I was thinking that, before I leave work in England next month, I might get some tame people I have worked with over the last 20 years to write general references for me.

Does that seem sensible? Has anyone else done similarly?

Any thoughts would be very welcome. Thanks.

I brought two references with me - UK Goverment references and all. Didn't help one iota, I was actually told they were "worthless" to a prospective Canadian employer. I would imagine if you are in a specialized field, then such references might be useful. It can't hurt to bring them I guess.

We brought most of ours which I wrote off for well in advance of our application. Most of them came back but we had problems with some disappearing companies (like NYNEX). As I was writing off for principle applicant hubby, I thought I might as well do mine. I figured that if nothing else together with my National Insurance record it would at least prove how long I had worked for some companies etc etc. My UK Govt ref was the worst (and most recent) being factually incorrect and missing lots of information from my personnel file... still they weren't that much better with my contracts either!

So have these been any help?...er...no, they're still in a box in the basement after a year and a half. And no, I don't have a canadian job.

Point is though that if I ever need them (and I live in hope )I have them with me and it's way easier to get them from the UK than from here and even thoug we're in our 40's and there was a lot of writing to do it wasn't that much hassle....honest!

When I got my first job they actually phoned back to the UK for a verbal reference, so that does happen. I've got my written references with me, but I've never used them.