Bunny1027

Hi!

I'm currently looking for advice on moving to the Canada from the UK. I'm a 26 y/o single male who works as an Openreach Telecommunications Engineer trained in fibre optic business connections (fibre splicing, fault finding, commissioning, pole-climbing, reading and implementing technical diagrams, etc) having just completed a 2.5 year apprenticeship. I have a lot of NVQs in addition to the apprenticeship but I'm unsure whether they would count. I have A-Levels but also don't know where they'd fit into the whole equation either.

I'm curious as to how much I'll need in savings, how the immigration process works and if there are any tests I may need to do as I'm a little lost on where to look. I'm currently looking at the Toronto area but am still researching areas that I may want to live provided everything looks good on the 3 pieces of info I want above.

Thanks,

Bunny1027

Vulcanoid

Do the Come to Canada questionnaire at https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...nada-tool.html and see what it says if you want to look at immigrating permanently.

A levels are high school equivalent. Assume full marks for English ability (which be aware may or may not actually happen if you try to immigrate through a stream which requires English testing).

If you want to try for a two year temporary work permit, you can apply for International Experience Canada, which is random draw and currently has 3,919 Brits hoping to be drawn to fill 94 spaces left this year (Rounds of invitations – International Experience Canada). The program normally re-opens between October and March any given year (the extremes - Dec-Jan is more normal).

FARAH1305

if you're under the 30 you could also try the working holiday visa?

Vulcanoid

'working holiday visa' is the popular slang for International Experience Canada, explained above

FARAH1305

Vulcanoid

I can tell you there's been a quota since at least 2012, don't know about the program before then. Back in those days it was also first-come-first-served, rather than the current random draw (as by 2015, FCFS had resulted in the entire UK annual quota being issued in half an hour). (Edit to add: All this applies for going to Canada. The reciprocal ones have the same quotas, but different rules - eg UK's Tier 5 Youth Mobility Visa is still first-come-first-served, and I've never heard of it filling up. It's far less popular with Canadians than the other direction)

Australia are the only country I know of to have an 'unlimited' quota with IEC. Belgium has a working holiday quota of 750.

Siouxie

Let's not get into the symantics of IEC's please. We like to keep general discussions in the Canada forum - this part is purely for Immigration questions. Thanks

With regard to the OP's post...


Hello and welcome to BE!!

It sounds as if you might qualify to apply under FSW Trades route. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...ed-trades.html

You may need to obtain your Certificate of Qualification for one of the Provinces .. Trade certification for communication technicians is available, but voluntary, in Nova Scotia, Alberta, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Your UK qualifications wouldn't count but if you have a lot of experience you may be able to challenge any Provincial Certification program to get your CoQ You can see a bit about it on this BC website: https://pwp.vpl.ca/siic/guides/telec...ation-workers/
For Ontario - this might help: Network Cabling Specialist (pdf) https://www.collegeoftrades.ca/trades-in-ontario / https://www.collegeoftrades.ca/trade-assessment /

With regards to getting your UK qualifications / A levels etc., assessed, not really worth it unless you are desperate for points - applying under FSW Trades, you wouldn't need them to be done.
Just as a reminder, "Engineer" in Canada is a protected title, and not generally used for technician jobs etc.

Telecommunications Technician: could come under several different NOC codes:

NOC 2011 - 7246 - Telecommunications installation and repair workers - Unit group
NOC 2011 - 7245 - Telecommunications line and cable workers - Unit group

Do have a look at the Come to Canada wizard and then the Federal Skilled Worker (Trades) route

IEC is also a good start.. if you needed extra points

Bunny1027

Thank you greatly for your help! I'm currently missing the funds required to get in via Express Entry but the information on the website has been most helpful in informing me of how much I'll need to have in savings in order to make the move. I also fall under NOC 2011 - 7245 as my job role equivalent so that's another bonus! Out of curiosity what telecommunications providers are out in Canada so I know who to apply for later on down the road?

christmasoompa

Might be worth asking this one in the main Canada forums - it's likely to be missed tacked on to the end of a thread about visas.

Do bear in mind that moving abroad will cost quite a bit, if you don't have the amount required for FSW then do make sure you have as much as possible as it's not cheap!

Good luck.

Bunny1027

Yeah I've read up on the whole shebang thanks to the links Siouxie posted so while I'm still in the UK I've now got a goal to aim for in regards to savings! Any plans I have to emigrate would not be for another year or two so I can now set myself aforementioned goals to hit before a decision is made!