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:

My son went to school for one year and I pulled him out again it was so awful. They told us he had ADD and then put him in detention loads of times for failing to keep up with the others and then at the end of school year said he'd failed and would have to repeat the year - last year I took him back to England and he got on fine and they couldn't see anything wrong with him. I'm now home schooling him until we get to Canada next Spring! I totally agree with you about guns - within a week of the schools opening last summer our local high school had found one kid beaten up in the car park (students can drive early here - what a joke!) and another was arrested for having a gun and drugs in his car, meanwhile some young kids down the road got into a fight at a petrol station (over who should sit in the front seat of the car) and one of them got shot in the leg while they were fighting - all very, very sad. Also the owner of our favourite Irish pub in town got shot and killed right outside the doors of their own pub. It's all so normal here aswell, for instance a shoooting would be front cover news in the UK and here it's often listed in local news on page 5 or something and not just one a week but several - I personally hate it.

Good luck with the elections by the way - go Arnie, go!! Let's hope it's not that blond with the big boobs who's elected - mind you, anything's possible;)

Hi - I just wanted to add that our visas have now arrived - hurrah! :)

I've updated our application timeline on page one of this topic if anyone wants an idea on time of processing. Each case is different of course but for anyone aiming for the Manitoba nomination it gives some idea of what's involved!

Does anyone know where the best places to live are in manitoba? My other half and myself were trying to find out more about the different areas but didn't find anything on the internet. In an ideal world, we'd really like to live somewhere that's fairly remote but has towns, shops etc. near by and is fairly safe.

Can anyone suggest anywhere?

Can I share some of your guiness? Cheers! :beer:

Now where was I? Oh yeah, I can give you a couple of websites which has copious amounts of information on various areas around Winnipeg. It's a lot of sifting through but this one http://www.city.winnipeg.mb.ca/census1996/pages/wpg.htm has a breakdown of all the different areas in relation to age groups, types of houses they live in, size and cost of house, ethnicity and languages spoken and so on. Secondly here's this one http://www.communityprofiles.mb.ca/index.html which includes huge amounts of information on transport, schools, history, types of neighbourhood etc. etc plus some pictures. By the end of it all you'll be even more confused as you were before but at least you'll know more about the area! I've noticed in my own research that the inner North is the worst area so that would be one to avoid most. Another place worth mentioning to give you more of a feel for Winnipeg as a newcomer is http://www.virtualtourist.com/vt/dc631/ this is such a huge source of info. that I haven't even finished going through it yet but it has reviews from tourists and people who live there on places to eat, stay, drink, spend leisure time (the list goes on!) and there's some photos too so pretty cool! :) If you fancied Manitoba but not necessarily Winnipeg then you can still navigate to the whole of Manitoba in the above link and the community profiles links covers other parts too such as Northern and Interlake areas so worth checking out.

As there's a group of folks now in Manitoba or heading there in the next few months I guess we could have a Brits knees up one day. I'm happy to organise something next year so if you want to join in, send me a Brit Expats forum personal message and I'll contact you with details nearer the time! Plus if you're already in the Winnipeg area and have particular fave. places to eat, shop & be merry, then now's the time to divulge! :beer:

Thanks guys,

crazydaisy :)

We need job before PNP, right?
 

I'm very confused here.
How is it possible to move and apply for work at the same time?
I thought we had to have a job offer before we apply
to the PNP in any province.

I'm asking because (by way of intro), I'm hoping to move to
Canada as soon as possible. And a provincial PNP seems to
be the fastest way, if I can find a job. That's a big "if" but I'm
pretty determined. And I would absolutely happily
go to any province that has a PNP BTW.

So, hello everybody.
Thanks very much.

MollyV6.0

On edit: Whoops, I think my info is outdated and now a job is required before applying to the Manitoba PNP.
Sorry about that. Bad first post.

MollyV6.0

Re: We need job before PNP, right?
 

Hiya - you can apply without job offer as we did and became accepted, but the case will be second in line to those with job offer and/or family living there. We did have to prove why we wanted to settle in Manitoba and show that we weren't just using it as a means to get in the country as points wise we didn't at the time qualify for the federal program. They wanted to know what research we'd done on the area and why we'd decided to apply and only then were we given a nomination. So if you do decide to apply without job offer you won't automatically be rejected but you may have to do some persuading!! ;)

I'm not sure PNP is necessarily faster than federal processing as it took is 10 months for the PNP and then another 10 months for the PR but with job offer it should be quicker.

i am buying a business, my husband has been offered a good job and has hrdc approval for his work permit as our pnp has come through and still have the pr to do, the pnp only took us 2 months which seems quick but as we own a property in winnipeg that probably sped the process up as we actually went to them personally to apply.
I do know though that Manitoba incourage foreign people to move here and so you have a better chance with their pnp , that is my opinion anyhow.
good luck

Re: We need job before PNP, right?
 

This is very helpful info crazydaisy.
Thank you so much.
It's rather confusing because all of the PNP sites state
that an applicant must have a job offer before applying.

Do you happen to know if the other provinces will consider
those applicants without job offers?

I understand that it'd be much better to have an offer.
And I'll certainly try. Though I'm in the IT field, which has
tankeg everywhere but Asia. I'm willing to do just about any
job, and live in just about any province. I don't mind starting
over. (Yes, I'm eager. :))

So I've been exploring the various options.
And since I don't have relatives in Canada, I could apply
for a Canada skilled worker VISA, though that takes years.

I thought the PNP would be faster, but it sounds like yours
was slow. As you said though, it'd be faster with a job offer.
Then again, in a catch 22, Canadian companies often want
Canadian experience.

Sorry about rambling, but I've been spinning my wheels on this,
in spite of my determination to go North.

I've actually considered moving right next to the Canadian border,
and trying to sign up for some volunteer work in Canada, so that
I can network (which I understand is important there), and get
some Canadian experience for my resume.
I don't know if that's a terrible plan or not.

I'm very happy for you that you successfully immigrated.
I'd love to join you someday, as soon as possible.

One more question: when they asked about your research
on the area, was that an in-person interview?

Thank you again for the input.
It's much appreciated.

MollyV...

Thank you CJ6680.
It helps tremendously to hear what successful immigrants
have done. Have you moved to Manitoba yet?

Would you mind divulging the field your husband works in?
(IT, construction, etc.)

Congrats on your successful application.
I'm very happy for you.

MollyV...

Hiya Molly - I'm not sure about the other PNP schemes - the ones I looked at do mention job offers needed. I think Saskatchewan you don't need job offer but do need to be on their skills shortage list if I remember rightly - check out http://www.immigrationsask.gov.sk.ca..._questions.htm - I noticed they mention a PNP case takes about 8 months so not too bad. If you wanted to check out what the salaries are like in your field and which types of employers are available in Sask. check out http://www.labourmarketinformation.ca

Networking/volunteering all sounds good also as while you're there you can check out which places you'd like to settle the most too.

Re: your question on research on the area - I had been in contact with a British expat since we applied and she had been sending us information on places to live, latest stats. on the job situations etc. so I asked her permission if I could give them her number and they called her and it was after that that we got approved, so I'll be buying her a big pint when we get there!! We didn't need to attend any personal interview though. Good luck!

:)

Molly - I just looked at the Manitoba PNP website and they had new rules effective from February 2003 which specifcally states that people must have job offer or family support in Manitoba now to apply (see http://www.gov.mb.ca/labour/immigrat..._may_apply.pdf ) so it looks like things may have changed since we applied in 2002 and it may now be harder to get in without job offer (sorry about that!) Also they state that they only accept applications from residents who are 'outside Canada' or 'have been legally admitted to Canada e.g through visitor, student or work visa'.

It may be worth checking out the Sask PNP and see if that's any easier. :)

PNP
 

Thanks very much for the input crazydaisy.
I'll be job hunting up there (all over Canada) soon.

I'm researching how different Canadian style CVs are from
'Merkan style resumes. Same for cover letters.
Same for interview style, etc.
Need to better understand the culture I'll be trying to
worm my way into. :)

Thanks again!
Hope you're happy there.

MollyV...

Anyone relocating to Manitoba may be interested in a labour market report that comes out every month or so - it gives details of everything from new businesses opening, new housing developments, government funding on new projects etc. etc. http://www.mb.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/lmi/cu...winnipeg.shtml

A really cool thing is the local government has opened a new centre for newly arrived immigrants, offering families somewhere to stay for up to 3 months and they help with drawing up job resumes, researching the job market etc. It is set up especially for the skilled worker who have no pre-arranged job (anyone coming over on employment or family sponsorship don't get in ;) ) Fabuloso!

Labor market info
 

Thanks again Crazydaisy. That labor link is a great resource.

Molly...