Fedupscotsman

Hi all,

got aspirations to be a truck driver in Canada. Currently doing my last year of a masters degree to help boost my CRS score and after that I plan to do my class 1 in the UK get 2/3 years experience and try to get a job offer or a provincial nomination after that.

alternatively though, I’ve put my name in the pool for an IEC, my question is, if I was lucky enough to get an IEC, could I pay to sit the MELTS test whilst there on a IEC visa without prior trucking experience?

Just to be clear I’m not being naive thinking it’d be easy or that trucking/HGV driving is easy or to be taken lightly, but with the age I am, I need to be planning ahead if I want to get Canadian PR.

thanks in advance.

wardy_1990

Yep you can do MELTS on IEC no problem.

Also you do not need uk class 1 to head over and start, it's definitely not an easy career and there will be a "right of passage" moment at a company for 2 years then you can find decent work.

Fedupscotsman

hi mate thanks for the reply.

im at a crossroads. Been issued an ITA for an IEC which means I’d be over a lot quicker than I’d originally planned.

had originally planned to do my masters degree, do my class 1 get a year or two under my belt then come over.

an IEC is a very good opportunity though, I don’t for one minute think it’ll be all milk and honey like it is on YouTube, would intend to go over, spend a couple of months in a regular driving job to learn the roads etc then hopefully go for my MELTS and from that assuming I pass and cut the mustard in a job for a year, hopefully find someone to sponsor me for PR.

Are you a trucker in Canada?

wardy_1990

Definitely get your degree if I had the chance, that kind of qualification in Canada is huge, alot of jobs ask for a degree level of education even if really it doesn't make much sense like transport manager for instance.
I was a truck driver in Canada after originally going over plumbing, in summer best job there is, especially if you head to states where hours are much friendlier, I am back in UK for time being as I had twins and my Canadian family isn't as close as uk one.
We are strongly considering returning.

Skip the regular driving job and go straight for a trucking job mate, especially if you have no others to support, bison transport will put you through it all you just have to stay with them for 2 years then go get a better job doing the same work.

YouTube skips over the fact you may have to work 16 hours consecutively some days but thanks to E logs they are getting rarer.
Trucker are a friendly bunch in your uniform over there, if they are your company or your teamsters and they are too they will help you beyond what I see in HGV here.

Put it this way after your degree or even have a gap year or whatever, do IEC, truck with a big carrier and in two year you could see 40 states and PR is a given after 2 years in the job. You don't need a company to sponsor you for PR.

Fedupscotsman

I’ve got an honours but doing a masters this year because it’s an extra 30 something points incase I don’t get iec or can’t get PR from it.

you think? I wasn’t sure man. Never trucked before, unfamiliar roads and always worry that Canadians will be resentful of immigrants that just assume they could do trucking after being in the country after 10 mins because of that horrible incident at Humboldt. Just feel it’d be the respectful thing to do to learn the roads a bit first.

interesting about Bison, I’ve got the money aside to pay for it myself but that would be a big help. I’m doing 60 hours a week driving a LWB van just now so I’m fairly used to long hours. Good to hear the majority of guys in trucking over there are friendly and welcoming because that’d be a massive help in getting used to it all and getting over the nerves of doing something like that.

I hear what you’re saying about PR but my visa would only be for 2 years and not a day longer. Add in the fact I want to spend the first fortnight travelling around provinces and I’d be lucky to get 18 months of skilled work experience (trucking) which of course boosts my crs score but not sure how it’d work with getting my visa extended if I was in continuous skilled work?

really appreciate the input mate! Hope you the good lady and the wee ones are all well.

christmasoompa

If you're only doing it for points then it's (excuse the pun) pointless. You'll get far more points working in Canada for a year. Different if you actually want to do a masters of course…..you could combine the two and do the masters in Canada, then you get the masters and more points for studying there, so it's a double whammy. Wouldn't be a cheap option though.

There's no way to extend an IEC, you'd need to switch to another type of visa, i.e. work permit or PR. I'd switch the travelling around to the end of your visa - work to get your points up, submit a PR app then travel whilst it's processed.

wardy_1990

Aye that's good advice about visas, after two years you used to switch to Canadian experience class which with certain jobs you could get express entry, trucking is still one of them.
canadians don't seem to mind foreigners as long as they came to canada to stay most of time.
humboldt crash solved nothing sadly, the driver was at fault sure but the whole system is rigged to daft hours and dispatch treating people poorly at some companies. The owner of that firm was responsible for other trucking firms going under and starting again from.scratch after too many infringements. Oddly he can and probably has started another trucking outfit while the driver takes the brunt of it.
don't do favours by running bent and the law will protect you if anything happens.
its easier to learn trucking in Canada in summer than it is to learn in UK, they have proper driver introductions and training from the company.

Fedupscotsman

I hear what you’re saying but I’ll need a year to save anyway so it seems a good option. Aye studying in Canada is unfortunately too expensive. I do want a masters degree too so going to go for it.

Am I right in saying you don’t get any points for working in Canada in a job outside of 0,1,2 or 3 Teer categories?


I also hear what you’re saying on the PR app front but as realistically I could get 22/23 at a push months of work experience but that would still just count as one year rather than two?

christmasoompa

Yes, only skilled work counts for points purposes. But depending on where you go, there may be options to get PR via a PNP - lots of PNP's have low or semi skilled streams.

And yes, that would count as one year and not two. But that one year would get you 78 points as a minimum, possibly 128 points if you have a written permanent job offer from your Canadian employer as well. That's a lot more than a masters would get you, so maybe the masters can wait until you've got PR and don't have to pay international tuition rates to do it in Canada? Giving up the IEC in the hope of a sponsored job offer in the future (just a masters still wouldn't give you enough points) is very risky.

christmasoompa

Just FYI, it's now only one year of work experience for CEC. Trucking wasn't an eligible occupations before, which is why truckers had to apply for PR via PNP, but it was changed to a skilled occupation last year.

HTH.

Fedupscotsman

Think we might have our wires crossed but I’ve no intention of giving up the IEC if I’m accepted, from my understanding if I’m given a port of entry letter I’ve got a year from its issue date to use my iec? If that’s the case I’d be finished my masters by May 2024 anyway, I’d also need to save for a year in any case so it’s a win win essentially. Just a productive use of a year.

I had seen some provinces doing low skilled pnps but think that’d come down to luck more than anything else, for instance even if I did a job as say a food kiosk attendant (one sought after position, can’t remember where for) they might have changed their desirable low skill occupations by the time I have a years experience in that job.

trucking seems to be a better long term option and there’d be a lot more work across a lot more provinces.

Fedupscotsman

hadn’t looked at CEC. This is something I’ll be looking into now. Thanks again for the insight, said it before but you’ve been a great help.

Fedupscotsman

thank you