JoolsGod

Hello all,

I have been reading the many posts on this site to try to gather as much info about moving to Canada as possible, so far its been very interesting and informative. I have also read the Wiki but i was wondering if anyone out there could offer some more specific advise to our circumstances as we don't really know where to start.

My husband has been working for the same plated steel manufacturer for the last 16 years and during that employment he has gained the following skills;

Coded 12mm fillet welds in Mig
Codes 12mm fillet welds in stick.
He has also completed and passed a course in MPI.

He has the last 5 years of experience with these skills. We don't know if his skills are wanted in Canada, apart from looking at some vacancies on the net which sound the same sort of thing. Would canadian employers want to employ someone from the UK and assist with the application of a temporary permit etc as i believe we wouldn't be able to go without a job offer. Does anyone know of any companies that we could approach? I understand from other posts that we need to call in person as opposed to emailing which is fine, we just need the contacts.

We have no preference of province, the important thing is employment.

We have two children, 14 and 11 and i also work full time as a Retail Manager.

Can anybody help to point us in the right direction?

Thank-You.

Getting There

Hi JoolsGod,

Welcome to BE.

Do you think this description on the National Occupational Classification is a close match with your husband's role/skills.
http://www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/NOC-CNP/app/...de=7265&code=7
If so, that would be helpful as this is a role that is on the list of Occupations Under Pressure in Alberta...
http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/workplaces...bouplist.shtml
and in British Columbia...
http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/workplaces...up200709.shtml
This means there are fewer hurdles for a potential employer to jump over in order to be able to offer a job to a foreigner. I didn't check the other provinces.

As for where such jobs might be found, I went to Workopolis...
http://www.workopolis.com/work.aspx?...inView&lang=EN
and typed in "welder" as a search string and came up with over 100 job openings across Canada. No idea if they are related to your husband's particular role but it might give you a lead or two perhaps?

Best wishes,

Eamonn

Getting There

...oh, and if this is equivalent to your own Retail Manager role...
http://www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/NOC-CNP/app/...de=0621&code=0
then this is also an Occupation Under Pressure in Alberta (not BC this time tho').

Hope this helps.

Eamonn

JoolsGod

Thank you very much, i will have a look at those links.

JoolsGod

I certainly recognise some of the information in the link but will need my husband to read it himself. He only has the experience and codes, i believe from his inhouse training but has 5 years experience.

Workopolis is the site i had searched myself. If we were to see a vacancy that sounds right on there what should we do? Sorry to sound thick but we need all the advice we can get.

With regards to my Retail Manager role, are we both able to search for jobs with a view to both of us trying to get a job offer?

Sounds like Alberta might be the best bet for both of us, although when i searched Workopolis most of the vacancies appeared to be in Ontario. I have read on this forum however that Ontario is harder to get into. Again, we have no preference.

Getting There

Fingers crossed that your husband has a good match up with the welding role description when he gets a chance to have a look.

You are absolutely both able to search for jobs. The cool thing is that whoever gets an approved job offer first (because of the nature of your roles) the other will (as far as I can see) be able to apply for a Spousal Open Work Permit. The holder of an open work permit can accept any job, from any employer, in any part of Canada and the spousal open work permit is valid as long as the primary applicant's temporary work permit is valid. You may already have read about this but here is the link to the relevant WIKI article...
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Spousa..._Permit-Canada
This gives you loads of flexibility because, as you can imagine, it is that much easier to find work if you are here in the country and if there are no restrictions on the type of work you do.

All the same, many folk on BE manage to secure approved job offers from outside Canada. The WIKI gives good advice on job hunting. YOu can start here.
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Job_Hu...Process-Canada
This is a valuable article too...lots of resources for job hunting and at the bottom, some tips on the need to get speaking to folk in target companies.
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Findin...unities-Canada
This is a view that is reinforced in this article...
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Quick_...uctions-Canada
Some people have had good success with securing job offers by coming over here on a research trip first. There's a WIKI article that relates...
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Scouting_Trip-Canada
Obviously, using a research trip to get face to face with potential employers (especially if you have spoken to them beforehand and subsequently managed to get your resume into them) would enhance your chances of success.

Much as I am enjoying living in Alberta, (see our blog - link in our signature line below - for a view of our life here), I wouldn't want to lead you to believe it is the only province where you might both have better chances to find work in your current fields. Remember, I only checked the Occupations Under Pressure for Alberta and British Columbia. There are links to similar lists of OUPs in other provinces here...
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Occupa...ressure-Canada

And by the way...you absolutely don't sound thick. These are perfectly reasonable questions about what must seem like a bewildering process at the outset. I learn something new about it myself everyday by reading the experiences of others, etc.

Kind regards,

Eamonn

JoolsGod

Once again, thank you so much for your help.

I will sit at the computer with my husband an go through all the links you have provided and decide what to do next.

I gratefully appreciate your time and efforts to help.

Thank you.

Getting There

No problem JoolsGod. My pleasure.

Eamonn

Purley

If you are open to emigrating to any province, here is a page about Saskatchewan immigration.

http://www.immigration.gov.sk.ca/skilled/

We have friends who immigrated from near Oxford about five years ago and they really love it here. The husband is a welder/fabricator and there are lots of companies looking for people. He works for Brandt and they just hired welders from Ukraine.

You can look here for jobs.

http://www.saskjobs.ca/index.jsp

Worth exploring every province. If you don't like it here then you can move on once you get here.

JoolsGod

Thanks for that Purley.

Have looked at those websites and they look great! Will definitely be looking into the possibilites offered there.

Also have bben trying to find out info on the province and the thing that stands out most is that its seems to be horrifically cold in the winter??? We have chosen Canada because we are people who don't much like very hot weather (not all the time anyway). The temps i have seen quoted have been like -50 etc, etc. Is that normal or the extreme? We have never experienced temps like that before so were wondering how that affects the daily life, is it manageable? Can people function normally?

Its not put us off, just interested!

Many thanks for the help and links, much appreciated.

mandymoochops

lol life still goes on - just inside! Contrary to what you may think, Canadians also hate it when it gets that cold - anything below -25 and you start to feel it!!!! In the extreme temps life consists of

Getting ready to go out to either work / shopping / friends etc and putting on everything that you can whilst still managing to fit through the front door.

Leaving the house within 5 seconds of getting dressed for fear of passing out cos you're too hot.

Running to the car (which you started 1/2 hour earlier to warm it up - a remote starter will become your best winter buddy)

Driving to destination getting out of the car and running into wherever it is.

Repeat step 2 regarding being far to hot once indoors and then commence the Canadian striptease which entails taking off 24 layers of clothes in as short a time as possible!

Repeat whole process to go home lol

Joking aside life goes on, those temps are extreme though common in winter, we are in Alberta and the norm was between -20 - -30 in the cold months. Dress right and it feels no colder than walking to the shops on a crappy damp day in England (except we have our beautiful clear sunny skies to go with it)

Getting There

I'm still smiling from MMCs response above.

Coping with winter was one of my big 3 risks to successful settling in coming here (the others being missing family & friends and achieving finacial stability and then financial security).

When we first thought about moving to Canada, Vancouver, BC was uppermost in our mind. It is a beautiful city but upon visiting, we decided that a change from the quite "UK like" climate there would be good. Having ended up in southern Alberta (Okotoks), we certainly can't claim that winters are mild versus our UK experience...

http://janandeam.blogspot.com/2008/0...om-arctic.html

...but versus expectation, they were a smidge more manageable than we thought. Temperatures down to -10 are not at all unbearable in the dry atmosphere here, as long as you are wearing a few layers. You also get more sun and clear blue skies than you do in a UK winter, so that cheers things up a bit. Last winter (our first here), we had maybe two spells of about a week each when temperatures were down in the minus 30 region. Clearing snow from the drive is a drag but we would guesstimate that, last winter, we had to do that maybe 25 to 30 times across 5 months (so, by no means is it every day) and on a good number of those occasions, it was easier work than it perhaps looks in the above photos (ie: there was just a dusting of snow that could be cleared in 5 - 10 minutes).

Main roads are well cleared of snow and reasonably quickly, so getting from A to B remains very do-able.

If you are the sort that enjoys winter sports, then, of course, winter is something to celebrate. I'm not into winter sports but I can certainly see that the key is to not hide from winter - just prepare for it and get on with your lives.

Eamonn

JoolsGod

Thanks for that amusing description of weather!

We have been through the jobs under pressure bit of the wiki and looked at all the provinces. Seems we have Alberta and BC to look at. The links above on Saskatchewan are excellent and we found many jobs to my husbands specification. Having googled endlessly i haven't been able to come up with anything nearly as good for Alberta and BC, can anybody suggest any??? We thought if we got together a list of companies to call from all three provinces then we can hopefully come up with something.

We are now going to put together a resume and see what happens.

Thanks for all comments!

Getting There

Sounds like you've been busy reading and researching! Is your head about to explode yet!

Just rushing out the door but saw your post and just did a search on yellow pages re welding in Calgary area (you can do a broader search if you want). Haven't looked at the sense of what has been found but there are hundreds of hits on the search...

http://www.yellowpages.ca/search/si/1/Welding/Calgary/

Have a look and see if it helps.

E

JoolsGod

Thanks again Eamonn, you are a star!