Hi all,
I know sometimes people ask weak questions in their first post's but I dont blame them as it's all very daunting and confusing.My problem is I want to move to emmigrate to Canada with my family,It was previously usa but my friends company wouldnt wait for 18 months for me to maybe get a visa in the lottery.So we decided the next best place to go is Canada,We have never been but I will hopefully go later in the year to have a reccie.My question is about my trade so here goes.I did an apprentiship at british aerospace as an airframe fitter and have all the qualifications from that,unfortunately all the apprenticies in my year where made redundant after finishing it due to declining sales for their aircraft.I then moved on to college and did one year of a two year btech course in electromechanical engineering ,but left after one year as I couldnt afford a my mortgage etc whilst being single and at college full time.I started for a firm doing machinery removals and installations all over europe where i ended up a foreman,then meeting my OH on a job in worcester.I then left and worked for a company building mining machinery so I could be with her in worcester for 12 months.Then we moved back to oldham where I still had my house with our new son.Ive just finished working for a company of 7 years where I was a service engineer who did all the installations,servicing and commissioning of the new machinery.I got tired of being all over the world constantly away from my family and missing my kids growing up.
Ive been looking at the jobs in canada and trying to find a trade that suits what I have been doing , I dont think I can fall back on my aircraft side due to it being more than ten years ago.So I looked at machine fitter jobs which are few and far between but are on the NOC list, or the most common jobs are fitter/welder positions,but im only an amateur welder.So is it worth going to college etc to get some qualifications for welding or just suck it and see what happens when I get there.
I was planning to go over for 12 months if I can find a job to check it all out and get a jist of the lifestyle ,then bring the rest of my family over.
So hows that for a post,I have other questions but have cramp now so they can wait.If anybody has any ideas to as whats best for us jobwise i would be very endetted to them.Now you all know my life.Regards Nigel

Without a demand trade with appropriate qualifcations & experience, a job is going to tough to find. Employers have to look for legal Canadian residents first before looking at foreign workers.

You should not just turn up and hope to find a job, or you would be unwise to do so. Without a work permit you would be on a visitor entry permit, max 6 months, this does not allow you to work. If you did try and work and get caught, it could scupper any chances of a work permit or PR in the future.

What might be worth a shot is coming on a vacation/scouting trip to find out what might be available. Before doing this I would suggest reading the wiki section thoroughly.

Hi and welcome,

I definitely agree with SE - do have a good look at the Wiki and also plan a reccie trip. You need to try and find a job but the difficulty is that with most skilled trades, you need to prove that you have x hours of work experience (i.e. for an electrician you have to have 9000 hours - and none of that can be apprenticeship). Often, I believe you also have to take a test to gain Canadian accreditation. Have a look at the Wiki article for more info - http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Skilled_Trades

And be grateful your friends company didn't try and get H1B for you as you wouldn't have been eligible anyway!! H1B is for upper end professionals i.e. scientists, physicians, lawyers, senior management, etc, and you need a degree or 12 years experience in those fields to qualify. So you could have wasted a year of your life waiting to get a visa that you were not eligible for anyway!! The US is notoriously difficult to get into unless you have very specialist skills.

I wish you the best of luck in finding a job in Canada.

I think OP said he was hoping for a result in the US VISA lottery scheme! In which case, if he's English, he's not eligible for that either.

Possibly, I just read it as him applying for a H1B visa (which is often called a lottery as there are 4 times as many applications as visas), as he mentioned the company not being prepared to wait 18 months - and if he got H1B he wouldn't be able to start until Oct 2009 at earliest. So because of the mention of 18 months, I just assumed that was what it was he was hoping for.

I wasn't going to go over and work ,just have a reccie firstly.I'm not mad enough or stupid enough to do that and wreck any hopes that we have for the future.I was going to go over after finding a job for 12 months to make sure everything is ok first,i dont want to drag my family over if i think they wont like it.On the job offer from the usa,it's just to hard in my opinion to get over in the position that im in even with a job offer.I dont think there is any other visa other than the h1b that i could get to go over and work.My last job as a service engineer was for 7 years so the on the job hours mount up to more than 10,000 without overtime,so I think that should be ok.My trade is a fitter but it's a very broad job, so looking at the NOC code 7316 it almost comes back again into my aircraft past.Ive been looking around for jobs via monster,workopolis etc and there is jobs available but you need to hope that they would wait.

Check out Cascade Aerospace at YXX, may be of interest.