ffthebrave

We have recently landed via this route (9 months) and is well worth considering if you are looking to bypass the wait and you are in the right circumstances.

There is apparently a quota renewed each January though NS are in the process of increasing this.

G77

Maybe you should start a service on here of identifying people

Paul Wildy

Perhaps also mention what types of organisations are able to "identify" someone and what reasons they usually need to give for needing them to come to Nova Scotia?

Southcote

I've not heard of this - can you tell us more about it ?

Paul Wildy

There's some stuff on it here at the NS Immigration website: http://novascotiaimmigration.com/en-page1095.aspx

Would think ffthebrave would be able to tell more if her has actually done it

Graven64

This looks good for those of youwho have strong ties with NS, if you dont I guess you have to go across the pond and build those strong ties... Am I correct ?

Paul Wildy

well I guess none of these organisations are going to "identify" you if they never met you before

ffthebrave

We became involved in "community" life just by being here as everyone does. It wasn't planned as we were at that time unaware of the Community Identified route.

Our pre-school daughter went to "pop ups" so we got known at the school, we joined an ice-skating club and joined in their fund-raisng, we helped our neighbours as they helped us. We also purchased a house here in Malagash, Cumberland County.

The next step is an interview with the Regional Development Agency - ours was Cumberland County (CReDA) http://www.creda.net/community/immigration.html. We supplied letters of support from neighbours, school Principal and church and a letter from or local councillor. This was a very easy-going meeting and after, they recommend support for our application with Nova Scotia immigration.

Then, on approval, the application is sent to London and medical requests/police checks/photographs are requested, and finally visas issued. Then we had to leave (we drove to Maine for the weekend) then landed.

Nova Scotia is losing a lot of people to Alberta and they have an aging population and say many businesses have no succession planning and therefore business opportunities here increase and property prices remain (relatively) low. Just near us - 75 acres raised prime meadow/farmland with great oceanview for £30000, as an example. Waterfront is still affordable (but less people seem to want that now with sea levels supposedly rising!).

We were encouraged all along the route by CReDA and NS Immigration whom you can call and talk to with humour - eg I called to see how our application was going and got "won't be long, it is in sight of my desk.." It was!)

We are so pleased we did it and lived the life while we waited for things to progress.

Graven64

Sounds great, can I ask how long ou had to remain there whilst this all went through, I appreciate it took 9 months to process but how long were you there before you got the letters from the community. Im Happy for you, well done and you have a great life there! :-)

CHRISRICHES

Congratulations to you and your family!

Reading your post above made a nice refreshing change, and reminded me of why I want to move my family to a community based area.

It sounds like you will be very happy with your new life, and went with the right attitude of fitting in with others around you, and becoming a part of the community without thinking "whats in it for me" - I wish you well for the future

rach_woz99

I too am going through community identified, but my experience may offer a little more hope to UK based people.

I rang immigration in Nova Scotia as I was getting frustrated in that I "nearly but not quite" fell into all sorts of categories - we didn't have a job lined up, I manage a company but don't own it, Warren is a welder but that wasn't specified as a shortage etc - and we didn't want to wait four years to move to our dream area!

Francis in immigration was lovely, she told us about community identified as it applied because we were looking at a rural area. she gave us the number of an economic development agency and some advice of how to apply.

I went to Kentville Economic development agency, Madonna there told me to "pop" over for an interview!! and I also had an interview with the business development manager there. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy, I had to have all my paperwork in order and a 30 page business plan for a business we were looking at in NS (a small gift shop). Usually, a second interview is required a few months later, but I had managed to be sufficiently well prepared to get away with one interview.

As for the letters of recommendation, we were allowed to bring letters from people in the UK. As Madonna said, how could we get letters from NS, we didn't know anyone there yet!! I got about nine letters from work, the scoutmaster, charities I am involved with etc.

When Madonna wrote my letter of support, I drove to immigration in Halifax with all my paperwork, intending just to ensure it arrived safely, but Francis saw me there and then which made the process even faster.

So our timeline is: we had our interviews May, got authorisation to apply to London from NS in August, applied at the beginning of September and got our medical forms back a week and a half later.

We have our medical next week, then ... it is a waiting game like everyone else!! We have bought our house in the Annapolis valley, a quiet area very family orientated and so peaceful. Just got to get through this last bit !!!

If you think you have the business skill, try Community identified, as they need skilled people and it seems to be one hell of a lot faster than skilled worker

Good luck!
Rachel

bodgerx

This sounds really interesting. So was there any stipulation given as to how old your ties with the community had to be?

Halifax County's Regional Development Agency says they have to be long established (As does the official NS site).

http://www.greaterhalifax.com/en/hom...migrating.aspx

It doesn't seem from the experiences here that they were that 'old'.

So for example, if my family went out there for say 3-4 months, was involved in the local community and got an armful of references the Regional Development agency would entertain the application?

(I've applied for PR via the Federal Skilled worker route by the way...)

deanjp32

thats a good question! We are seriously thinking of coming over to NS in the spring for 6 months having spent a great couple of weeks at the beginning of this month. It seems like a lifetime ago already after 2 weeks of being back in blighty. A couple of other questions though

can you buy any business and get in through this route?

And this may be an assumption but i guess you went over as a visitor for 6 months then renewed after that? How did immigrationtreat you when you said you wanted to stay for 6 months in an attempt to make it permanent and if you had to renew after 6 months what did you have to do at that point.

We also are in the federal skilled route with approx 3 years to go at this rate and its been in a year already.

Would the fact that we are already in this queue affect any potential application via the community identified route?

Sorry about the questions but it would be great to get a little more insight

Thx

Paul Wildy

I've got no direct experience of the Community Identified stream but I can tell you that the "official" stance often seems to be a bit stricter than the reality. For instance in the NS PNP skilled worker stream there seemed to be a lot of emphasis on the employer haveing to "prove" that they couldn't find a Canadian to fill the job but the reality was that just a print-out from their website showing they had advertised it via their own website seemed to satisfy!

You need to understand there are politics at work here. The provinces get approval from Ottawa to set-up their PNPs and effectively by-pass the federal immigration rules. In return Ottawa wants to ensure that the PNPs are genuinely addressing the unique needs of individual provinces, people are properly vetted, and the PNP is not simply competing with the federal program for the same people. But, at the provincial level, they just want skilled immigrants so as long as they can show Ottawa they are loosely following the rules of the PNP agreement between the Province and federal government they don't really care too much.

I think this will be especially the case in rural areas outside of HRM - such is the need for immigrants to prevent the population declining and the economic problems that accompany that situation that they will probably bend the rules as much as they can to get you in. You'll probably find that demand for immigrants in HRM is not as high though.

bodgerx

Thanks NSPaul.

I don't think you have to be buying a business. Check out the official Nova Scotia Immigration site. Also, ffthebrave seems to have switched from Federal to PNP...check out her other thread.