Hello all - jeez you must be sick of reading 'shall I move' posts by now? Thousands of them! Anyway, here is another, but with a slight twist. BTW I have also read every single 'shall I move' post, so I share your pain...

I'm keen to hear from other construction consultants, in particluar quantity surveyors, who have in the recent past moved to either Toronto or Vancouver.

We are a young family currently based in the UAE. We are looking to get out of here, and the choices are:

Canada, Toronto - bit of an adventure, new country, prospects of laying down roots, a broader spectrum of extra curricular activities for our daughter, the chance to enjoy and savour all 4 seasons...anything else I missed?

England, somewhere in the south - old home, bit boring, close to friends and family, allows european weekend city breaks, longer annual leave, milder temperate climate....

I am fully aware that Canada is not some sort of Utopia, but it could be a cool move for us. And if after 5 years, we simply don't like it, we can always go to England and settle there.

Ok I digressed a little - any QS' or other construction professionals with any insight into the market there at present and for 2016/17?

Without divulging your salary on a public forum....any indication on the rule of thumb pay brackets? Senior, Associate and Director level for a large multinational company.

I have done a fair amount of desk based research. I did see one job advertised with a company I know of for CAD 120k per annum. On the other hand, certain search results show the average salary of a senior QS to be CAD 80k per annum.

Ok lets leave it at that and see if the esteemed community on BE can rouse themselves to respond yet again to a 'shall I move' post. Cheers all.

A bit of a heads up....QS is a pretty rare species here in Canada. I've run into 2 in 20+ years working in land development consulting. Both were scottish and only one was in the field. The other became a land developer.

The one here in Ottawa who is in the field gets a lot of work groundtruthing cost estimates for loans etc provided by builders by the major banks.

Welcome to BE, based on your first two posts I think I am going to enjoy your contributions. I used to work for a large company, which had its roots in construction, although the part I worked for was not in that field. Salaries probably ranged from approx $110k for technical staff who were expected to take on some project management, to $140-150k for section managers or technically brilliant people (who were best left out of the management role) and then more again for directors. The field I worked in was very specialized and I think that salaries may have been higher than the average to reflect that.

That sort of role is called a cost consultant over here (out west).

Specialising in high rise condo developments mostly in Mississauga? First name Ian? I think I know him too.

Well first of all you'll need a job offer, but the chances of laying down roots in Canada might depend on Visa etc.. England might sound boring at first, but boring can also be good. At the end of the day, it always depends what kind of life you are looking for and if it's possible in that country, but some people might experience more Canada when they go on holiday. Some people can also never settle and are always looking for a new adventure.

Thank you sir - much appreciated. Very useful info. I think the next stage for me is to approach some of the companies I know of and see what they lay of the land is.

Some wise words there. Sometimes the boring decision is the best decision. But.....still. I'll see how my feelings develop over the next few months. I was planning to kick start the process in January. I reckon it would take 6-8 months max. if we decide to go for it. I've already paid rent here up to mid August 2016.

Possibly, but it will depend on your visa route. If, for example, you need a job offer to get a visa, then just the LMIA can take that time (not to mention the time to find an employer prepared to pay $1000 and go through the hassle and paperwork of getting you over etc), so I personally wouldn't wait until January if that's the case.

But it will depend on your planned visa route, if you are eligible to apply for EE without a job offer, then 6-8 months is entirely realistic.

Best of luck to you.

Thank you. I was on a website 2 weeks ago and it indicated that I would be eligible for express entry. My profession is on the list, fairly young (at heart), professional qualifications etc - so hopefully I am covered in that regard.

I need to do a bit of further research whether my wife would process her own application or come as part of my application. Is there such a thing as a 'family application'?

...and don't worry I am not going anywhere near any relocation agents. DIY job.

Yes, no problems there. Unless she's inadmissible which quite unlikely , she and your dependent children (U19 I think these days) would also get PR if and when you do.

Not necessarily unfortunately. I suspect that the website is correct, and you would be eligible for Express Entry (if it wasn't the CIC website though, do double check it on there).

However, being eligible to apply and enter the pool of applicants, and actually being chosen from that pool of applicants and invited to apply for PR are two different things! You might apply and not be invited to apply for PR, if you're not scoring high enough - as a rough guide, you'd need to score approx 450-480 as a minimum for CIC to select you and invite you to apply for PR.

If you're scoring highly, then your timescale is feasible, although it will take you at least 2-3 months to get your paperwork together, so you really can't wait until January if you want to be over there in August. But if you're not scoring highly enough, then you'll need to rethink, and that may involve a job offer, so you'll probably need more time.

There is no 'list' of eligible occupations anymore btw.

If you're invited to apply for PR then it would be for the whole family, so you'd all get PR from the one application.

HTH.

Ok I see. Well thank you Novo and Oompa. I think it was the CIC website, but I will check again later. It was a very quick survey on the website, 5-6 questions that resulted in a statement saying eligible for EE.

It wasn't Ian but for the life of me I can't remember his name now. The guy I knew would be about 70 years old now.

That sounds like the CIC website. So you're eligible to apply and enter the pool of applicants, now you need to figure out your score on the CRS to see if you'd score above the 450 or so required to be invited to apply for PR. Express Entry – Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) Criteria

If so, then I really wouldn't advise you leave it until January to 'kick start the process' if you hope to move in August. Usually it takes around 2-3 months to get your IELTS results, ECA, etc, so you wouldn't even be able to apply until around March or April if that's the case, then you've got to wait until CIC do a draw and pick the applicants they invite to apply for PR, then it'll take a month or so to gather more documents once invited, then you've got about 6 months processing time as well.

So I'd get cracking if you are eligible for EE and that's the route you plan to go down.

Best of luck with it.