How hard is it to get into Canada if you do not have a skill.

Desperately.

Or marry a Canadian!! Or try to find your long-lost Canadian mother!

Finding a "long-lost" Canadian mother probably won't help now, unless you were born on 15 February 1977 or later on.

The transitional arrangements to register as a Canadian citizen by descent based on birth before 1977 to a Canadian mother were closed on 14th August 2004, and unless/until they are reopened by the Canadian government this option is not available.



Jeremy

Unless you have lots of money - that always helps

Lots of money only helps if you have a skill aswell!! I am assuming you are talking about Investor Category here - check it out, it isn't just a case of giving Canada your money - you have to have proved yourself and continue to do so in Canada.

I debated whether to say something rude -- and then I decided why not? I think its pretty easy to get into Canada if you are a crook. These people come here and then they use the system and manage to stay for years. What was the name of that Indian man who had been involved in credit card fraud etc. etc. etc. He ran some pizza joint in Toronto or thereabouts. He managed to fight deportation for about 20 years before they finally got shot of him.

It really ticks me off that people like that get to stay for years but honest people who go about things the right way - its tough for them. I saw something on TV a few months ago. All about how many illegal immigrants there were working in the building trades around southern Ontario and how if they kicked them out, the building trades would come to a halt, so they were thinking of allowing them PR status. They were even saying how sorry they were for them becuase their kids couldn't go to school and they couldn't get medical treatment - something like that. Seems to me if they weren't illegal immigrants in the first place they wouldn't have those problems.

Sorry - I didn't mean you should be an illegal immigrant to get in. I also can't find anything about that building trades story on the Internet, but I know I found it at the time.

It's probably easier to balance two greasy ball-bearings on top of each other.

have a go at the CIC self assessment test - that will give you how many points you may have and then you can see.

This last bit doesn't sound right. My brother worked here for years before he became legal, none of his colleagues were legal, most still aren't and their kids all go to school. I've come to think illegal immigrants are better for Canada than legal ones, they tend to work hard, stay out of trouble and claim no benefits. When there's no work here they go home or to the US costing Canada nothing. Above all, illegal immigrants have usable skills, they don't drive cabs and bitch that they should be doctors; they lay bricks or plaster ceilings.

CIC also state that the requirements don't apply if you're directly selected by a province.

For example, Nova Scotia requires two years management experience (may be in a business, governmental, institutional, or other organizational unit, either for profit or not for profit) and $128K. They also fix you up with a six month contract with an approved employer worth $20K.

I know, because I thought about applying for it

So did I, until I realised that you give $128k to then work for a company for six months to "earn" $20 k back.

I would be surprised if anyone was that keen on living in Canada. I wonder how many people they find that are happy to sacrifice best part of £60000.00 and six months of their life. The queue must be very short indeed, or they would have gold roads and gold pavements in Nova Scotia. :scared:

That's what I thought before I landed, in hindsight I've lost more than $100K trying to catch up my career to the level it was back in the UK.

What you're paying for is the opportunity to network with local businesses - I don't know what Nova Scotia is like, but doing the same in Alberta without some sort of introduction is damn near impossible.

Like I said, it's "cost" me more than that and taken me a lot longer - if I had a set cost and a set timescale and the opportunity to immigrate again, I'd look at it a lot more seriously

That's harsh! You think physicians and engineers who drive cabs shouldn't complain about this sad state of affairs?

As an aside: my daughters, both Canadian citizens who at the time lived with their mother in Europe, came to live with me about ten years ago. When I regsitered them is school, their immigration/citizenship status was the very first question that came up. I am not disputing that what you say about your brother's colleagues is true but if a person's not legal, going to school won't be easy or automatic

GTR

We haven't got our visa's yet but my son has been going to school for 4 months now, we/he was never asked for residency status and friends of ours come over for a few months at a time as and when they want to, there son goes to the same school, again, no questions asked.
This is in NS so it maybe different policy from Ontario?