Hi,

Here is my situation:

I am slef employed. software developer on the net. Enough (not excessive about £25,000 p.a)) income from home to live anyhwere in the world....

My wife is a nurse.

To get into Canada I think it's best she applies for work in a hospital and I tag along with here? Agree?

How difficult/time frame are we looking at?

Anyone used UK2NovaScotia service? I think I'd rather let some company do all the paperwork for us.

I am "earmarking" 3 years to get outt here...any thoughts?

Thank you

I'm sure nurses are in demand so I would imagine you would get out no problems.

All the best anyway!

Danny


Ps It depends which route you take to how long if you use the skilled workers route its a long time, poss 5 years!! But much quicker if your wife can get an employer to take her through the Provincial nominee program you should try the search function, I'm sure there willbe advise in here somewhere.

The UK 2 Nova Scotia service will not complete or have anything to do with your immigration paperwork. They are a settlement service dealing with the practical aspects of helping you settle.

Dream on, mate. Even if you use an authorised immigration representative, there still will be heaps of paperwork that you will have to pull together yourself and that your immigration representative will not be able to do on your behalf.

I also don't know if you realise how much it costs to get "some company to do all the paperwork for you."

If your wife is a nurse, I think she may be able to get into Nova Scotia through that province's Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). You would need to do some research to confirm that that is the case. If it is indeed the case, I've read on this forum that PNP applications are a one year-ish process, as opposed to the five years (or God knows how long) that it seems to be taking for regular permanent residence applications to go through.

If your wife is a nurse, she'll have to do an exam once she gets to Nova Scotia, so that she can be accredited in that province. That exam does require preparation and study, because some aspects of the medical field (e.g., drug names) are different in Canada. However, there are several nurses on this forum who have passed the nursing exams in various Canadian provinces.

Let's say that it takes extra time (because it takes longer to sell your UK than you first thought, and you encounter other unexpected obstacles). Even if one was to be conservative in one's estimate, I could see you being over in Nova Scotia within two years.

If you have not already done so, I suggest you read the BE Wiki articles entitled Careers (Canada) and Canadian Immigration Overview.

My family and I are currently in the long queue for SW application for Nova Scotia and so we have decided to try to get in through the PNP route. I am a nurse and I have begun the process to get my registration over there.

I have applied to the CRNNS for my registration. They have approved my transcripts and given me permission to take the CRNE exam in October this year. I could have applied for temporary registration which would enable me to work but as we are still in the UK I have chosen not to do this.

When I go over in October for the exam I intend to try to meet potential employers and I hope to get one to nominate me for PNP.

I am led to understand that once nominated the process takes 6 to 8 months and so we hope to move out next summer.

I am sure that there are many people on BE who are much further down this road than me and as such are more knowledgable, but if you want to know more about what I have done and learned so far please feel free to ask.

Hi
if your wife applies and gets a job then you'll be here before youv'e left. I got my LMO on the 28th Feb and flew out here on Sunday. We got the green light on the 4th June so all in all it only took 3 months.

thanks guys and girls. Great info. I will save this file and print it out.

Cheers. C U in Canada one day!

Judy we used an agent 'Avatar Immigration' out of Vancouver....although we are settling in Ontario. And yes they didn't put all the paperwork they did help hugely with putting our application together and guiding us along the way. I am also self employed and although income is not a problem at all, i was concerned about presenting our case in the best possible way. They have been brilliant from start to finish and all for a very reasonable £1500 from start to finish.

I have heard some people mention multiples of that sort of price on here, but shopping around and getting some sort of refund guarentee (for a failure not related to security or medical reasons) can get some decent quotes.

Counting the weeks now


Chris

I see your point, Chris.

When we immigrated to Canada thirty years ago, we came as landed immigrants (as permanent residents were known back then). My husband was the primary applicant, he applied as a skilled worker, and we handled all of the paperwork ourselves. That was in the days before the Internet, and a very distant Canadian relative was kind enough to mail us an instruction book on Canadian immigration.

Years later one of my husband's brothers immigrated to Canada with his wife and kids. He was an entrepreneur, and he hired an immigration lawyer. He found the lawyer to be enormously helpful. The lawyer suggested several adjustments to the application approach that would not have occurred to my BIL and that turned out to be helpful. The lawyer was especially constructive in coaching my BIL in the lay out of his business plan. The lawyer was expensive, but my BIL did not regret hiring him for one moment. He said he was worth every cent, and more.

I think immigration consultants are especially useful to people who have non-standard applicants (entrepreneurs, people who have been through messy divorces and are still experiencing child custody issues with their ex spouses, and so on).

I even think that immigration specialists can be useful to people who are submitting bog standard permanent residence applications. If the specialist is competent, it gives the client reassurance that he/she has not overlooked anything and that the application is in perfect shape before it goes in. And, as Andrew Miller often says, there really is no such thing as a "standard" application. He says every person is unique, and every case is special. That very well may be the case.

I still think that a person whose case is relatively straight forward can handle the bureaucracy on his/her own, as my husband and I did and as several members of this forum have done. But going down that road requires discipline. One has to be extremely methodical and follow the instructions to the T.

Anyway, I respect either decision (to hire a consultant or to do it on one's own), as long as the applicant has made an informed choice.

I was just trying to disabuse crusheduk of the notion that an immigration specialist would be the "silver bullet" who would spare him from doing any work (an expectatioin that seemed to be embodied in the "let some company do all the paperwork for us" remark).

Judy
i cannot start to imagine who this process worked before the internet...the thought just scares the hell out of me.

Chris