engineer80

How the kindness of prefect strangers can sometimes be so much more than that of your friends and family. I was shocked at how many people replied to my "any Civil Engineers out there?" thread with lots of useful info, contact names etc. yet a few weeks ago I decided to contact a friend who has emigrated to Canada and is working in one of our Canadian offices for help and she never replied back. I simply asked her a few questions about the immigration process and whether she transferred on a temporary visa before getting PR.....I haven't heard a thing back When I first contacted her it was via work e-mail and I explained that I wanted a bit of advice on a personal matter and could I contact her on her personal e-mail to discuss it and she immediately replied back and said that whatever it was she would be happy to help. She obviously didn't want to share her immigration secrets or maybe she is afraid I will be gatecrashing her party by working in the same office as her?

Anyway, just wanted to say you guys do a brilliant job of assisting newbies like us. I've only been here a week and I know more now than I ever did about the immigration process. I hope that one day I can be one of the more experienced posters on here and am in a position to help others like you have me Cheers everyone!

christmasoompa

Awwwww!! That's just made my day and warmed my cynical old heart up no end.

As a mod, we get endless grief and usually only hear peoples moans and whinges, so it's nice to have some positive feedback about the forum for a change!

Hope everybody on here can help you achieve your goal of a new life in Canada.

engineer80

No problem, credit where credit's due. I suppose like most people who take the plunge to immigrate, you spend so long with people telling you your skills are needed in Canada and paint a really rosy picture about how straightforward the process is. Don't get me wonog, there may well be folk out there that make the decision to emigrate and find they are in their new country faster than they can pack but I am slowly finding that it isn't going as quickly as I thought it would and there are requirements you need to fulfil before being considered, we would have gotten there eventually but admittedly, hubby and I hadn't a clue where to start!

fledermaus

Maybe she just didn't want to use her work email for personal matters. Some companies don't allow it, and make checks on the content. There's also a good chance your email was deemed spam and she has never read it. There's no obviously about it.

You do get plenty of good advice on here, this is true, remember to read and consider the negative posts too. Hope it all works out ok for you.

iaink

Remember, "Free advice is worth every penny"

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!

Its a slipery slope....once you start there is no escape, you become a slave to the forum

Cassie 10000

BE is a great place, I would be lost without it

engineer80

No, I initially contacted her on her work e-mail so I could get her personal e-mail address, which she responded to. I then, via her personal e-mail asked her about her immigration experience so she should have received it. You're right, maybe she didn't receive it for whatever reason, it really doesn't matter now.

engineer80

mardyarse

I think it really is a case of crashing her party. I know we've had several people in a roundabout way wanting to know how we did it. Most of them just want it all done for them, the job, the money, the life. I'm a great believer that if you really, really want something as life changing then you'll do your own research and sitting in the queue for 3 years for PR certainly gave us enough time to research everything and blame no one but ourselves if we got it wrong. I personally would help anyone on the forum with niff naff but dubious about getting involved in friends emigration process for fear of being burdened with their woes and blamed for anything that went wrong. Much easier to help a stranger and walk away

engineer80

Yeah, I thought it would be something like that which is why I didn't pepper her with any further e-mails. In a way, I don't blame her becaue like you said, some people do want all the hard work done for them, my question though was mainly relating to a possible office transfer to Canada (we work for the same company and she was in the same office as me in the UK which is how we became friends, though we are in different fields of work). I wanted to know how she went about transferring whilst keeping it so hush hush. There are one or two people in our company, including in management that aren't the greatest at keeping secrets and I obviously didn't want to ask questions about a transfer abroad in case it got out and nothing materialised from it. It doesn't bother me much anymore that she didn't reply back, it's more the fact that I hope she is nice enough to at least keep to herself what I told her Lesson No 1 I have learnt is tell NO-ONE (except on the BE forum )

mardyarse

For sure don't tell a soul about any plans ever. We didn't actually tell anyone family included until about 4 months before we left. We initiated the idea that OH had a job offer and we would give it a go rather than we'd had our papers in for the past 3 years!

One guy who was a friend of my OH's when he was in RAF came out with his wife and stayed at our house for the week because my OH had lined him up with a great job within his dept. He came over for his interview but quite frankly their attitude while they were staying in our home and his comments about the dept and how he was going to switch his blackberry off at 5 regardless and no international travel (real jobs worth) scuppered any further interviews and he didnt' get the job. But that taught us a lesson. Even when you lay it all out for some people its still not good enough.

So we believe if you really that interested and that keen do your own homework and put your money where your mouth is. Thats why BE is brilliant for anonymous advice and tips. Stick to this forum (ignore the idiots and bullies) and you'll be fine. Good luck with your decision which whatever people say is your decision. Your personal goals and circumstances are your business and because of the wide variety of people on this forum you'll always get conflicting advice. What works for one doesn't work for someone else.

fledermaus

Of course, it may be because she doesn't really like it here but isn't going to admit it to anyone back home.

Steve_P

Or she didn't get the email and is still waiting to help.