Has anyone taken the deep end and went over to Canada on a working visa then applied for a PR? Is this an option? Or is it not recommended?

Thanks all

:scared: Almost - We applied for PR, went on a trip, got a job (approved by HRSDC), got a visa, moved here - now our only hope is our PR gets approved :scared:

Hi Piff Poff, we are about to send our skilled worker application to canadian high commission in london but my wife's been in contact with a prospective employer in vancouver (fingers crossed, hopefully she makes it). do you think it is ok to send the application now? if she gets the job, will it affect our application? do you think we should wait for the outcome of her interview, job confirmation and everything before we send the documents to CHC. if we wait and she gets the job, should we better off applying the PNP route? thanks for any advice.

With the waiting lists as they are at the moment this is a route I would consider if starting now. PNP is a quicker route to permanent residency if your employer is willing to jump through the hoops but if they are willing to sort out HRSDC authorisation for a Temp Work Permit job anyway then why not (unless PNP is not supported where you want to settle). The CIC website still states that anyone with an HRSDC approved job will have their paperwork finalised in about 6 months but then again they have failed to keep to any of the other timelines!
If you believe CIC then Temp work permit gets you out there quickly and is all is well apply for Permanent Residency which as stated should take 6 months so it all seems very straightforward, but be warned that promises of timelines don't exist from CIC and as we Skilled Worker Immigrants are all discovering 18 months processing time in Oct 2004 is turning into 24 months plus of torture. On the bright side you can always extend your work permit to take account of any delays and be in Canada during your wait.
Whatever you decide, search this forum and you will find lots of great info from people like Andrew Millar who is an immigration consultant. Good Luck
Stu

Can I just say that the paper work finalised in 6 months would be for the work permit, not PR staus - we got a delay letter for that in Jan - same as everybody else.

Hi Piff Poff, we are getting a Temp Work Permit processed as we speak being unable to wait any longer (AOR 4th Oct 04). Are you confirming that having the Temp permit has made no difference to your PR application contrary to what the CIC website claims and I suppose what we all suspected anyway.
Stu

I am confirming just that - we are AOR June 04 and recieved a delay letter from CIC earlier this year. We have been in Canada on a Work visa for almost a year now. We were originally told that we would have PR within 6 months of getting a work visa................

Another cunning-plan becomes another not-so-cunning-plan.
We are in the process of getting our temp mork permits to
a)Get there and
b) Speed PR up
so I guess we can forget about b then, ho hum!

I did. Worked for me. Need to make sure your temporary authorization will cover you long enough for PR to go through, but I hear that if your PR is in the line at CHC London and you get a job offer and work permit, then things will get fast tracked for PR. AFAIK this applies only to London applicants.

I applied after I got to Canada (through Buffalo as it would have been easier to travel for an interview if required), but that was 6 years ago now (pre 9/11) so my timeline is not much help to anyone. Took a little less than a year back then. Must be a few people here on work permits in the process of converting to PR I would think.

Aaaahhh! But at least you would be here and not there, as we say to ourselves - stage one of living the dream - stage two would be to get PR!

Well said, Alberta has to be worth it no matter how we get there.
Karma for reminding me of the goal.
Stu

Me me me...

Well, I'm working over here on a work permit, and I actually got a brand spanking new one when I started a new job over here with a different company.

I still haven't put my PR application in, but at least I'm a Canadian resident, and will be waiting out my PR time on this side of the pond. Thats unless someone wants to marry me of course!

You application only gets speeded up to the 6 month wait if you have an approved job offer by HRDSC. This means that your occupation has to be on the NOC list, they have tried to fill the post with a Canadian (but were unsuccessful), and you are deemed to have "specail skills" that they desperately need.
(I think this is right).

Thanks for that but are there 2 different types of Temp Permit as I thought all jobs had to be approved by HRSDC?. Or maybe its more to do with the skills level of the job and where it is on the NOC list. My wife is a Physio so looks good if this is the case.

Hey Stuarty

My wife and i are both physios, we're currently waiting for temp work permits (sent applications last week) after jumping through all the hoops of credentialling, applying for exams etc. we got our positive LMO from HRSDC last week after an 8 week wait. We were hoping to get out for the start of june but this is looking less likely. But HRSDC approval is necessary.... for BC anyway!

Ed

Ps. we are being sponsored on the PNP by our employer