtained a BTEC GNVQ Advanced IT. However, from reading a lot on here Vocational studies do not equate to much in Canada. I am Cloud engineer, with multiple Microsoft certifications.

My girlfriend is 31 and works for British Airways and has been working within Cabin Crew for 13 years with Standard GCSE’s and no HE.

We have savings between us of £20,000 which is about $32,500

We have no family in Canada, no job offer. However, from looking on Job Bank and Workopolis, there are many IT jobs looking for people with my skillset, experience and certifications – especially with Cloud\Office365 as that’s the major thing in IT now. So I am quite confident I could find employment, suppose the one good thing about Bill Gates pretty much monopolising the cooperate sector is that the systems\tech is the same all over the world lol

We are having a bit of an issue in finding out if our situation meets the criteria for living and working in Canada for a year.

We do not want to move perm, as we have no idea if we will like it or not. We feel giving ourselves a year, would give us a better understanding of how we will like it – being on holiday and living there are two different things.



We have looked at the CRS but we score low, lower than the rough average of 450 that needs to be passed. But as we do not want to move perm I don’t think that’s the route to go anyway.

IEC doesn’t apply to us due to age

We have found the Open Work Permit, which sounds ideal. However, we are a bit confused.

On here - http://www.canadavisa.com/canadian-i...k-permits.html

The holder of an open work permit can work for any Canadian employer, without first
having a confirmed offer of employment. An open work permit is not job-specific.

That’s great for us as its exactly what we want to do, come over to Canada and then look for work.

However the next paragraph states:

Under Canada immigration regulations, open work permits may be applied for by:
• the spouses or common-law partners of foreign temporary workers;
• the spouses or common-law partners of foreign students;
• international students who have graduated from a Canadian post-secondary institution

So that doesn’t apply to us.

But when looking on here - International Mobility Program: Open work permit it states:

Under the International Mobility program, an open work permit enables a person
to work for any employer for a specified period of time. An open restricted permit
may, however, restrict the occupation or location but not the employer.

An open work permit can be issued only to a foreign national exempt
from a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA).


So we are totally confused

Are the International Mobility Program and Open Work Permit two different things ?

Do we have any options to live and work in Canada for a year, if so what Visa or Program do we have to explore, as I am at a total loss?

Thanks in advance.

christmasoompa

Hi, welcome to BE.

Firstly, karma just for having the first couple of lines of that song on your profile (yep, totally a 90's kid, and will now be humming it to myself for the rest of the day).

You are looking at two different things, but unfortunately neither would apply for you. The most common open work permit (that comes under the IMP), is the IEC visa, which is a 2 year open work permit but as you note, it's only for those aged 30 or under.

There isn't any way for you to currently get an open work permit (as you rightly say, you'd need to be the spouse of a work permit holder, or a study permit holder etc), so one of you is going to need a job offer and LMIA if you wish to go to Canada for a year or two to work.

HTH and good luck.

Mrgayle80

LOL thanks for replying, yes loving my Fresh Prince.

Thanks for clearing that up for me, as I was getting confused with what I was reading.

Seems like entering via EE is our only option, gonna have to start learning French to get some more points.

Engineer_abroad

What are you scoring on CRS? We have seen a steady decline in points over the start of this year (it dipped below 450 in Feb).

christmasoompa

Worth noting that 'basic' French is roughly A Level standard, so you'd need quite a bit of learning if you're starting from scratch.

So you might find a job offer is an easier/quicker way to get your points up, but as said above, what is your CRS score? If you're close then it's worth submitting a profile anyway, in case the points score drops further.

Mrgayle80

374, which is very low and wouldnt get me in.

I never needed to go Uni for a Degree, as for my area and most areas of IT its mainly down to experience and certifications. Being a geek I am Microsoft Certification freak lol - that's put me in great stead over here in London and like I said those skills and certifications are known and used worldwide, however not helping me in trying to move to Canada.

I have been an IT contractor for over a decade now, so having a company transfer me to a company in Canada is not on the cards.

So its either a job sponsor or a very long holiday and living on the money we have put aside lol

Engineer_abroad

I would focus on the job offer side of things, have a look at the job hunting wiki on here as this usually needs to be done from this side of the pond.

Mrgayle80

My only concern and also what I have read on here is, why would a Canadian company choose me over a Canadian ?

I am good at the work I do, however I am under no illusion that the skillset and certs I posses is not something that other engineers in Canada also have.

Would it be worth the companies time and money to employ me and then have to wait for me to come over, when they could employ someone who could start the next the day.

Is it expensive for a company to do the work permit for an overseas person ?

Aviator

They can't. If there is a Canadian that can do the job, an employer cannot hire a foreigner. The only exception would be if the foreigner already held an open work permit, such as IEC.

Mrgayle80

That's my issue

Mrgayle80

Funny you say this, I just got an email from Canada Abroad website stating its down to 441 now.

Mrgayle80

Is there much success with the PNP's ?

The SNIP seems to be a bit more l"easier" so that could be my route in.

DigitalGhost

There is but they are very much a 'you have to be in it to win it' thing a lot of the time and I don't think the ones that require EE pre-registration are an option for you because of your low CRS score. SINP is one of the exceptions and for that reason gets smashed every time it opens (it re-opened last week and was filled in less than 24 hours). For IT PNP's also tend to be for the more rural provinces where your job prospects will be limited if you lose or decide to leave your first job for any reason so that's something to keep in mind.

The good news is that once you get there the world can be your oyster. My IT certifications never accounted for much in the UK but in Toronto employers seemed to be really interested in them it isn't unknown for some Canadian recruiters to ignore anyone who doesn't have at least A+ or 1 MCP.

DigitalGhost

If I can just offer some advice as well, even on PNP, EE represents a permanent immigration route and therefore a massive financial and mental investment on your part.

To earn PNP you need to prove to the province in question that you want to settle there permanently and I'm talking about in that province, not just in Canada itself. Mention to Saskatchewan or Newfoundland that you might fancy working in Vancouver later down the line and they probably won't have any further interest in you. I have no first hand experience as a PNP applicant but I believe some of the smaller and poorer provinces have been burned in the past by people using their schemes to later resettle in BC, QC, Ontario or even the United States and might give you a bit of a grilling because of that.

To go through all of that for just a year would be draining and leave you a few grand down before you could even set foot on Canadian soil. Is that something that you would really want to put yourself through?

Mrgayle80

Thanks for this, ill make a note of it not to mention Vancouver lol