Hi,

I am a new member although i have visited the website many times. I have found some incredibly useful information on immigration to canada but thought that maybe there might be someone who has ben through or about to go through the same procedure as us.

I'm 32 and have just returned to further education. It was one of my dreams to go back and study for my degree. The second was immigrating to Canada. I've already researched a fair amount but i still know that it still maybe only a fraction of the information i need.

I'm study at college at the moment for my Access to Higher education, which will get me into University, for those who may not be aware of this course it's the equivalent to A levels for mature students. I'm thinking about applying for my teaching degree at SFU in B.C canada. So I would be applying for a student Visa with my husband in tow, obviously once i've completed my degree i would be looking at staying on with the hope of getting PR status.

I have been in love with Canada ever since i went there 9 years ago, i stayed there three months and knew then, this is where i was meant to be. I now have a chance to make my dream come true, but that depends on so many things. We will not make the eligibilty requirements of the skilled workers visa so the student visa would be our only hope really until after i have finished my degree.

I would like to know if anyone has been through this process and if they could possibly offer some advice on applying and any information that I might not necessarily find you the small print. I know where i want to apply and the course but i find it a tad confusing the whole selecting of each unit. If someone could help with that, that would be fantastic.

Any further advice would be really really helpful, i'm on the first steps of my journey lets hope I can post something next year, while in canada of course.:

Look forward to your advice.

Nin-bham

Contact a Uni, go through to their international student department and they'll do the rest for you, mainly because they will charge you double for every course you take compared to a normal Canadian (there's an oxymoron lol)


From there apply with your paperwork accepting you from your Uni, if you get on with it you could be here in January.

Good luck.

Hi,

We've done similar thing.

Hubbie is now 35 (shhhh, don't tell him I told you!).

He recently finished a two year full time Masters in Physiotherapy at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

We started out in the UK by finding which Universities take international students (not all do), then he applied to a few, we came over for his gruelling interview, he was offered a place at his first choice Uni, so we withdrew his other applications and started selling up and packing. Once he had the letter from the Uni offering him a place, applying for and getting a study permit (for him, me as the accompanying spouse and our two young children) was fairly easy. I haven't been working during the past two years in Canada as we have two little uns, but I believe I would have been eligible to apply for an 'Open work permit' had I wanted to.

I take it you are aware of the very high fees for international students at Universities here?

After being here for one year we submitted our PR application from within Canada under Skilled Worker Category 2. We're ten months into that now and haven't heard anything apart from an acknowledgement of receipt.....

In the meantime hubbie completed his Masters and we recently submitted his Post Graduate Work permit, which should be granted in around 3 weeks time and for 2 years, then he can start work (he has a job lined up). I also submitted my request for an Open Work Permit at the same time.

If we hadn't been eligible to apply for PR when we did we could have waited until hubbie had 1 year of Canadian work experience under his belt and then we could have applied under the Canadiana Experience Class but we just wanted to get the ball rolling on our PR.

For us the whole experience has been worth while as hubbie will now have the type of job and salary that he has been struggling to get for years in the UK and we feel that as a family we have a better quality of life here. But his Masters was certainly difficult and he had to study his socks off to keep up with the young and bright 20 somethings!

Obviously I can't comment on your chosen course or career but hope that this information is helpful to you. You can private message me if you would like.

Good luck!