Working in Canada
 

Hi everyone
How do I go about working and residing in Canada
I am a qualified accountant > 10 years (ACCA) living in London with experience of working in both the public and private sectors eg covering transport, oil & gas, IT consultancy, engineering and pharmaceutical, local governments
Most of my experience lies within Financial planning and analysis, working with different stakeholders and project accounting.
I have never worked in Canada before and would love the opportunity to work there for 2 to 3 years preferably within the oil & gas, energy or engineering sectors
How do I go about applying for a visa or a role
What are the steps to go about achieving this and making it a reality
Are there requirements for qualified accountants in Canada/ expat accountants

I had a look at the internet and it appears that most of the oil and gas companies are based in the Alberta province area.
All advice/ suggestions will be appreciated

Many thanks

Re: Working in Canada
 

I am also an ACCA accountant and we also considered Canada at one point but ended up choosing Australia. When we were thinking about this, it looked like it would not be too hard to apply for a Canadian permanent residency visa (this was about 2008) on the back of my accountancy qualification.

But I am pretty sure that this is all changed now and accountant has come off the right "list", making it a whole lot harder. I think you would even need to have a job lined up before you can hope to progress this. And I suspect that there is nothing else for it but to get applying and hope you strike lucky - unless you work for an international company and can transfer?

To be honest, you probably need more help with the visa than just working abroad as an accountant and I would be inclined to suggest you ask a mod to move your thread to the Canada forum, where people can help you on the visa side of things.

I did find this thread though by doing a quick search, which you might find helpful.

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/THE_LIST-Canada

Re: Working in Canada
 

Thanks for getting back and your advice. Will have a look at the link you sent and post my thread on the Canadian forum

Re: Working in Canada
 

If you are still looking you might include BC in your search. Also, the more north you go, the more opportunities you'll find.

Re: Working in Canada
 

I looked into this a few years ago, and at the time there was lots of work going in Calgary and Edmonton for people with oil and gas experience. I think it's a very specific lifestyle though, so I would suggest you visit first.

In the end I decided that I couldn't deal with any more timesheets, so I went public sector and moved into policy instead.

Re: Working in Canada
 

Hi, I am a CIMA qual accountant, living and working in Nova Scotia. Are you still thinking of Canada?