We've spent a lot of time now on the wiki and web in general and are still keen on the idea of emigrating however, we cant make up our minds on a province.
1.We have some family in ontario, not close enough to help the emigration process but may be nice for support.
2.I love the look and sound of Nova Scotia - green, friendly, rugged, relaxed - but oh is a carpenter so im not sure about the work situation also with 5 kids, eldest 19, we need to choose area giving them the greatest scope possible.
3. Oh likes Alberta, due to construction possibilities but the climate worries me a bit and the house prices seem a bit more.
So.... some advice from you seasoned relocators or those making decisions at the moment would be great. thanks. alison.

Do you anticipate the children going to university and, if so, do you want to house them while they do?

Ive only done this once, and I didnt follow this advice when I did emmigrate, but....


Visit the areas and see what you think....

Eldest will be finished uni next year so we wouldnt be planning to go anywhere until after that, next kid, 18, works for my oh, apprentice carpenter, next 3, 14, 12, and 8 are anybody's guess with regard to uni. No doubt the costs involved will scare the pants off me.

Oh yes!

Nonetheless, if you want the option of them living at home while going to university then Halifax makes some sense; it has a lot of schools. Other places also have a lot of schools, Toronto for example, but they're big, expensive cities. You can't really get this right, they may very well choose a far flung college anyway but fees for out of province students are higher than those for local students so it's something to think about.

Alberta has more work and that will very likely still be true in a couple of years. It's a largely oil based economy though so the price of houses there may soften significantly over that period. I don't know if there's education in Alberta.

I'm pretty sure we got some of that.

Let me think...yep we got edumacation out here.

That's reassuring. Three potential students taking unknown subjects... presumably Calgary would offer the best shot at meeting their needs locally but would also be the most expensive place to live.

Edmonton and Lethbridge would work too Edmonton perhaps slightly less expensive Lethbridge a lot less expensive than either Calgary or Edmonton.

All three have a university and a college. I understand that the college in Calgary has been given some degree granting status the Edmonton one could have been given that right too.

University of Alberta (Edmonton)
University of Calgary
University of Lethbridge
Grant MacEwan College (Edmonton)
Mount Royal College (Calgary)
Lethbridge College

Thank you for your help so far. Obviously I'm thrilled that alberta has some edumacation but what about prospects for carpenters in NS or Ontario. Also I'm almost finished training as a personal therapist and would appreciate any heads up on work prospects in that field.
On thinking about the uni the uni situation, I would prefer the option of living close enough to one to enable living at home but would not be keen on city living, we're more large town type people.

Hope nobody minds me bumping my post back up again but rather than repeat my original questions I thought this would be better.
Im still keen to get some answers to the work situations for carpenters (oh) and counsellors (me) in Alberta, Nova Scotia or Ontario. I feel we have so many things factoring in our decision that we need a rounded view.
Thanks.

Lethbridge, Alberta sounds as if it would be an ideal town for you. It has amenities like a university (reputedly a pretty good one at that), but it's considerably smaller than Calgary or Edmonton. Houses are not as cheap as they are in Nova Scotia. But, as Steve mentioned, they're cheaper than they are in Calgary or Edmonton.

I don't know why you think Alberta's climate is more of a worry than Nova Scotia's. I've never been to Nova Scotia, I've heard it's a charming place, and I would love to visit some time. It's definitely on my wish list. But I'm not sure about living there.

Nova Scotia gets much more snow than Alberta, or at least the southern half of Alberta in which most people live. Also, NS's snow is reported to be a wet, heavy kind of snow, whereas Alberta's snow usually is dry, light and fluffy (except in spring, when there tend to be a few falls of wet snow). Nova Scotia sometimes gets hurricanes.

The southern parts of Alberta get warm Chinook winds that break up the winter weather for a couple of days at a time. Lethbridge gets a lot of Chinooks.

The only downside is that Southern Alberta's relatively dry climate does not produce lush vegetation. But the compensation is the beauty of the Rocky Mountains, which are within easy driving distance of Lethbridge and Calgary (not that they help you if you strongly dislike relatively sparse vegetation on a day-to-day basis).

I think you should forget about Ontario. Just strike it off your list. In order to gain entry to Canada, you need to find a job that no qualified Canadian resident wants. That's just not going to happen in Ontario. Well I shouldn't say it's not going to happen. There are a very few members of this forum who have gained entry to Ontario that way. But, in the vast majority of cases, Ontario has enough people to fill jobs.

Prior to this latest economic downturn, there had been an increase in construction in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Some members of this forum had succeeded in obtaining temporary work permits on the basis of jobs in the skilled trades. But I think the construction industry in the Atlantic Canada is going to soften, and indeed already has softened.

Although the construction industry will soften in Alberta too (and already has done so), I still think that its the regional economy that will remain the strongest of the three destinations you have in mind.

I'm not British, and I'm also not a psychologist, a social worker or anything like that. I've noticed on this forum that Canadian terminology for these things is different from UK terminology. To me a personal therapist means a psychologist, but I don't know what it means in the UK. Anyway, here is a thread entitled Psychology -anyone! in which I found out for another poster what they would need to do in order to register as a psychologist in Alberta.

One thing you should be aware of, if you and your husband enter Canada on temporary work permits, is that your children will not be allowed to work in Canada. That would be a worry for your son who currently is working for your husband.

Hope that helps.
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thanks judy for all your iinfo. I had already begun to think that Ontario would not be the easiest choice for us. Alberta seems to be the practical choicce and the climate info makes it more appealing . With a view to TWP, would my son also have to secure one of these before entering the country? If this was not an option then how else can we proceed in order for our son and daughter to be able to work? Thamks so much, I'm going to spend a while now looking into Leithbridge.

No. Your husband could simply list your son as an accompanying dependent on your husband's TWP application, and your son would be allowed to live in Canada.

If your son wanted to apply for a TWP in his own right, he could submit his TWP application from the UK or he could submit it once he was living in Canada. Not that your son can hope to get a TWP, but I was just describing the technicalities of applying.

The idea of your children working is just not on. The children of work permit holders are not allowed to work in Canada.

Technically, the children of work permit holders can apply for TWPs in their own right. But, in order for a prospective employee to apply for a TWP, the prospective employer has to demonstrate that he/she has not been able to find a qualified Canadian for the job.

That means that the prospective employer has to have advertised the job across Canada for three months under normal circumstances and for seven days in the case of an occupation that is listed as an Occupation under Pressure (OUP) in the relevant province.

It's virtually impossible for an employer to prove that he/she cannot find a qualified Canadian for a job that could be filled by a new graduate with little or no experience.

So, while children of work permit holders technically are allowed to apply for TWPs in their own right, the practical effect of the rules is that they are not allowed to work in Canada.

I consider that to be a huge disdvantage. It has caused major problems for members of this forum, so much so that some of them have returned to the UK primarily for that reason.

Your kids would be allowed to work in Canada as soon as they received permanent residence (PR) visas. If your husband entered Canada on a TWP, it would be in your family's interests for him to upgrade to PR status ASAP. See Fast Track PR Application-Canada.

Alternatively, your husband could apply via the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP), which is Alberta's version of a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). This too would lead to PR status.

Your young adult children also could study in Canada. I don't know all the details, but I believe study permit holders are allowed to work part-time.

Another option is for your two older children to remain behind in the UK and continue working there while you wait for your PR visas to come through. Then they could join you and work in Canada. However, if you split your family like that, you increase the chances that either or both of those two older children will want to stay on in the UK and won't want to join you in Canada.

After what I've said about new graduates with little or no work experience, you may be concerned about your own entitlement to work in Canada. You don't have to worry about that. Because your husband's occupation falls under Skill Level B on the National Occupational Classification Matrix, you'd be eligible for a spousal open work permit (SOWP). Spouses of people in Skill Levels 0 and A also are eligible for SOWPs.

Hope that helps.
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Thanks again judy. Looking at the options which you have highlighted,
we couldnt leave any of the kids behind, even for a short time,
we couldnt enter with oh on TWP as the oldest two kids would be unable to work,
so another question,
If we applied for PNP for Alberta and got that and then applied for PR does that make it quicker than just applying for PR through the Skilled Worker program. Can we do all that from here or do we have to be there if accepted on the PNP.
Sorry if that sounds confusing, Im trying to get it straight in my mind rather than go off on a tangent and get it wrong. Thanks.

PNP is an application process that incorporates within its workings an application for PR. It's a two-step process. First you apply to the provincial government. Once you have the province's endorsement, the next step is a PR application, which is processed by immigration officials employed by the federal government. You cannot apply for PNP and not apply for PR.

The skilled worker program is a non-starter. They have changed the process, and you will never get in without pre-arranged employment.

A PNP application typically is lodged while the would-be immigrant is still living in his home country. However, some provinces allow the applicant to start working on a temporary work permit after the province has endorsed his/her application and while he/she waits for the federal government to process his/her PR application. If I am not mistaken, Alberta allows this. I have just looked at the AINP website, but have not been able to find confirmation. But I'm pretty sure there have been members of this forum who have applied via Alberta's PNP and who have strated working on TWPs while they've been waiting for the PR parts of their applications to be processed.

If your husband applied for PNP and was granted a TWP that allowed him to start working in Alberta while he was waiting for his PR appliction to be processed, the restrictions on your family would be the same as I described in my previous post.

It would really help if you read the articles to which I provided links in my previous post.

It also would help if you read these Wiki articles:
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