Manitoba.
 

Hi all,
I am new to this forum, just thought I would say hi!;)
My family and i are "in the process" of applying through the Manitoba PNP, we sent in our application to Manitoba mid March.
Just wondered if anyone else is applying though the PNP to Manitoba. If so, any idea on timelines for this route???

I have 2 young children and would be very grateful for any help/info on Manitoba, good/bad areas to live, school, ect.

With alot of work and networking my husabd has got a good job offer (long haul truck driver):D

Its just the agonising waiting game for us now. I look forward to hearing from anyone.

Sara

Hi there. I am in Saskatchewan - next door to Manitoba. I think that Winnipeg is a beautiful city and there are some gorgeous beaches on Lake Winnipeg.

http://www.prairiepublic.org/features/beaches/

I read somewhere that Grand Beach was voted one of the ten best beaches in North America! I forget who said this. Being used to small lakes I couldn't believe it when I went to Gimli and here was a lake that was so huge you couldn't see the other side!

Hope you don't have to wait too long - maybe there are others with more useful information for you. Check out the beaches in the meantime!

Here you are - it was a Playboy Magazine survey that voted it top 10

http://www.grand.beach.mb.ca/thebeach.html

Thanks for the link and info. How long have you been in sasatchewan? Is life good?

Thanx again

Sara:)

We have been here for 35 odd years now. Mostly things are pretty good - strange weather today though - one second its hot and sunny and the next second its raining - then back to sun and then more rain again! Sure hope its nice tomorrow my granddaughter is having a pool party at our house for her 10th birthday.

From Southampton also
 

Hi Sara,

Me and my girl friend are just starting the process of application, we are also from southampton uk.

Could u give us any advice?

How many points did u score?

Hiya - we applied Feb 2002 and it took until Dec 2002 before we heard back from them and this was after a little nudge from us. We had read on forums that the amount of applicants hugely exceeded the quotas available so were more than a little shocked when they said we'd been successful! Once the Manitoba nomination is approved it's not the end of the waiting game unfortunately - they will ask for you to submit more paperwork to your country of residence Canadian consulate (although we're Brits we're resident in the States so we had to apply through Buffalo) and you have to send police checks for all the countries you have lived in since the age of 18. Once you have sent your applications and police reports they will send a letter requesting that medicals be organised within 60 days (a warning - this is an expensive process - it cost 500 pound for 2 adults and one child to be examined!) After that we had to apply for our US fingerprint report (for some reason we were told not to do this until they gave us the say so) and there were some delays as the fingerprint centre did a bad job and I had to do them all again!

Here's a quick timeline

Feb 2002 applied Manitoba PNP
Dec 2002 received nomination
Jan 2003 sent off applications for police reports to the UK/Switz
Mar 2003 dispatched police reports and consulate application papers and fee to Buffalo USA
May 2003 arranged medicals
July 2003 arranged fingerprints in US and submitted landing fees
Aug 2003 resent new fingerprints
Sept 2003 sent landing fees again (they lost our first cheque!)
Oct 2003 received visas

Once the nomination has been approved you may get to side step the interview process. I'm not sure if Feb to Dec is a usual timeframe as in the beginning of 2002 it was quite soon after Sept 11th and also the points system had radically changed so things were a bit chaotic at that time so may have settled down now but gives you an idea anyway! Also we didn't have a job offer so those who have will probably get a quicker decision too! The UK police reports took a good 6 weeks so be warned (unless we were unlucky!!)

I'd love to keep in touch with those who have got to Winnipeg or who will be there soon - we're planning on arriving next Spring:)

Best wishes

crazy daisy

Addendum - after my message yesterday I wanted to add a few pointers. First we have had a lenghty process time due to several factors - one is we're not residing in our country of birth and have moved to 2 other countries which slows down the process, second we aren't applying based on a job offer, thirdly we applied through the US which slows down the process as you are not permitted to apply for FBI police checks until you get the official say so and then another month is added for this process (and we had that waiting time doubled because the fingerprints hadn't been done properly by the fingerprint department!). Lastly myself and my husband have had fun getting paperwork signed as for a lot of time I was working in the UK to help save up funds for moving and hubby was in the US so it was a logistical nightmare getting applications and signatures co-ordinated. I'm saying this as some may be put off by the lengthy process but we're probably a worse case scenario!!

we are going through the manitoba pnp, we spoke to the immigration department at winnipeg and we have applied but at the same time we are moving there and buying property, they informed us we could move and apply for work whilst the process is going through so we don´t have to hang around, we have 5 kids to think about.

nice areas: wolsley, outskirts of north end, kildonian,west end, all of sout and southwest,

St bonifice is the french district so the schools are french language first,

STAY AWAY FROM BROOKLANDS; WESTON AND CENTRE OF NORTH END:

ANY OTHER INFO JUST ASK

Manitoba bound (hopefully!!)
 

Hi all,

Thanks for your replys.....I still haven't heard anything yet!! The waiting is driving us crazy. Manitoba wasn't our first choice of destination in Canada, but having researched the province I feel there is more to offer than alot of people expect (I hope!!!).

PLease keep in touch I would love to hear any updated news. I will post if/when we get our nomination.

regards

Sara.:D

so what was wrong in USA why are you moving to Canada ?

We're on non-immigrant visas at the moment which run out next May, so it's a choice of whether to go back to the UK or not next year. After much thought we decided that returning to the UK would be a costly move in that our electrical equipment in the States aren't workable in the UK and secondly the oversized American furniture would cost a fortune to ship and would have difficulties squeezing into an average sized home in England! (Plus, we didn't really fancy returning to Blighty just yet - still plenty more to experience yet.) The decision was to move to Canada so that we can keep our current furniture, it would be a reasonably painless transition as we're already on the right continent and we like the Canadian way of life - ie taking care of each other and the environment.

How's about you?:)

Oh that's too funny - moving to Canada 'cos the furniture'll fit!!

Clare
(still chuckling!)

Ah well - when you've sold furniture and bought new as often as we have you get kid of fed up of it in the end;) This is our 3rd emigration but we're enjoying the fun of it all - wahaaayyy!!

Hi to all who are mad enough to move to Winnipeg - well I thought it was a good idea anyway:D

I've just found a good website which compares neighbourhoods around Winnipeg at http://www.city.winnipeg.mb.ca/census1996/pages/wpg.htm
for instance whether they have older people or younger families living in the community and whether they are predominantly French or English speaking and so on. Another fascinating piece of info. is the list of languages, for instance nearly 20% of those living in Rossmere (North Kildonan) can speak Germany compared to the centre of Winnipeg average of 4.5% and the area has 28% Latin Americans compared to centre's average of 5.5%. Fascinating stuff if you're a stats. boffin and useful info. if you're planning a move as details on local mode of transport, average house size, family income levels are all recorded. It's a little out of date (1996) but maybe useful in yer research - good luck guys!;)

Sure we have different reasons some emigrate others immigrate
to Canada , some of us have US citizenship and are still looking for alternative destinations.
Personally , I love USA but scared when it comes to school
education, guns, having no social benifits, ..... and improper English , we shorten English words from labour to labor , colour to color and soon our neighbors will be "nabors".
I came here with 6 year University degree but my son will have to go thru the school system here and I am not very confident in California public schools. Unless "TERMINATOR-III" has a plan :) :D :lecture: