Hi everyone,

Does anyone know wether investigators are required in Calgary or the immediate area?

I have been employed as a civilian investigator with the police here in England for the last 5 years but we are looking to move to Calgary as had enough of England right now. Any advice, contacts or recruitment companies that anyone could pass on to us would be greatly received.

Hope to hear something from someone shortly as need to get onto moving asap. We are hoping to move on a work visa and apply for PR when we get there as hoping it will be quicker than the 4-6 year wait doing it from this end right now.

Cheers

Steve & Sharni

You can get some sense of labour shortages in Alberta if you read the list of Occupations under Pressure for this province.

The first thing you need to do is find out what your occupation is called in Canada, and find out its National Occupational Classification (NOC) Code. To do that, you go to the Natinal Occupational Classification website.

I did a search there for investigator and, as far as I could ascertain, you might belong to the group called Police Officers (Except Commissioned) (NOC Code #6261). Since you're a foreigner, you haven't got a snowball's hope in hell of being hired in that capacity in Alberta. Government entities like to hire Canadian residents, and in some senstive occupations they even insist on Canadian citizens.

Yes, if you were a police officer in the UK, you might be able to get on with the Calgary Police Service or the Edmonton Police Service via Alberta's Provincial Nominee Program. But, from what I've read on this forum, that recruitment drive is slowing down. Still, it's worth checking the Police forum and reading the Wiki article on Police work in Canada.

If you can't get into the Calgary or Edmonton Police Service, I believe your other options would be Other Protective Service Occupations (NOC Code #6465) or Security Guards and Related Occupations (NOC Code #6651).

Of these, only Security Guards and Related Occupations appear on the list of Occupations under Pressure (OUP) in Alberta. The good news is that security guards are listed as an OUP. There are two bits of bad news:

1. It's a poorly paid occupation.
2. It belongs to Skill Level D on the NOC Matrix and, as such, does not qualify a person as a skilled worker (as Citizenship and Immigration Canada defines the term). To apply for permanent residence via the skilled worker route (and to get your PR application fast tracked), you have to belong to Skill Level 0, A and B on the NOC Matrix.

I'm sorry, but I don't think the outlook is good. But perhaps there is a workaround. My assessments of people's chances of getting into Canada sometimes have been wrong. I can think of one forum member in particular whom I considered to be a hopeless case and who got into Canada.
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Hi,

Are you only looking at Calgary/AB or would you consider other area's of Canada?

To that end, I have just noticed that Other Protective Service Occupations (NOC Code #6465) are listed as an Occupation under Pressure in British Columbia.

Here are links to all the OUP lists.

The fact that the occupation is classified under Skill Level D on the NOC Matrix still is problematic, though.

It would be worth finding out if you could get in through BC's Provincial Nominee Program.

Hope that helps.
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It would appear that I am a lost cause in that case with respect to an investigation role, I wasn't thinking of particularly working with the police though as my skills could cross over to working for solicitors, insurance companies, oil companies and so on. The work I do now requires preparing files for court and completing any further work to bring the file to a level that the barrister or solicitor requires when going to court. I have seen a number of roles in Calgary that would appear to be similar but don't know if I would need a relevant Canadian qualification to get into that area.

I have also worked in a bank buying and selling currency so maybe that would be a better route to look at.

We are only looking at moving to the Calgary area unless we could get into BC in the Eastern most part of the province in the Rockies towards the boundary with Alberta but jobs there are even more limited.

It might be tricky. BC PNP applies to occupational classifications 0, A and B.

There is currently a 2 year entry level and semi skilled pilot project. However, to qualify applicants must have been previously employed on a temporary work permit for the nine months before the application.

I suppose a way around this would be to try and seek employment in an occupation in the hospitality industry that required an e-lmo (see list of eligible employment here) and then hope that after nine months the employer will be prepared to sponsor PNP.

Unfortunately I don't see an occupation that directly matches the OP's experience, though I suppose it is possible to be a bit creative. The other downside is, of course, that many occupations in the hospitality industry are not that well paid.

Do you think you would be able to fit under the umbrella of Insurance Adjustors and Claims Examiners (NOC Code #1233)? This occupation, as such, is not on the OUP list for Alberta. However, the closely related occupations of Assessors, Valuators and Appraisers (NOC Code #1235) are on the list.

In any case, you're now talking about occupations that fit into Skill Level B on the NOC Matrix, and that helps.

You might be able to persuade an Alberta employer to sponsor you via the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (which is Alberta's version of a Provincial Nominee Program).

Read:

• Quick Job Hunting Instructions-Canada
• Quick Guide to Canadian Immigration.
• All the articles in the Provincial Nominee Program section of the Wiki. They explain the ways in which PNPs differ from other kinds of immigration applications.

Hope that helps.
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