I have sent so many CVs out and hardly any replys so I have decided to bite the bulliet and booked 6 flights to Calgary for the family.I intend to walk the streets knocking on doors handing out my CVs.It will be a good chance to check out schools etc..be it an expensive one.So please anyone looking for a very experienced PLUMBER in all aspects of domestic and commercial plumbing please keep me in mind I will be in Calgary from the 8th April.Any advice or pointers welcomed

I believe you would need to sit the Red Seal exams in order to practice plumbing in Canada (with the exception of a couple of Provinces).

More information can be found here: http://www.cicic.ca/684/Plumbers.canada?noc=7251

For Alberta: http://www.tradesecrets.org/index.ht...06_profile.asp

You can find out which areas have jobs available here: http://www.workingincanada.gc.ca/

I would hold off booking those flights until you have looked into it and ascertained if you can qualify. Do you have PR or are you hoping to get a TWP?

Thanks for your reply we are going out for two weeks and I hope to get a job offer then I will have to return home while a LMO is done,we will hopefully travel out then on a TWP

Hi there, my husband is a plumber/gas engineer here in Calgary. We've been here for five years.

Agree with whats sioxsie said - we tryed for 3 years previously to get here but not getting a job stopped us dead in our tracks. We eventually got here by getting an agent who in turn secured a job offer with a local employer. HOwever this was expensive in agents fees. OH has moved on several jobs since that initial job due to various things. All in all pretty similar to UK bar the main minus in that it is the norm here you only get 2 weeks annual leave. My OH is expected to work weekends and on late if the job warrants it. obviously we're not keen on this as we value our family time but when in rome and all that. My OH now works more hours than he did back inthe UK which was one of the reasons we wanted a change of life (think they call it better work/life balance!). Only other minus is that he has encountered a certain amount of anti-british/immigrants at work. His fellow workers believed immigrants were taking all the work. However this is not true across the board and he has indeed made some good friends. It's just something to consider.

We found banging on doors a waste of time as Canadian employers mainly like to hire canadians as most immigrants have not sat their rEDseal exam.

Hope our experience has helped. Good luck

Just for the sake of anybody reading, an immigration consultant is only allowed to charge for immigration advice or helping with an application - it's illegal in Canada for anybody to charge the employee anything for assisting them to find a job.

Sounds like you are worse of than you were in the UK???

I know people mean well but sometimes its so dishearten,just trying for a better life for the family

how old are you?..where u heading for in Calgary?...what kind of experience you got?

Making the wrong choice or not doing enough research and preparation can be more disheartening. This site is only a very small part of the ground work, making such a major decision based solely on what is posted here would be foolhardy.

Yes, possibly.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Some days are wonderful (mainly on Sundays!) when we get up to beautiful blue skies and have a day out at Banff. Some days are not so good and we feel like all we do is work. But we made our bed and we are lying in it. hopefully things will improve for us as time goes on money wise and we are rest assured our children are happy and are predictbly not concerned about our financial affairs!

Hey I know who how feel - we felt the same back in the UK. Trouble was we didn't realise how good we did have it in the UK until the honeymoon period was over here in Canada.

If you feel disheartened on a regular basis with your lot in life come over here and give it a go.

We often said when people asked us why on earth we were moving to Canada we said for 'a better life for the kids' - can't really explain what that statement means! Our kids were happy back in the UK - went to a nice school, had nice friends, played out, played in all the things kids do and they never said they were unhappy. Now in Canada they do all the aforementioned and are happy as well. I think looking back it was us parents who were unhappy. I guess to be blunt we were disillusioned and thought we could get more than our lot in life in Canada. this is where we went wrong!

i also looked into the plumbing jobs out here....most need you to be gas registered as its part of the trade out here

if you have experience in threaded pipe galv/black iron site running the pipework and bolting up flanges id come out as a pipefitter.......there is so much more opertunities for pipefitters out here

for a pipefitter you dont even need an LMO from the employer just a conditional job offer and be willing to come out at short notice

that is until the end of may when the pilot program ends and you will need and LMO then

It sounds to me like you hit the nail on the head..i dont buy this 'better life for the kids' gumpf that is touted around.. you dont live your life through your children and those that do or pretend to says more about them than their children sadly.

To me you are even more unhappy here than back home..your family work life is worse and you see no prospect of this changing and it wont unless you do something about it..rather than hoping for things to change for the better because they wont.

If i was your OH i would look for another job.

Could apply as pr for Plumber I found it was hard to get a lmo as company's didn't want to wait once I got my pr (my wife is Canadian she sponsored me) I found a job really easy

You could maybe try some smaller towns