CanadaJimmy

Hey all!
I'm finishing my degree at university here in the UK and am currently in the process on immigrating to Vancouver. I'm starting with a Work permit for 2 years, and after 1 year I'm planning to apply for PR, since working in Canada adds a lot of points.

Here's the timeline for how long things have taken for me:
Labour Market Opinion
Applied for: 10th March 2009 (roughly...)
Positive LMO Approved: 31st March 2009

Police Certificate Application
Posted: 20th April 2009
Arrived: 8th May 2009
I'm guessing it took longer than 10 days because I paid by cheque.

Work permit application
Posted: 8th May 2009

And now I must wait... however I booked my flight for the 21st June so it's going to be very tight, I'm hoping I'll be lucky and be in the 70% that gets their permit within 28 days! If it takes 6 weeks plus 2 days for postage each way I will miss it! I had an older copy of the checklist that didn't have the police certificate requirement on it and only got the new one last month... Anyone got any idea how long they usually take for someone who's filled in everything correctly and going to work in an IT job?

Oh and just to double check, the date of employment is 23rd June, am I correct in thinking you are allowed to arrive a short time before your employment starts?

destinationnovascotia

You can arrive before your employment starts. I hope that you get your WP though in time. You never know if one is going to take longer. I had to have a medical for my nursing job so that added about a month onto mine but in all it took about 6 months. There was no explanation as to why mine took longer that usual, it was a straightforward application and others who applied after me had theirs waaaaay faster. You just never know.

joinerboy

Hi Canadajimmy
Welcome to the forum . I would like to wish you all the best for the future , can I ask would line of work you are in it's just I notice in general most people seem to be experiancing lengthy waiting times for LMO approvals .
regards
joinerboy

CanadaJimmy

Thanks for the kind wishes

Ah, I'm working as an E-Commerce Web Developer. From what I gathered there are a selection of certain jobs that get priority for LMO approval, and this was one of them. My employer didn't have to advertise the job on the government website for as long either. I can't remember the details off-hand though.

christmasoompa

Hi Jimmy and welcome to the forum.

Best of luck, hope your TWP comes back in time, they do seem to be taking a bit longer these days via London.

Out of interest, why are you not applying at POE and why did you need a police certificate?

CanadaJimmy

Well POE is the backup plan if it fails to come in time. I guess I would have to somehow cancel the application at London. The only reason I'm doing it this way is because it would be a weight off my mind to have it before I step on the plane. The downside is I could end up paying twice, which would kind of suck.

As for the police certificate, they seem to have recently changed the checklist to now require you to provide a police certificate for all work permits, which added a huge delay. I only discovered this when I redownloaded the checklist to verify I had the right one just before I planned to send off the application.

christmasoompa

Could you maybe apply for a Bunac visa as back up? I've seen you're only 22 (ah, to be young again!) and at least then it would be an open work permit so you could do any job, just in case the worst happened with this one. Only downside is that I don't know if it would be back in time either! But could be worth a try.

And thanks for the tip re: police certs. I didn't realise it had changed (still says not normally required on CIC website!) so that's very useful info.

CanadaJimmy

Hmm, I'm now having a lot of doubts about this, I think I'll ring the office up on Monday and just ask for everything back. It's just too late not to go with the POE approach, and I don't want to lose money!

Thanks for your feedback though, I'll let you know how I get on

christmasoompa

Good decision I think. Didn't want to panic you but TWP's seem to be taking a lot longer than 6 weeks at the mo! About 8 - 10 weeks seems to be the norm.

POE shouldn't be a problem, best of luck and keep us posted.

vegasrockstar

We applied for TWP the same time last year with the same working start date. We were very nervous about whether we would make it in time but luckily we got our WPs back in just over a month (see timeline in signature). Let's hope that they have the same sort of processing times at this time of year.

Good luck!

CanadaJimmy

One more question... do they accept cash at the PoE or do you have to get a bankers draft or something? I'm planning to take my LMO letter, Job Offer, Proof of Education (though I lost my GCSE certificates, but I have College ones and my University record of progress), 2 passport photos, and the Police certificate. Have I forgotten anything?

CanadaJimmy

Just rang up Vancouver Airport, apparently they accept cash and credit cards for work permit payment. The guy there was very friendly and laid back, and it sounded like getting a work permit at the Port of Entry would be no trouble at all. He also pointed out that the LMO and Contract/Job Offer were the most important things to bring, but that I should bring as much documentation as possible, which I think everyone here knows anyway.

So yeah, I'm sorted now

CanadaJimmy

Here's another experiance from me and my move to Canada!

I packed up a box of my Audio CD, DVD and Book collection, and shipped it with parcel2go.com with the FedEx 25kg option on Monday. Amazingly it got to Vancouver in one day, however despite my clear labelling on the customs documentation and an attached note on the box, they wanted to charge me (or rather my employer who was going to take care of the goods) $62 duty. He refused and the parcel returned to the depot.

On Wednesday we rang up FedEx and they asked for a scan of my passport and wanted me to sign a letter verifying that the goods were for personal use only. I did this and attached them to an email. Today we call again and victory! They removed all of the tax!

So yes, if you intend to ship some stuff over, I really recommend FedEx. Although not entirely painless, they were very quick to rectify the mistake.