Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

Hi all,

Guess the title says it all "Idiots guide to emmigration required :)".

My wife and I are seriously looking into emmigrating to Canada. After buying books and surfing the web everything seems to get more complex and convoluted with each search! We have found many sites that offer a free assessment upon filling out a form. I must have filled in around 10 of these and never had a reply! though i am pretty sure they would all reply to the emails that they charge to receive....

Thats what has lead me to this forum and this really open-ended question. Even reading posts on this forum, and others i find myself confused again - for example, i understand having a job offer is pretty much a 'must-have', though i have read numerous posts from people that went out to canada - then got a job....

Perhaps if i tell you a little about Karen and I someone could offer us a guideline to follow in some sort of normal order - if that makes sense :D

Myself: 34 year old male. Working as a web developer for the last 5+ years. No qualification in this field, though a time-served engineer (which i haven't done now for around 12 years). Have an ICD (like a pacemaker) though in very good health.

Wife: 27 yeal old female (obviously...:)) Working as a community careworker; mainly with the elderly, holds most of the 'usual' qualifications such as emergency aid, health and safety etc and working towards an NVQ in care. Qualified as a hairdresser though prefers carework. In good health

Thats pretty much us in a nutshell.

So guys, those that have done it - those that are doing it -
what route do you/have you taken to make this move toward a new life?
Should we go down the permanent resident or temp worker route?
Also, what are all the initials i see in peoples signitures- PRP AEO etc etc?

Looking forward to replies :D

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

Hi Darren and Karen

The best advice anyone will give you on here is to read the Wiki (tab on the top of this page)

Read the Canadian imigration section obviously. The best info I found anywhere was there once you have read through it which will take a while by the way so get a comfy seat, then you will have a rough idea what you need to do.

At which piont you will beable to come back and ask more specific questions.

I was like you when I first started to read up on it got very confusing, but the wiki is written in plain english and very helpful. Once you have read it please ask any questions you may have there are loads of people here who will beable to help.

Welcome to BE

Alli

P.S There is even a Wiki page that tells you what all the abreviations mean.

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

Hi Guys,

thanks for that. I have gone through a fair bit of the wiki already. though i guess to get a little more specific....

Jobs for example - securing a job is a must. Where do people find such jobs? I have wandered around job-board after job-board, though figured there must be an easier place to find these.

So i guess thats as good a starting point as anywhere - "Resources for jobs"

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

Hi welcome to BE!
My OH is a carpenter and when we started looking at emigrating we were very much like yourselves - where do we start?? Anyway after coming across this site things looked a lot less confusing as everyone is so helpful and the Wiki is great!:)

We have a recce planned for october so we changed OH cv to a Canadian style resume and literally just emailed one after the other to various construction companies in Nova Scotia. We have had one reply but we will follow up the others when we get over there.

You have to show prospective employers that you are serious about living and working in Canada and the only way to do this in all honesty is to get over there and see them face to face. Think how many resumes companies must have trawl through every day, a lot of them just arent interested. A recce is definitely recommended. Good luck!:thumbsup:

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

MY OH is a Truck Driver and we found the goverment jobbank (Canadian version of Job Centre) Very useful.

That is where they list the government jobs as well as others so will be very usefull for your wife. www.jb-ge.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca

Others on here have comented that in the past that it is not very good for IT jobs and that monster.ca was the best place to go.

If that fails get the business directory for the town you want to live in from the town councils website and send your resume of to all the companies in the area. I found this worked best once we had booked our flights for our recce and we could tell them when we would be available for interviews.

The wiki section on how to change your CV into a Resume is very helpful, oh another tip set up a databse so you can track all the resumes you send and the responces so you don´t double up on anything. A big plus is to call about a week after sending the resume shows that you are serious about your application.

Hope this helps any other question?

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

Judy has written a new wiki article have you read this one?

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Immigr...imeline-Canada

Looks very helpful and just what anyone just starting out on the research will need.

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

Check the Wiki and read the section on Job Hunting (lots of articles in it, all of which will answer your questions about how to find a job in Canada!).

Best of luck. :)

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

Here's what we did and, if you are really serious about moving to Canada, this is the route I would strongly recommend...

Use a Provincial Nominee Program. Forget the federal routes (Skilled Worker, Entreprenuer etc) as the backlogs are huge and there is so much uncertainty at the moment. Skilled worker appliucations arent even being processed as the Canadian government are planning a new system of prioritising applications but nobody has decided what the priorities are going to be yet.

Provincial Nominee programs are both the fastest and most certain route to immigrate to Canada - usually taking around 1 year or less. PNPs also have the added advantage that you dont need to get the socalled LMO (Labour Market Opinion) which is often the step that slows applications down.

PNPs are a two-step process. You first apply to the Province you want to move to and then, after they "nominate" you you apply to the Canadian High Commission in London and your application gets "fastracked". PNPs have the advantage that once you have passed the first nomination stage, you can use that to apply for a work permit to get to Canada even quicker and because you have a provincial nomination you can skip the HRDC confirmation step (which is normally the bit that slows the work permit down) - just a letter of support from the Province is enough to satisfy them.

So, first thing is to decide which Province you want to move to. If you apply for nomination the province will expect you to be serious about wanting to settle in that province. Once you know that, look at what different PNP streams they offer. For instance in Nova Scotia there are two common streams - one is to have a job offer (PNP skilled worker) and the other is to have some "community connections" (PNP community identified) where you dont need a job offer but they will expect you have have family here, or to have been making multiple visits over a period of time, or perhaps some business interests here.

It all sounds intimmidating but in reality it isnt - Canada wants (needs) immigrants and is trying to get people in rather than find ways to turn them away. In most cases you really need to start looking for a job here - if you have a job offer then you can get in through a PNP. It sounds daunting but the vast majority of people on this forum who have looked for jobs even while still in England seem to have been successful - you just need to approach it in the right way (read the wiki). Once you have a job offer you can worry about submitting the various forms.

Having a job to come to is also a good idea in other ways - you know you are going to have an income from day 1, your employer will likely help you get settled a bit and you will have some initial "friends" in people that you work with to help you get settled too. It might not be your dream job but you can always switch jobs once you're here - for now you just need any job offer to get you in. You should both start looking and see who gets a job offer first.

If you are thinking of Nova Scotia I have some contacts in the web development field that might be able to help (PM me if thats the case) but I probably couldnt help in other provinces. Hope that helps.

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

Hi NSPaul,

Well - that was a great reply and exactly what i was looking for :D

i have read a little about these 'PNP's (see, learning...) and even suggested to karen that we pick one that would suit us best to at least 'get through the door' as it were.

So any old job will do? thought that would have been more difficult; as in a job that perhaps any other Canadian could do?!

Karen and I haven't settled on a destination at this point. and are looking at all areas - novia scotia is certainly on that list too; it looks so beautiful there!

Thanks for your answers guys - printing the enire wiki off tonight.

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

Well not necessarily any job will do and different provinces have different requirements regarding the type of job but generally as long as its a permanent position and the employer has been able to demonstrate that they advertised the position and couldnt fill it from within Canada. The salary has to be sufficient to attract a Canadian too. In my case the employer really didnt search exhaustively for a Canadian that could fill the position - they just advertised on their website for a few weeks and didnt get any suitable applicants. A print-out of the add from their website was sufficient "evidence".

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

Hi...I'm also keen to look into getting web development work in Canada. I've heard on the grape vine that Kamloops is another location which has a demand for web developers.

I'm looking into a trip to Toronto or Vancouver early next year. So how far in advance would anyone suggest sending out resumes or contacting companies before the trip out is made?

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

A couple of weeks before coming should be ample.

If you're looking for new media agency type work, then Kamloops isn't really going to cut it for you, but there are IT jobs here and some of the larger businesses and organisations do have healthy sized IT departments with web development skills requirements.

I've recently taken a job with the university here, and have responsibility for strategic development of online resources, so those type of jobs do exist.

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

I agree, I moved here well before this rush and waited only 12 months from start to finish without a job offer but I was so eager to get over I sent hundreds of resumes off during this wait, I didnt get 1 reply, as soon as I got here getting a job here was as easy as pie.

As far as Ive seen unless your very lucky or know someone who knows someone (Canada is a lot of who you know) you need to get out here seeing employers face to face and also in that instance Id personally forget the more populated provinces like ON, QC and BC where competition is going to be high for jobs among people living here let alone foreigners, I think you will have little or no chance there compared to the maritimes and prairies. If I were in your shoes Id also now give thought to the PNP scheme. Remember once your in you can always move around.

Re: Idiots guide to emmigration required :)
 

hi

as per the previous post from mickey b.......get yourself on a plane and get out there to met and show employers who you are.......and what you can offer them.

our story in a nutshell.....applied 'skilled worker' route 2.5 years ago, still sitting in the system! nothing strange about that as the processing time is currently 45months + before they will even talk to you........worth spending the money on though, as if you chose to pull out of the system, they give you your money back and it's a way of 'getting in' if all else fails!!!!!! possibly!

may of this year, hubby got on a plane for three weeks, trod the streets of vancouver, edmonton and calgary and met/talked/had interviews with as many people as he could. he has continued with those discussions back in the uk and infact more interviews have come his way, all because he did this trip. we are just waiting on our temp worker visas as i type..........the canadians don't react to emails, pretty much never but they do like to met you face to face and once done, they are great. find the companies in your field that has advertised, at least for 7 days, for a canadian and not got one......find your NOC code, find a company on the PNP programme, find out which companies have got thier LMO's etc etc......do your homework! you have to treat this whole business as exactly that, a business (with millitary presicion)...........

in truth, the only serious way into canada is through work and rightly so.....they desperatley need workers, in every area and are serious about you, if you are serious about them! it's a different culture in canada afterall; even if they speak the same language, they have thier own ways of doing things.....they don't like lots of phone calls as they see this as being 'pushy' and pestering; if they say they will call you back, invariably this means never or at best in a week or two; they are gone from thier offices by friday lunch and don't return to thier desks until monday lunch (generalising!!!!) as they've been out to the ski slopes, in thier RV's etc etc for the weekends with thier families. none of this is personal, it's just thier way and hey! isn't this why you think canada would be a great place to live......they work to live not live to work as we do in the uk......

really important, if you've never been to canada, at least do the canadian's a favour, go see.......for you too as actually you might not like what you see but at least you will show the canadians that you are serious about thier country.....we have been loads, fall in love with it every time and can actually see ourselves living there and dying there!! my brother moved over 13 years ago and will never come back to the uk.....good luck.