WilsoninCanada

Hello,

I am a 25 year old UK Police Officer looking to move to Canada with my Common Law Partner (age 23).

We are looking at applying through Federal Skilled Worker Visa - I want to continue my police career in Canada so think this is the only Visa which allows me to work in the Police there - please correct me if I am wrong.

We both have Bachelors degrees and I have a Masters degree and assume we will score high on the english language test but our estimated CRS score seems low at 451?

Is this too low and does anybody have any general advice on moving there via this route.

As a side note any advice on moving as a police officer would be helpful.

Thank you :-)

christmasoompa

Hi, and welcome to BE.

Unfortunately, that is too low at the moment, the last time it dropped to 451 or below was about a year ago. You can see all of the recent draws on this link - https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...-previous.html

I would imagine that once you have more work experience your score will increase though, if you can break it down for us then we can let you know if there is any way to get your score up, but it seems about right to me from what you've said.

It may also be worth looking at the IEC program as you're young enough. You wouldn't be able to work as a police officer on an IEC visa (as you've said, you'd need PR or citizenship for that AFAIK), but it would get you over there and get your points score up considerably.

HTH, good luck.

WilsoninCanada

Hi thanks for the link thats really helpful!

I worked it out as:

Me:

• Age = 100
• Educational level = 126
• Work experience in Canada = 0
• Language abilities = 122

Partner:

• Educational level = 8
• First language ability = 20
• Work experience in Canada = 0

Other:

• Education = 50
  • 1) Education AND Language ability = 50
  • 2) Education AND Work experience in Canada = 0

• Work experience outside Canada = 25
  • 1) Work experience outside Canada AND Language ability = 25
  • 2) Work experience outside AND inside Canada = 0

Any help on improving this would be excellent!

Potentially if my partner managed to get a job offer although not sure how easy this would be for her as an "unskilled" worker

Thanks again!

christmasoompa

How many years work experience are you including? You are missing some points for foreign work experience & language ability, just trying to work out if it's because you've not assumed max points for English, or because you've only got 1 or 2 years work experience in the UK.

Just checking, but what does your partner score? I assume less as you have the masters, but just thought I'd check.

WilsoninCanada

Am I supposed to include work experience years in all jobs or only as a police officer? If we both include all years of working we would have 8 for myself and 7 for my partner!

WilsoninCanada

Also we estimated our e=English score as we can't take the test currently due to Covid-19, we may have underestimated this score as we are both well educated english speakers!

Stumpylegs

Its in one occupation, but doesn't have to be your current occupation - providing the job is classed as skilled, it'll be the longest one you had (so if you've been a police officer for 18 months, but did 3 years as a roofer prior to that, you'd be eligible for 3 years (the maximum points). its worth noting the work has to be full time or equivalent in part time - just adding up your ages, time spent in education and work experience, may want to check that you a) qualify on the basis of hours worked b) it was classed as skilled employment. as I'm assuming from your info you both worked part/full time through college and uni.

Assume max on the english scores, reading, listening and speaking you should breeze through- writing can be more awkward but given you've got a masters, one would hope a 7.5 in IELTS writing would be obtainable with some work, coaching and a couple of goes if required.

christmasoompa

All skilled jobs - so all that are Skill Level A, O or B on the NOC Matrix.

As above, assume max for now just to give you an idea.

Sorry, but just to correct this, it doesn't have to be in one occupation. Any skilled occupation counts, from the Ministerial Instructions:

"25 (1) For the purposes of sections 23 and 24, foreign work experience is work experience that

• (a) is acquired by a foreign national outside Canada in one or more occupations listed in Skill Type 0 Management Occupations or Skill Level A or B of the National Occupational Classification matrix;
• (b) consists of full-time work experience, or the full-time equivalent for part-time work experience, with one or more employers;
• (c) is acquired within the 10-year period preceding the day on which points are assigned to the foreign national under section 23 or subsection 24(1); and
• (d) is remunerated by the payment of wages or a commission."

HTH.

Stumpylegs

I did myself out of a a years work experience on my application then! - although would possibly explain how my actual points total was higher on my final application than my CRS score.

CRS calculator states one occupation only.

christmasoompa

I know it does, it's a bit misleading but it's for FSW apps, to check they have done at least one full year in a skilled NOC. I agree they do need to make it clearer on that.

AdamfromWales

Best of luck with everything.

I'm an experienced police officer in my 30s and gained PR through points from my partner due to her job. If I remember correctly I gained good points from my previous non-police employment also. Previously lived in Canada on an IEC but that was a long time ago now.

We are still in the UK at the moment. Had a career break sorted for work but it all fell through in Canada last minute so just waiting it out now and will consider options post Covid crisis.

I would say that it's pretty darn hard for UK police officers these days. The employment options are now limited. I have applied for many jobs in the field of law enforcement in Canada (Alberta and BC) but resigned in the fact that I need to save hard now so that we can move without a job as pretty much no one will consider you prior to the move and even then I anticipate it's going to be tough. I am lucky that I have another previous vocation I can also tap into if needed.

Police officer jobs are a no-go initially in most areas due to their residency requirements. Even Peace Officer / bylaw officer jobs are hard to gain even with a really good amount of UK policing experience and qualifications. It's not Canadian.

If you are able to gain a role, the pay appears to be substantially greater than UK.

That's may experience so far anyways.

So, even with PR it's a pretty hard process. To leave a very secure job in UK policing for nothing in Canada is a very hard pill to swallow let me tell you!!

Anything is possible and nothing in life worth having is easy to get. Just a long hard slog to get there. You've got to really consider, is it all worth it?

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