Canada here I come?
 

Hi all, I'm a 22 y/o physiotherapist in South London (unfortunately not currently working as a physio due to NHS difficulties at the moment.) I have family in Vancouver and was thinking of doing a short visit to see what job prospects are like around there to consider the big move.

Then out of the blue a month or so ago I met up with a lady who is in management in a rehabilitation company across Canada (CBI health?) who has pretty much offered me a physio job. She is currently writing up a contract, and I'm very keen to accept and am looking to move as soon as possible!

Basically I'm starting this thread, hoping to get some advice as to the necessary processes that need to be gone through to make the move across, and generally have some people there to help with any questions I have - so that I don't get bogged down in the beurocracy and can get away as soon as I can!

Thanks for reading, and I'm looking forward to having you guys help me in this exciting time!

Martin

Re: Canada here I come?
 

Hello, Martin, and welcome to the BE forum. I admire you for being proactive about the direction your life will take at the age of 22.

Your prospective employee unfortunately seems to be naive (based on the facts as you've presented them). She can't just go offering jobs to foreigners. She has to get a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) first. That usually means advertising a job across Canada for three months. Only if no qualified Canadian resident applies for the job may the employer offer it to a foreigner. If the occupation is listed as an Occupation under Pressure (OUP), the required advertising period is 7 days. If the occupation is eligible for an Expedited Labour Market Opinion (E-LMO), no advertising is required.

For which of CBI Health's regional offices would you be working? (It may be helpful for you to know that physiotherapists are listed as an OUP in British Columbia.)

A member of our forum, Morwenna, is a physiotherapist in Alberta. She was allowed to start working as a physiotherapist on a provisional basis, but had to pass an exam within X amount of time in order to register as a physiotherapist in this province. I don't know how it works in other provinces, but would guess there would be similar provisions.

Since you're under the age of 30, you could apply for a 12-month working holiday visa (WHV) through BUNAC. This is an open work permit, so it means an employer who wanted to hire you while you were in Canada on your WHV would not have to apply for an LMO. As I understand it, the BUNAC application process for 2008 is closed. It will re-open around December for entry in February 2009 (I think).

There are a few members of this forum who have gone to BC through BUNAC and who then have upgraded to permanent residence (PR) status through BC's Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).

The best way to get up to speed with all of this is to read the Wiki section of this website. There's a link to it in my signature, below.

Hope that helps.
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Re: Canada here I come?
 

Thank you for your reply, let me expand on some of the points you've brought up, and maybe I can clarify things.

I think, as you suspected, this is more a problem with me not knowing the full story of the job that has been offered. She has been through the process of foreign recruitment before, and so I'd be surprised if she was still naive to the beurocracy.

I'm aiming for the Lower Mainland branch, as that's where my cousin who's offered me a room is living. This sounds familiar and I spoke with my contact about this, as to my previous knowledge these exams aren't the easiest to get through. CBI seem really constructive and nurturing in the run-up to these exams and this is one of the main reasons I'm considering their offer.

We spoke a little bit about a temporary work permits, as I understand the process becomes a lot easier if a firm job offer has been given?

Am I being naive in thinking that February sounds a long way away to be getting in? Hypothetically if I had a job offer in front of me, how long would I be looking at for getting the big thumbs up for the move?

Any help much appreciated

Re: Canada here I come?
 

Hmmm ....... A job offer is not just a nice thing to have, something that makes a temporary work permit (TWP) easier to get. A job offer is a non-negotiable element that has to be in place before you'll get a TWP.

If your employer did not yet have a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) from HRSDC, that piece might take 20 - 30 weeks. But let's assume, for the sake of this example, that your employer does have an LMO, so you don't have to worry about that.

The next bit is the processing of the TWP application. You could expect that to take a couple of months.

But, since you would be working with vulnerable population groups (sick people), I suspect you will be one of the TWP applicants who will be asked to undergo a medical exam. Nurses have to do this, and I suspect (but don't know for sure) that physiotherapists have to do it too. I've read on this forum that that adds another couple of months to the process.

So, if your employer does have an LMO (and I hope they gave you a copy of their letter from HRSDC and you attached it to the TWP application that you said in another thread you'd submitted), you could reasonably expect the rest of the process to take four months from now.

Allow roughly two months for the normal TWP process and an additional two months for the evaluation of the results of your medical exam.

Just for clarification, the medical exam to which I'm referring here is a visit to a doctor, accompanied by some laboratory tests (an X-ray and the usual stuff). This is to evaluate your health and assist in ensuring that you don't pass on some terrible disease to your patients.

The exam that you later would have to do to be registered as a physiotherapist in BC is another matter.

And please do appreciate that the timelines I've given you here are approximate.

By the way, I did answer some timeline questions in this thread.
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Re: Canada here I come?
 

Thanks judy - i did read your other post - I didnt mean to have a duplicate topic - and have asked moderators to delete it as i can't seem to find a way of deleting a thread i created.
Thanks again for your help.

Re: Canada here I come?
 

Hi!

Welcome to BE

We came to Alberta via the skilled workers visa which took us 19 months back in 2003/2005. Times have gone up since then, but the timing was fine for us as we had kids at various stages of schooling.

I can't advise on the TWP route, but I also know that BC has physios on the list for the provincial nominee program which results in landed immigrant (ie permanent resident) status rather than temporary if you want to go that route.

http://www.cse.gov.bc.ca/Programsand...ledworkers.htm

To practise in BC you need to be registered with the College of Physiotherapists of BC

http://www.cptbc.org/registrationapplications.asp

but before you can register with them you need to have your credentials evaluated by the Canadian Alliance of Physiotherapy Regulators

http://www.alliancept.org/ (there is also a link to them from the BC link I gave above)

You may not apply to take the competency exam UNTIL the Alliance has passed you as eligible.

It should all be explained fairly well on those three sites or following links from them. Your prospective employer may well have previous experience of facilitating transfer of overseas trained staff, so can probably hold your hand through the process.

Do come back to us with any questions you may have. :thumbup:

Re: Canada here I come?
 

Thank you Morwenna, I'm fairly OK with the process of the process of registering as a physio over there - one question I do have is - what do you make of the exams? If i have it right there is a written part (multiple choice) and a practical part - all in all about 9 hours of exams!? This scares me as i don't examine particularly well and it's been a year since I graduated and haven't been practicing since.

Dani (my potential employer) said that I'd be taken on originally as a sort of physio assistant - shadowing and working/learning towards passing the exams (also said that they've recently taken on a guy who's job it is to teach and ease people through these exams) - which is encouraging - but also makes sense from their point of view - no point in putting all this effort in getting someone over there not to be able to work.

She's also suggested I get my accreditation process underway as soon as possible, is this something you would recommend? Is there a time limit that I have to sit an exam after accreditation has been OK'd?

Forgive my ignorance, but would this process be any quicker - or would it make more sense to get over the Canada as soon as I can (if the TWP is quicker) and apply for the PR once I'm there?

Sorry I know that's a lot of questions - any help much appreciated.

Re: Canada here I come?
 

Most credentialling questions you may have are on the Alliance web-site in their FAQ, eg:

"26.
How long does it take to complete a review?
It takes anywhere from 4 to 22 weeks from the time the application package is complete. The exact amount of time depends mainly on two factors:

Whether the initial application received is complete (i.e. includes all of the required documentation). Assessment of educational equivalence cannot start until the application package is complete.

Whether the program from which the applicant graduated is new to the equivalence process. Occasionally, some files require detailed research and consultation with credentialing service providers which may take additional time.

27.
How long is the result of assessment valid?
It depends on the outcome of the review:

If we determine that your education and qualifications are substantially equivalent, this substantial equivalency would be valid for 2 years from the date indicated on your Successful Result Letter. This means that you will have a maximum of 2 years from the date noted on the letter to sit the Written Component of the PCE.

If we determine that your education and qualifications are not substantially equivalent, you will be given an opportunity to provide additional information and supporting documentation. You will have 60 days from the date noted on the Unsuccessful Result Letter to submit such documentation."

However, having said that, the credentialling process can take longer if they to and fro querying the content of your course.

In my case, since I qualified from Cardiff in 1982, I did not have a degree, my school had closed down and I had to get the course contents from the CSP, and naturally I had no transcipts to submit, so that took some sorting. Then they finally came back with the comment that we had not studied pharmacology sufficiently. I submitted that comment to the CSP and they sent a letter explaining how pharmacology had been covered as an integral part of the course, though not as a separate subject. Fortunately that was sufficient!

All in all my credentialling took about 9 months I think. :blink: So yes, I'd say get going with it!

As to the exam, it will be very much to your advantage if they have a decent mentorship program where you go to work. I found the 4 hour written test was fairly OK, and did well, but the practical was gruelling in the extreme. I failed at the first attempt, but passed easily second time around. I'm sure that your guys will work through exam questions/scenarios with you and that will be tremendously helpful. I felt very much alone doing mine, and bear in mind that I had qualified over 20 years previous to that, and was quite out of practice in many areas.

I'm sure you're a bright young thing and will sail through! :thumbsup:

Re: Canada here I come?
 

Sorry I didn't address the last part of your question .... yes my guess is that you should get yourself over there as soon as possible, (probably TWP), but they will not be able to employ you as a PT, even under supervision I think, until you have passed the credentialling process and are eligible at least to take the exam.

So do get going with the Alliance asap. :thumbup:

Re: Canada here I come?
 

Thanks Morwenna, I've spent the last couple of days getting all the information about what needs to ba gathered and verified before sending it across to the alliance. My next step is to get my documents notarised before sending them across.
I've had copies of birth certificates/passports verified by solicitors previously for other applications (costing roughly £5 for their time), but for this application the form states all documents have to be verified by a notary public separately (about £40 EACH!)
So to get a notarised copy of my: birth certificate, CSP certificate(and probably my HPC as well), degree certificate, and school certificates (I think I have 2or3 separate certificates due to different exam boards) - I'm going to be paying the best part of £300 just to get my documents verified before I can pay the next $725 for the canadian alliance to process my application.
Does this sound right? Or have I missed the point slightly and am wasting my money

Re: Canada here I come?
 

It's been a while of course, but I think I got a lawyer to notarise all my docs and certificates together, and certify that they were all copies of original documents. I seem to remember asking him to certify each seperately, and him telling me that the cost for that would be stupid, but altogether the cost was 50 pounds (2003). Anyway, the Alliance accepted my application! :unsure:

Re: Canada here I come?
 

Ahh you see now you've caught me in two minds! When I spoke to the firm who're going to notarise the docs she said "can't we just notarise them all together - quicker and cheaper" (£40 for the first £15 for each after that). But reading the blurb from the alliance - it does say "all documents must be notarised separately" - so I'm not sure. I'm literally writing this as I get ready to leave the flat to go get it done and I think I'm going to go the whole hog and get them all done - my mum's said she'll help with some of the costs (i think she's secretly trying to get rid of me!).

Thank you anyways - I'll let you know how I get on!