Hi All,

Does anyone know of any companies (large or small) that have a presence in both the UK and Canada ? In short, I'm looking to work for one of these companies (here in the UK) with a view of getting a potential transfer to that company's Canadian offices.

In an effort to find these company's I've spent what seems like days wading through information on the web, but to no avail. For info, I work in a telecoms Technical Support/Project Management role. Any ideas ?

Many Thanks

Glassy

Hey Glassy!!!!

As I am in IT and looking for work as well in Canada, RIM who I'm sure you have heard of operate from the UK and Canada.

Check out their website for careers below:

http://www.rim.com/careers/

Thanks

Brian

Hi Glassy,

I am currently working in Kanata, 3 off the top of my head would be Mitel / Nortel and Cisco. Mitel and Nortel are both HQ and Cisco is just a regional office I think. PM me for more info and I can tell you how I moved out this year.

Rgs

XCMTBer

What area of telecoms, Glassy? Any of the multinational equipment vendors (both CPE and backbone) will have some presence in both UK and Canada - as XCMTBer said, both Nortel and Mitel have their origins here, but Ericsson, Lucent/Alcatel, Avaya, Siemens all have offices of some sort. On the mobile side Virgin is here but, as in the UK, they are a MVNO so don't have their own infrastructure to support; otherwise the handset manufatcurers might be worth a look.

It's less obvious outside of the realm of hardware, but think of multinational consulting shops with a telecoms group... IBM, Accenture, Cap Gemini, BearingPoint, etc etc.

And then of course there's RIM, Canada's latest telecoms success story. According to previous threads on here, they're not short of people in the third-party application or user support areas (because most first-line tech support is provided by the network operator rather than by RIM) but platform developers are always welcome... if you search for RIM or BlackBerry you'll find more details on that front.

As a means to shortcut the immigration process, I can highly recommend the intra-company transfer (I came here that way) - but bear in mind that there are certain criteria that your job description must meet in order to satisfy the LMO exemption rules. The CIC website has details.

HTH

Apparently I need to post 3 times before having access to the PM i have in my inbox!

sorry once more

I am not going to say which company as you never knows who reads this and could link things together. my husband works for a company with offices in Canada and the UK and can't get a transfer as they really are 2 separate things.

For example, Adecco has offices all around the world but they are separate in each country.

If you know of a company that does transfers like this, let me know lol

It sounds like a cunning plan but isn't that really quite a complicated route? You could wait a long time for the opportunity for a transfer to come up. Unless you were getting an amazing super duper transfer package (and if you were that coveted an employee you could probaly get a transfer package of a new Canadian employer that wanted to bring you over) then you might be better off just finding a job with an employer in Canada and then either going out on a work permit or going for permanent residency through something like one of the Provincial Nominee programs.

Advantages of getting a job in Canada directly would be:
- you get to chose where you live (not where the Canadian office happens to be based)
- the company can't transfer you back again (or cancel your work permit)
- you get to choose the job you want from the outset (and not just what happens to be available at the Canadian office)

After speaking to Glassy on IM for a bit today about how I came out to Canada on an inter company transfer, I would agree with the above statement about the right jobs coming up. My company has transfered a number of employees from one location to another over the years ie UK to Canada , UK to AUS, Canada to UK, but in each case it because of the skill sets, so it takes a while to become established both in your current role and politically in order to attempt an inter company transfer. In my case it was a number of years dealing with and visiting the Canadians in my old job which opened the door to moving and my new job. So maybe applying for the PR may be quicker. Saying that, moving with the same company has many benefits, relocations, Vacation allowance and most importantly keeping a constant when everything else changes.

You need to be a little more focused than that. Many UK companies have an office in Canada, but usually it's a small sales office or something equivalent. You won't have much chance of a transfer there.

Similarly, in a global corporation (eg Microsoft), even if it has operations in Canada, there is no guarantee they would want to transfer you there. In most corporations, if you are an expat, you go where the company wants you to go.

Best option is to look for a company with a head office in Canada. The reason for this is fairly obvious. As to where to start: http://www.canada-uk.org/ is as good a place as any.

Also take a look at:
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/canada-...ewithuk-en.asp

Bear in mind that getting an intercompany transfer isn't easy. Firstly the corporation needs to think highly of you, secondly there needs to be an opening in Canada (much more likely if Head Office is there) and thirdly, you'll need a certain skill profile to qualify for a work permit.

Also, the corporation might not be keen on the idea of you becoming a permanent resident if they plan to repatriate you to the UK after a few years. This is an issue that needs to be approached with care.

I was familiar with one company, UK based, with a large branch in Montreal, some 1,500 employees. They would 'ship over' bright and promising people with the expectation that these would stay up to five years all the time being groomed for bigger and better back home.

Cheers for all your responses guys, they've been very helpful...
I have pretty broad telecoms experience, so lets hope my resume does the talking :-)