I would like to say hello to all and thank those that have taken the time to create this wonderful website with its forum. I would also like to warn folk that this message comes with a sleep warnign so apologies in advance if it is a tad long winded.

Well as the title suggests I am feeling incredidibly low at the moment. The reason being I moved to Canada beginning of last year to be with my wife (Canadian National) with the intention of applyign for permanent residence from within Canada. Now my wife and I have been married some four years, we had a wonderful wedding ceremony on the West Coast of Scotland near where I worked as an IT Contractor to the Royal Navy and my wife lived in the UK for a couple of years, the immigration visa process was very straight forward.
In 2002 our luck ran out employment wise as the UK IT Employment market dried up and as a result I spent over a year unemployed. I searched in vain for work but it was increasingly difficult. Not owning our own house I was constantly being moved aroudn the UK when working we ended up resorting to rely on parents etc. So we took the decision to move to Canada, now we didnt just rush into this, my wife left the UK to return home here and she quickly found a well paid, responsible job in Toronto. So after a few months of continuining to try and find work in the UK and trying to save up money by selling off pretty much everything we had accrued in the UK to buy air fare and "Survival" money I moved to Canada.
Now since then everything has really crashed, we have been pushed from pillar to post with regards to immigration. We took advice before I left the UK on what was required, what i needed to do, the forms etc... I was told we had a very good chance of success for staying and to be granted leave to stay, Canadian Wife as Sponsor et al. This advice turned out to be very old and out of date, compounded by duff steers from the Canadian Immigration Help / Call Centers and we ended up wasting an awful lot of time before we finaly got my Application for Permanent Residence away. We have had the Paperwork returned to us not once but twice for correction the second time for the exact same reason as the first. In the initial Application I had put my addresses down correctly as required but for the country I had written "United Kingdom". Apparently this was not acceptable, for each address I needed to write England, Scotland etc... Now I corrected the issue the first time making sure I had written England or Scotland, United Kingdom then returned the paperwork to them but recently it has been sent back to me for the exact same fault as the original!!! Each time it is returned I am being charged $75 then registered and each time it is sent back the Application is delayed. The obvious result is stress and strain on the marriage as my wife has to support me financially and one is left with the dull thought that the application is lookign more and more likely to be turned down.
I have been told by Immigration Canada that in no uncertain terms am I to even think about looking for work...
I have been in Canada now a total of 1 year and 4 months. This is killing my soul, one can only walk around Toronto so many times and stare at the lake.
If anyone might have some relevant advice that I might be able to follow? Is there really no way I can work?
I have been approached by a Recruitment Agency that a family member deals with and they supply staff to a Major Canadian Financial Center and they really wanted me to sign on as they felt they could place me in an IT Position, but the second I mentioned I had not been given Permanent Residence they just told me to keep in touch. Is there nothing I can do?

Any advice, direction or guidance would be much appreciated.

Once again, terribly sorry to the length of this post.

Oh Jonno,
I am so sorry that you are having such an awful time at the moment. Unfortunately I don't have any advice but I do wish you well and hope that everything sorts itself out soon.
Kindest regards, Tia

Sorry to hear about your story!
I do hope you are able to engage the services of a decent migration consultant and eventually get back on your feet. But keep trying.

Unfortunately I cannot really offer any real tips or advice.

Majj

Jonno,

Are you allowed to work in a voluntary capacity, maybe in an IT company?

I was just thinking that this would (a) give you something positive to do at the moment, (b) it would look good on your resume, and (c) maybe help you to get a "foot in the door" somewhere.

Then, in the near future (hopefully!) when you are looking for paid work, it could maybe help you to gain a paid position within the same company.

Sounds like a terrible situation for you to be in at the moment, hope it all works out well.

Karen

Hi Jonno
have you thought about the provincial Nomination Program.Reading posts on other emigration to canada boards it seems that this is one of the quickest ways to get PR,6-8 months rather than 18months.
mike

Thank you everyone for your kind words or encouragement.

Karen S;
When my initial application for PR went in shortly afterwards i recieved a Phone Call one late afternoon from Vegreville and it was apparently my case officer. She assured me that my paperwork looked good but I had sent in, upon the advice of the Immigration Help/Call Center, an application to extend my stay AND work permit. She said that this was not possible until I had been given initial clearance on my PR and that the $150 fee would be with held against a further Extention to stay. Now at the same time I asked if I could engage in voluntary work and again the resounding echo was "No you cannot engage in any activity that involved work be it paid or unpaid"... You can imagine my feelinsg after that one.

Mike;

Well to give the case officer her due (I must have kept her on the phone for a good 40mins! ) she did mention this program but unfortunately my particular field of expertise in IT (Hardware and Web Design, ecommerce etc) would not be totally condusive as the IT market is flooded with individuals of equal ability. I did see her point entirely. Had I been a Programmer or such then this would have been a possibility.

Thank you all, once again, for replying to my post.

I lived in Canada for over 2 years with my Canadian wife before they granted me Permanent Residency.

It was a hard time - constant paying for new temporary visas that didn't let me do anything but breathe, and now I wonder if the whole thing was worth it.

If you really want to live in Canada, the only option you have is to follow their silly rules.

Simon,

Thats exactly how I feel. To the letter. Its coming upto a year and a half already, as you saying paying $150 per extended stay which lasts you 6 months. Kind of crazy...

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Seeing as you stayed on in the UK for a few months I guess I'm curious as to why you didn't apply for spousal sponsership once your wife had moved back to Canada. With you still being on this side of the Atlantic the whole process would likely have been a lot quicker.

Hello,

I'm a Canadian citizen and sponsored my wife to come to Canada. We had lots of problems as well and things got delayed for ages. On top of that, I couldn't find out what was going on because the system is designed to be as opaque as possible.

In the end, I wrote a letter to my MP complaining about being jerked around by Immigration. Guess what? All our problems magically disappeared and we had the PR form in about two weeks. Maybe your wife could try the same thing.

Good luck,
Paul

Yes Jonno, this is worth a shot. I have heard of similar tales to pcchapman's and they have all come through fairly quickly once there is some sort of intervention.

Stepnek I was informed that applying for Spouse Sponsored Immigration would take longer, upto 3 years as you are already settled etc in the country where your applying from etc etc etc. From what I have read in other forums this is definately seems to be the case, there are some horrendous stories.

The PM issue, now theres a thought. My Stepmother is pretty knowledgable about PM's etc so I am sure she might be able to help, never would have thought this was a possible avenue. Definately worth looking into.

Thank you, all, very much.

In the meantime couldn't you volenteer your services somewhere...just to give you something to do and also it would give you some Canadian experience....just a thought

- By Error -

Have already mentioned above that the Immigration folk kindly instructed me that I am not allowed by law to engage in any form of work, paid or unpaid I just wish I could, as you say it would really give me a chance to get used to the North American "Way" as it were... All the family this side of the pond have told me to just go find some cash in hand work but I am and have been afraid to so should I be reported or otherwise and jeopardise my application.

Thanks for the thought tho.