Hey all,

looking for some advice, I’m hoping to move to Canada with my 2 children. I’m a paediatric advance nurse practitioner here in the Uk.
I just don’t know where to start, the information on the web isn’t great or clear.
I know there are immigration lawyers available but are expensive so if I can do the leg work myself I’d rather.
Could someone tell me the easiest way to do it?
Im not overly concerned where we settled provided first language is English.
What would you budget for the whole process?

thanks so much :-)

Hi Lou, I was originally looking in to moving to Vancouver area. Although barriers have been reduced for IENs to get liscensed there, there still seems to be a lot of hoops to jump through. I’ve since looked at licensure requirements for Alberta. They seem to have gone much further than BC in simplifying the process so I’ve applied there instead. I’m waiting for my ID check to be verified and for proof of NMC registration to be reviewed (they’re not even asking me for educational proof so far as they seem to accept NMC reg as being qualified).
Im aiming to move out there September next year.
It’ll be different for you as I’m Adult trained and did Project 2000. I topped up to BSc since.
If you go on the CARNA website that might be a good place to start.

Hi, and welcome to BE.

Absolutely no need to use a lawyer unless you have complicated circumstances (criminal record, medical issues). If you have a straightforward application then it's pretty easy to do it yourself, particularly now you've found BE!

First thing to work out is what visa you might be eligible for, and the official website has a useful tool for that so I'd start there - https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...nada-tool.html If it asks you about English exams just say yes and put max points as native speakers (it's only to give you an idea of eligibility for now so doesn't matter if you haven't taken it yet). AirborneDan has given you some good info on the nursing side of things too, so hopefully both of those will get you underway.

As for budget for the move, this thread has some useful figures in, although it's quite old now so expect them to have increased by now - cost of moving to canada

HTH, good luck.

I have been a Nurse in Alberta for almost 15 years. I originally
moved from the UK. You don’t need an immigration lawyer just methodically complete the required paperwork. Life as an RN in Alberta is great, way better pay and the job is viewed as way more professional here. For me personally moving to Canada has been such a positive experience. It can take a bit of time and frustration completing registration but stick with it as the rewards are amazing.

Immigration to Canada is under the jurisdiction of the federal government (the Government of Canada) while nursing regulations fall under the jurisdiction of each individual province (the Government of Alberta, the Government of Ontario, the Government of British Columbia, etc.). If you don't know where to begin, you'll want to start narrowing down a province you anticipate you'll be moving to. Similarly, a lot of Canada's rules and regulations aren't universally applied across the country. Each province really does control and regulate most of the day-to-day aspects of life, so rules/regulations in one province don't necessarily apply to other provinces. So you'll want to research two items - immigration to Canada and what the federal government requires of you, and then nursing regulations and requirements for the province, and what that province's government requires of you to become a nurse in that province. Just because the Government of Canada lets you in to immigrate to Canada doesn't mean that your new home province will allow you in to immediately become a nurse, even though you can legally immigrate. These are two separate areas of research you will need to do.

In my opinion the license to practice should come first. This then gives you something to bring to the visa application. I see it as the foundation.

that’s amazing to hear! Is it possible to please know a link to where I could start applying? Most links I find are about Canadian nationals or people working in Canada who want to train as clinical practitioners

If you are considering BC then you can start with Healthmatch BC. No doubt Alberta has a similar agency.

Thank you so much! I’ll definitely give that a look