elle192021

Hi all, I hope I have posted this in the right place.

I have been thinking about finding work as a Civil Engineer in Ontario. I would probably be looking to go around the end of 2018 or start of 2019 to perhaps get a bit more working experience under my belt first... Would the best route be an IEC Visa? Is the language test not required for this type of visa?

One of the main reasons I want to go to Canada is to be with my boyfriend who is Canadian. We've been together for around 3 years now (albeit separately for most of it). I am 25, I have a bachelors and a masters degree and I have about 2.5 years UK-experience so far. I understand that it is a protected title in Canada, but I was wondering whether it would be worth it to try and get Chartered here first? Would doing that make getting P.Eng easier?

What sort of salary could I expect for a "Junior Civil Engineer"? (I am guessing this would be the title/level of job I would have to applied for, since I am not P.Eng.) I had a quick look on the Job Bank website and there's quite a big range.

Also, I was looking up EE on the website and completed the eligibility questionnaire and got the result that I am eligible for EE based on my answers. Is this type of Visa more complicated than IEC? As it is for PR? (Is it?). So I would have to complete a lot more for the application - police check, medical check, language test etc. Are Civil Engineers classed as a skilled workers?

How are points calculated? I had a look on Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) Criteria – Express Entry and I don't seem to reach near 400 points even when I assume full points for the language test. Would this effect the chances of being eligible for EE?

Thanks and regards,
Lucy (:

withabix

Your best route would be an IEC visa in my opinion.

I wouldn't bother getting Chartered in the UK, except that it will be useful if/when you return to the UK. There are no 'grandfathering' rights for foreign designations that will help you get a P.Eng, other than your Degrees themselves.

You can progress to getting P.Eng status by starting off as an EIT (Engineer In Training) for a Contractor or a Consultant. For a Contractor you would be a Project Co-ordinator or a Field Engineer - they don't have the long list of job titles that we have in the UK. There are usually 3 grades of seniority in each job, ie Level 1 (lowest) to 3.

If you're good enough, you can progress to being a junior-level Project Manager quite quickly.

Can't help you with IEC questions (there is lots of info on here) or the current scoring for EE, as they changed the scoring at the end of 2016 and I was an 'early' EE applicant when it started at the beginning of 2015, although I was already here as a TFW.

Salary-wise, I would say that the 'conversion' rated is approx. £1 in UK salary would get you $2 in Canada, which looks comparatively good at current exchange rates. But do bear in mind that living in the popular areas in Canada is more expensive than almost anywhere in the UK.

Junior staff probably get paid better in Canada than they do in the UK.

johntheScot

i would say you are somewhere in the $65-75k range

What kind of civil engineering have you been doing for the last couple of years?

Civil engineers are skilled workers class A

EE is more complicated than IEC

IEC is without doubt the quickest and easiest way to get to canada. it can be difficult to land a professional job as it is only a short term visa but i did and am now a PR.

Engineer_abroad

IEC is by far your quickest route and many companies employ junior level engineers on an IEC visa, my own included. They also then help sponsor to PR afterwards.

How many years experience do you have and what is your specialism in (I notice you said you have a masters but was this a straight MEng or did you do a postgraduate MSc in a civil engineering field?)

Being a C.Eng in the UK wont help with P.Eng I am afraid other than it makes you more prepared for the professional practice and ethics exam. I also found that I was able to re-jig a lot of my ICE attributes to complete the APEGBC competencies, but I am not sure how PEO works. I have heard from some guys here in the office that they can be one of the worst for being hesitant and difficult to license with if you are a foreign trained engineer. Note you do need 1 year Canadian experience before you can be licensed but you can start the process wen you arrive. If you have started your ICE charter ship I wouldn't give it up, although trying to get a professional review here in North America is nigh on impossible.

In relation to salaries civil engineering is generally a bit better paid in than in the UK. With 2.5 hr years experience I would say 55-65k range, but I am working off what our guys get here in BC and Ontario is generally better salaries, so john's numbers may be a better guide.

I am surprised your CRS score is only around the 400 mark with a masters, I would check that again.

Shakyuk

At 25 with a degree, masters and some skilled work experience I'd be expecting your score to be around 450.

You're better using an online calculator as it's easy to miss points using the CIC website. For example as a single applicant with maximum points on the English test, you get 34 points PER test (listening, reading, writing, speaking), so 136 points total.
You get points for education, but you get extra points if you have education PLUS a language score of CLB 9 or higher.

Here's a link to an online calculator: https://www.canadavisa.com/comprehen...alculator.html

Shirtback

CIC EE points calculator (& links):
Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) tool - Skilled immigrants (Express Entry)

OP: you are lucky to have several options open to you .

- IEC, then possibly eligibility for Spousal sponsorship if all goes well with your CDN boyfriend & you live together (in a spousal relationship) for a year, or get married.

- IEC, then EE. Or IEC -> PNP/EE.

- EE.

There is no language test for IEC, which is a temporary work visa (which can lead to PR). EE is PR direct.

elle192021

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply the general consensus seems to be that IEC is the most popular route.

How has working as a civil engineer in Canada compared to the UK? Is progression better? Are there more/less opportunities? Variety of work?

Do you think that someone with mostly office-based and inspection (for design/assessment) experience would be able to get a job in contracting? As I was actually working for a contractor previously but got placed in an office as they had acquired the highways design part of another company... And I have since moved to a consultancy company.

Would project management in a consultancy be transferable to a contractor setting? Most people I have spoken to have done it the other way around

I have quite a broad range of experience at the moment but mostly office-based: CAD work, road resurfacing, drainage improvement/maintenance, parapet beam design (to Eurocode), bridge assessments calculations (to british standards), bridge inspections (rail and road)... I am aiming to get some project management experience soon.

Is there a significant difference in the codes? Or is it relatively ok to pick up since the engineering principles should be the same?

I have a BEng in Civil Engineering and MSc(Eng) in Sustainable Civil Engineering (Structural). So still quite general, my dissertations were in (1) BIM and (2) Water flow through compacted soils and a digital imaging method. However, no practical/working experience in these areas yet. The majority of my experience to date is probably been bridge related... Would you say it is better to specialise?

I have other training/certifications (SEATS and CSCS) but they won't count there.

I have done some development/quarterly reports, practiced writing essays and kept a CPD record towards CEng with ICE. If you don't mind me asking, did you get CEng? And was it recent? Since I noticed you said 'attributes' and not 'development objectives'.

How come getting a professional review is so difficult? is the process very difference to ICE?

Do companies help to pay your membership fees to a professional institute? Or even the fee for professional review? I have noticed on the ICE website that they do have some presence in Canada, does remaining a member have any worth?

Oh thanks for that! Yeah I missed that it was per section I am now around 450 points.

Thanks for the link/information it does seem there are some options for me (and my bf) to choose from. I didn't know that PNP (thankfully you got a wiki page for all these acronyms!) was an option, I will look into it. Now, I just have to decide what I want to do about my career first and before I am 30! There's just so much to consider.

The company I am currently with do have a presence in Canada (Vancouver, Fredericton etc. off the top of my head) but not in Ontario yet...

Would it be better if I could secure a job before I got there? I have read about how it can be difficult to do this. I hope to plan a visit where I can perhaps start to network a bit.

christmasoompa

Can I suggest that you repost your career/engineer related questions in the main Canada forum? This part of the forum is only for visa related queries, so I suspect there are a lot of engineers that won't see your questions on this thread.

But if you repost, then hopefully you'll get some more good advice and you can then keep this thread for your IEC/PR related questions.

HTH, good luck.

elle192021

Oh ok, I will do that, thanks for your help!

Shakyuk

I'd also echo what others have said; go for IEC. To me it's an absolute no brainer.

I applied for IEC but turned 31 while waiting and so I got a birthday rejection email for being too old lol.. application was 20 minutes max.

Now I'm going the express entry route, I've spent about £1200, I'll spend double that before I'm done with the application. I've had to save over 10k for proof of funds and the time investment to acquire all the evidence they require is not to be underestimated. It requires a lot of time!

Engineer_abroad

At 450 points you are right on the nail for an EE invite (especially the way the current scores are heading). After a years experience in Canada you should be good to stay on EE, even if you didn't marry your BF.

I have replied to many of your other questions on the main forum page. Do feel free to PM me if you have anything specific to engineering or want some contacts to leverage. My company does have a presence in Ontario (Mississauga and Sudbury) but we are more geotechnical/environmental driven 9althought may fit with your suitable civil engineering Masters). My Masters was geotechnical so I pretty much specialized at that point.

elle192021

Thanks for replying it does seem the easiest route. Although, if I wanted to then go on to apply for PR after IEC, I would have to pay for all the things eventually anyway? Would I need to get my degrees "certified" (can't think of the right word at the moment...) for working in Canada even on an IEC?

Thanks, I appreciate you replying to my other post (as well as this one too!), there was a lot of questions! I will go read it.

Do the score requirement vary greatly from year to year? Although, I suppose if I do go on an IEC initially to gained Canadian work experience I would score more points if they don't change the way they award points... Do you think the "need" for foreign civil engineers as a skilled trade will slow down anytime soon? Do you have to return to the UK to apply for PR or can you apply while in Canada? Anyway that sounds good, as although we have already spoken about marriage anyway, I didn't want to do it 'just' for this!

Oh wow thanks, I will take you up on that for sure. Actually, I had initially applied to a few geotechnical roles here in the UK before I graduated, and got an interview with one of the major companies but the feedback was that they really liked me but there were people who actually had a directly related masters. Also, a smaller company where the guy said some questionable stuff but I won't go off on that tangent!

Also, if I did manage to get a job offer, would it require the LMIA?

Engineer_abroad

I don't ever see there not being a demand for civil engineers. I will risk inviting the ire of other engineers on here but Civil's sit towards the top in relation to skills and demand. I think a civil engineer will always be able to choose where they work.

Be interested to know who the small companies were, and what was said, especially if they are my company. What nature did they take, I have short shrift for anyone spouting machismo crap in the industry. What may be relevant to you and a question you did not ask, I find civils here in Canada to be more gender equal, at least in my company.

elle192021

Good news indeed before looking into it, I was afraid that there would only be more demand in the 'middle of nowhere' places since it is such a big country.

I can PM if you'd like to know, if I can remember the company! But yeah I was relieved (in a way) to read in your response that it seems like less of an old boys social club over there I will get around to replying to that post, but for now it's getting late here. Thanks for sharing your experience and advice on things.