British Expats

British Expats (https://britishexpats.com/forum/)
-   Immigration & Citizenship (Canada) (https://britishexpats.com/forum/immigration-citizenship-canada-33/)
-   -   early planning stage (https://britishexpats.com/forum/immigration-citizenship-canada-33/early-planning-stage-921612/)

Cookie1980 Jan 31st 2019 5:54 am

early planning stage
 
Hi All,
I am looking for advise, help and maybe being pointed in the right direction. Myself and my wife are in the early discussion of deciding whether to emigrate to Canada and doing alot of research and just getting completley confused.
Just to give you some background. I am 39 years old and a Collections and Recoveries Manager in the vehicle finance industry which I have over 15 years experience in the area and debt collection. Qualifications wise I have my GCSEs and studied at college at an advanced GNVQ level ( equivalent to A levels). My Wife is 36 and is a Customer Service Manger and again qualifications GSCE and BTEC in Mangement, but did have 5 years experience as an health care assistant about 10 years ago.
Couple of questions if I may:
With the experience and qualifcations we have would this be enough to be able to emigrate or would the advise be to maybe retrain to another career that there might be a shortage of or obtain a degree of some sort?
The visa process seems a bit complicated and wondered if its worth obtaining a work permit first and then late down the line getting PR?
Do you need to set an English exams?

I am sure these types of questions have been asked previously and thank you in advance for any help and advise you may be able to give.

christmasoompa Jan 31st 2019 8:42 am

Re: early planning stage
 
Hi, and welcome to BE.


Originally Posted by Cookie1980 (Post 12630109)
With the experience and qualifcations we have would this be enough to be able to emigrate or would the advise be to maybe retrain to another career that there might be a shortage of or obtain a degree of some sort?

To be brutally honest, I suspect that your age and lack of degree will mean you can't move without a job offer and sponsorship. But you can easily check this yourself to be sure, it's really not as complicated as you think it is! Put simply, to qualify for Permanent Residency under Express Entry (which is a points based system), you need to first qualify as Federal Skilled Workers i.e. score more than 67 on this test - https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...d-workers.html

If you score over 67, then you would be eligible to enter the pool of applicants which is great, but only the first step. Once you're in the pool, then only those scoring the highest on the CRS are selected and invited to apply for PR, and that's a different points scoring system. You can check your CRS score here - http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigra...d/crs-tool.asp

For both, you'll need to say you've had an English exam (assume max points for now as a native English speaker, just to give you an idea). Note that your GNVQ/BTEC's aren't likely to count for any points unfortunately, only academic qualifications can be assessed for points, not vocational ones.

You should both take the test, your wife may well score higher as she's younger.

Once you've done the above, let us know your scores and we'll help you figure out the next step. If it's you don't score enough and it's a no to applying under Express Entry then don't worry, there are other visa options. To that end, did you have any particular province in mind?


Originally Posted by Cookie1980 (Post 12630109)
The visa process seems a bit complicated and wondered if its worth obtaining a work permit first and then late down the line getting PR?

As above, it's really not complicated, if you score enough, but bear in mind Canada is essentially looking for young, highly skilled and highly educated people. So if you don't meet that definition (in their eyes), you'll need to find another way in. A work permit could be the way, but that is obviously far tougher as you'll need a job offer from a sponsoring employer and a LMIA (something the employer has to apply for, at a cost to them of $1000, and for which they have to prove no suitable Canadian applied for the job) to get one, so that can be Plan B!


Originally Posted by Cookie1980 (Post 12630109)
Do you need to set an English exams?

Depends on the visa route. So let's work that out first, and then you can see if you do need one.

HTH get you started.

Cookie1980 Jan 31st 2019 10:27 am

Re: early planning stage
 
Thank you for your quick response Christmasoompa... much appreciated.
If I have inputted the correct information of the Express Entry score is 55 which I know is not good enough and has put a spanner in the works before even really got started. Not sure whether to do a open university degree to see it that bumps it up.

We were looking at Ontario, but happy to explore other Provinces.

Again really appreciated you taking the time to response to my initial post.

christmasoompa Jan 31st 2019 11:41 am

Re: early planning stage
 

Originally Posted by Cookie1980 (Post 12630209)
Thank you for your quick response Christmasoompa... much appreciated.
If I have inputted the correct information of the Express Entry score is 55 which I know is not good enough and has put a spanner in the works before even really got started. Not sure whether to do a open university degree to see it that bumps it up.

We were looking at Ontario, but happy to explore other Provinces.

Again really appreciated you taking the time to response to my initial post.

Do you mean your FSW score is 55? That is really low. What about if you include your post-secondary education? What was your CRS score? And what about your wife's score?

Personally I wouldn't spend years doing an Open University degree unless you planned to anyway. If you did want to do a degree then I'd do it in Canada on a study permit if you have the funds - that way you'll be there, your spouse can work (or vice versa) and hopefully get PR whilst studying. Plus of course it would mean you'd have an instantly recognisable qualification in Canada which makes sense if you want to spend the rest of your life there rather than having a degree from an unknown UK uni.

If you don't have a strong tie to any particular province, then do look at the Provincial Nominee Program's - if you can get nomination from a province then that's your way to PR.

And it might be worth having a read of the Job Hunting section of the Wiki to understand how you might go about finding a job offer.

Good luck!


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