Hello all,

My husband and I are looking to move to BC, ideally Vancouver but we are open to suggestions. We are a little concerned about the immigration process as the online system says we wouldn't qualify for a permanent residency visa but an immigration company has said we would qualify in may 2013. We have an appointment with them in may, but I want to apply ASAP as the visa can take months/years to process.

My husband runs his own construction company in the uk and was previously a site manager for a large company. What wouldn be the best way to gain employment in this sector as my husband wants to have a job before we move. I am a special needs coordinator and specialist autism teacher. I have 4 years of experience. I am concerned as every thread I have read regarding teaching is negative, stating it will take years to gain employment. Is this really the case and what would you suggest to speed the process up?

We are also part of the Sea Cadets and would like to continue this in Canada, as my husband is a sailing and powerboat instructor. Is anyone part of the Sea Cadets in this forum??

We would like to get to know other people in similar jobs, who have made the move to Canada, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Karen and Phil

Firstly with you being a teacher and your husband owning a company I would assume you are bot use to filling out paperwork. So I would suggest unless you feel more secure doing it that way, that you can do the application and visa yourself without paying out high fees to an immigration consultant.

Secondly from the perspective of a teacher, I am not a teacher but from the various threads I have read on BE it is certainly not an easy profession to break into. I have copied a thread below which maybe of some interest

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=792098

There are over 53 visa streams and the FSW is just one of them, you may want to check the wiki. It would be worth checking if your husbands occupation is in demand and if it is on previous demand lists and where his job falls under on the NOC list.

Certainly as a teacher you will need to sit some more qualifcations just to be considered and your husabnd working in construction may need to gain further qualifications. it maybe worht your husband networking and looking at the route of getting an employer to go through an LMo and going over ona temp work permit. But this is all covered on the wiki

Read this thread: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=792098 for experiences of getting approved to teach in BC - quite apart from actually getting any work. As a comparator I have a (Canadian) Brother in Law who is a teacher in BC. He has moved to Terrace BC (way up North) to get a job and thats only a substitute (Teacher on Call) one. In short, move over, but ensure that your husband can support you for several years at least because it's likely to take you that to get a teaching job.

Thanks, this all sounds very daunting as I am quite well paid in my job in the UK. Although ideally I would like to retrain as an art therapist, but would need finanical support with that, so would probably have to wait until we gained citizenship. All things to think about!

Out of interest, how can they say you'll be eligible in May? The list of eligible occupations has yet to be released, so unless they've got a crystal ball I'd take what they've said with a large pinch of salt!

Even if you were eligible now, you wouldn't be able to apply now anyway, by the time you got your IELTs results (it usually takes a couple of months just to get a test slot) and gathered the rest of your paperwork, you'd be looking at May or June at the earliest.

So maybe just start preparing your paperwork (you can do it yourself unless you have complicated circumstances, no need to use an immigration consultancy if you don't want to), and wait and see if your husbands job is on the list of eligible occupations for the FSW program.

Best of luck.

Hi Karen,

I cannot comment on your husbands situation but I can say that there is currently a shortage of special needs teachers in the Vancouver area. You will need to get your BC license which would require PR. Once you have your license you should have no problem getting work in at least one of the suburds of Vancouver. Generally speaking teachers in BC are paid better than those in the UK. The pay scale is based upon the numbers of years of experience (your UK experience will count) and the number of years of education that you have. Most teachers beginning teachers start at about $50k and go up to $83K (if you have a masters degree). You would be paid slightly more if you were a head of department. Good Luck.

But she would need a Special Ed degree to teach Special Needs would she not? Her UK experience as a SENCO would count for naught.

The colleges of education churn out teachers ten to the dozen here I'm not sure they need foreigners to fill the ranks. Can she drive a taxi?

Whats an art therapist?
Is that somebody who talks to paintings or statues who have been left neglected by their owners?

I think one could hazard a guess that its the helper that watches the thick kids do painting.

Oh yes. That amounts a massive fraud comitted upon those unfortunates who believe all the bull about a demographic timebomb, hundreds of teachers retiring and job opportunities aplenty. In reality, I think that all new B.Ed. programmes could be suspended in their entirety for five years and there would still be a sufficient pool of people with teaching degrees available to fill any and all requirements. Without using immigrants.

That reeks of protectionism.

Thank you all for your advice! I am still unsure of what to do. I will have my masters in education by the time I emigrate. Hopefully this will help me get a job.

How would you recommend looking for a job?