seanipops

Hi all!

I'll be moving to Toronto towards the end of next year with my Canadian girlfriend. I'm going to be eligible to apply for permanent residency in October this year and will be applying to be a police officer over there. As I'll be in Toronto I'll be sticking an app in for Toronto, Peel or Halton Regional Police. I'll be leaving as a Detective Constable in Met Police with 9 years service by the time I'm over and was wondering if anyone had been in the same boat that I could chat to?

Thanks!

boshwaggle

get your visa ASAP as you need that sorted before they will process any application from you.

you need it physically in hand.

seanipops

Thanks for the reply, That's the plan anyway. I'm not eligible to apply for permanent residency until October but will be nipping off to the consulate at the very first day I qualify.
I'm moving to Canada regardless of whether I get into another force or not. I might have to go get a job at Tim Hortons in the mean time....!

What I was looking for was info on how long the visa process took and how easy it was. Also, how long the application process for those forces will be and whether my previous length of service and experience will count for anything. When I applied for the Met I had 2 year wait before I started! If the Canadian old bill are the same I'll need to rethink the moving date!

boshwaggle

I cannot speak on how long it takes to get a visa the route you are talking as I am a Canadian citizen already, all I know is that in order to sponsor you as her partner/common law your girl must be living in Canada and able to show her income suffices to support you. Might be quicker if you got married or had a baby with her.

I have however sponsored my parents to come to Canada, I applied in April 2007 and they are just going to the final process now, so that's more than 3 years.

They don't seem to rush these things.

Some of my former colleagues are now in TPS or other Ontario police services and it took from 3 months to 1 year to get hired depending on the background checks.

But first of all, you need that PR card, otherwise they'll just give you a courteous smile, and ask you to come back later.

TPS recruiting get inundated with officers from UK and other countries enquiring about how to transfer over, as Toronto is such a great city to live in, but without the PR status, its just wishful thinking.

seanipops

There won't be any problems with getting the PR status, just wondering how long it all took, and getting into Canada quicker isn't really a good reason to have a baby!!

I won't be applying for the old bill as soon as I get there anyway, I know I need PR status before applying as its one of the basic requirements and won't be sticking an app in until I've got everything I need.
The move is simply because my girlfriend wants to move back to Toronto and open another office there, who knows, I may even choose a different career path. But then again, the missus has family that have worked for Peel for years so I've got a few connections there already.

catwoman2010

Hi

I am new to internet forums and this is only my second ever post so hope I am clicking all of the right things!

I am a PC in the UK and was thinking of applying to the Calgary Police - I didn't think that I needed to get a PR first as I thought that if I got a job offer from them, then that sorted out the residency part of moving to Canada? I've only started looking into this the last 2 days so appologies if I appear a little clueless.

Cheers

tim010

Have a look on the Calgary Police thread for everything you need to know. As it stands at the moment I don't think Calgary are actively recruiting UK applicants.

Tim

tim010

Calgary are not actively recruiting UK applicants at the moment so it is unlikely that they will accept an application from you. For the last few years UK applicants have been sponsored for PR via the job offer from Calgary. I think they are accepting Resumes (CV's) to keep on file though if they re-open international recruiting again.

Tim

catwoman2010

Hi Tim

Thanks for the information - I wasn't quite sure how the PR/sponsorship/police situation worked so thanks for clearing up the niggles that I had about it. I've read through all of the threads on JJ's question (took me a while!) and it doesn't seem very positive at the moment. I'll submit a resume, go and visit our friends in Calgary, and then wait and see what happens from there! I might even brush up on my french if that helps the application!

Thanks again

Gill

bobhope

Calgary and Edmonton push recruits through using the Provincial nominee program, where they say they cannot recruit Canadians for the job and the province allows them so many a year. It doesnt take long if they accept you for that!

boshwaggle

speaking French will not aid your application to an English speaking province like Alberta. The only places it would be an asset would be in Quebec or another French speaking province (and you need to be a Citizen there to join the police which is a step further than just PR) or in a federal agency like RCMP, Border etc (which again you need citizenship for).

A window of opportunity that came and went for UK officers to transfer over did exist in Alberta without requiring the visa process, who knows if it will re-open, a lot of the discussions here are speculation.

If you are serious about moving to Canada, then review what the skilled occupations are that are in demand on the new immigration list, and consider if you would be prepared to requalify in one of them, otherwise it is a matter of waiting uncertainly for the Alberta option to open up again.

vicky_w_2005

Hi
I moved to live with my canadian boyfriend, it took approx 8mths from sending my application in to getting the status which i don't think is that bad we applied as common law and he had to have a job to support me. What is your status when you come to Canada? why are you not eligible until october?

stewie_griffin

Hate to be pedantic*, but Canadian Skilled Worker Immigration is federal in nature and not province-related. It's points based and you get 24 points for being fluent in both languages. If you only speak one language the most you can get is 16.

You're right though: in Alberta the only people who speak French are the four at the gates of the National Parks.

* Funny how people who say, 'I hate to be pedantic' usually love being pedantic.

seanipops

Hi Vicky, Finally! A reply that answers my question!!

I wasn't eligible until last October as that was the date my girlfriend and I would be considered common law as we would have been living together for 12 months. Unfortunately the other halfs job has taken her to Eastern Europe for 6 months we've put off making the application. We should be starting it in the next couple of months.

Did you find the application process difficult or is it as straight forward as it seems? When you applied were you both in the UK or had either of you already moved over to Canada?

vicky_w_2005

The application process was a lot of filling out forms we had to submit a few pics of the year we had been together how we met etc but yes as it seems.
I was living in the UK and he was living in Canada. i went to canada on an open work visa (bunac.com) for 1 year to see if the relationship was going to work out and then i could work and get a good idea of what life is like, after that year we were common law.
when i picked up my permanent residence card they asked us both to come, i guess to see how you are together and that you are both the same people in the application and then your on your way.
Are you starting the process from the UK or Canada? I'm not sure if it is any different from the UK but mine was processed in Canada.
I hope that helps