Moving to Canada from UK

[mark rowe]

Hi,
Would be grateful for any comments on moving to Canada, we are in Devon,UK and looking to move to canada in very near future, but cant decide if Nova Scotia or Alberta are good areas, we are fed up with UK and it is getting worse every day !!. I am a mechanic and drain engineer, my wife works for an estate agents and we wondered which area jobs are more plentiful.

Also from what I can gather it seems easier to emigrate if you already have a job lined up, is this so ?. be great to talk to anyone who has resently made that move.

many thanks.

[brrttpaul]

Originally Posted by mark rowe

Hi,
Would be grateful for any comments on moving to Canada, we are in Devon,UK and looking to move to canada in very near future, but cant decide if Nova Scotia or Alberta are good areas, we are fed up with UK and it is getting worse every day !!. I am a mechanic and drain engineer, my wife works for an estate agents and we wondered which area jobs are more plentiful.

Also from what I can gather it seems easier to emigrate if you already have a job lined up, is this so ?. be great to talk to anyone who has resently made that move.

many thanks.

Hi Mark Im in the same boat mate. Im a bricklayer living in south wales my wife works in admin. Lost my job 2 weeks ago cant claim a penny cos the middleman done a bunk with our pay. Seems to me the more you work here the less you are thought of. Been laying bricks for 25 yrs and because you are self employed ou are treated as dirt hope you find something

[Getting There]

Originally Posted by mark rowe

Hi,
Would be grateful for any comments on moving to Canada, we are in Devon,UK and looking to move to canada in very near future, but cant decide if Nova Scotia or Alberta are good areas, we are fed up with UK and it is getting worse every day !!. I am a mechanic and drain engineer, my wife works for an estate agents and we wondered which area jobs are more plentiful.

Also from what I can gather it seems easier to emigrate if you already have a job lined up, is this so ?. be great to talk to anyone who has resently made that move.

many thanks.

Hi Mark,

We're writing this from a very snowy Okotoks, Alberta (although winter got into gear very late this year so we can't complain). We can't speak for Nova Scotia although we are aware that many Expats settle very happily there. Alberta was our choice for lots of reasons but the proximity of the mountains, the friendliness of the majority of the people (we know that sounds like a cliche but we find it to be true), the ability to get around with relative ease, current weather excepted, the feeling of space (remember that Alberta is 3 times the size of the UK but has only 3 million people) and more. Economic conditions are worsening here, as they are everywhere, but (and maybe this is blind faith) we are hopeful that over the medium to long term, the fact that the province is not carrying any debt (think of the debt the UK government is carrying) and the abundance of natural resources here will help to drive the economy forward in the years ahead.

Our blog below will give you something of a flavour of life out this way. As to employment, we would imagine that you would be able to find employment here as there are shortages in many skilled trades. For your wife, if her estate agency role is in the office in an administrative role, then she will find many similar opportunities here. If her role is in sales, then she, like Eamonn has, would need to think about getting licensed to trade in Real Estate as a Realtor. This involves a significant amount of training and several thousand dollars of cost and is not a "job" that will get you into Candada but is a career choice your wife can make if you guys get here via another route (happy to share chapter and verse on that if you connect with Eamonn via the blog).

It is definitely easier to get here in a reasonable timeframe if you can find employment beforehand.

Best wishes with your plans.

Eamonn & Janet.

[Getting There]

Originally Posted by brrttpaul

Hi Mark Im in the same boat mate. Im a bricklayer living in south wales my wife works in admin. Lost my job 2 weeks ago cant claim a penny cos the middleman done a bunk with our pay. Seems to me the more you work here the less you are thought of. Been laying bricks for 25 yrs and because you are self employed ou are treated as dirt hope you find something

Hi brrttpaul,

That's a bummer re the middleman. One of my (Eamonn) brothers is a life-long painter and decorator and plasterer and he has been scammed more than once by unscrupulous bosses. Makes you sick.

Eamonn & Janet.

[louiseg]

There has just been some major changes to the immigration system, that is good and bad, depending on your job and experience. I was interviewing an immigration lawyer about it yesterday.
For applications after Feb 2008, if you are coming as a skilled worker there are 3 ways you can be eligible. 1. Have arranged a job offer, 2. if you've already been working here legally for more than a year or 3. your occupation is on this list Instructions on which skilled worker applications are eligible for processing.
If you cannot meet any of the above your application as a skilled worker will be refused. However there are numerous other routes into Canada via other types of visa.
If your occupation is on the list, they are allegedly saying you will be able to get a visa within a year!!! very hard to believe but thats whats being claimed. So that will be the simplest and quickest route in to permanent residence status.
The problem with arranging a job offer is the employer has to get an LMO, and complete paperwork, etc which they are not always that keen to do. With the current economic climate there will not be so many jobs for immigrants here, because there will be more Canadians looking for work too. That said if you are determined and really persevere you will get here.

I would think Mark that your occupation may well fit the criteria on the list. Maybe not so for you brrtpaul but as skilled tradesman you do stand a good chance of getting here some how.
Good luck and just keep researching and reading all you can. I happy to refer you to any useful info or answer questions.
Louise

[brrttpaul]

[QUOTE=Getting There;84468]Hi brrttpaul,

Hi getting there, it is bummer but middlemen have ruined the building trade here in UK. We were getting £300 per thousand bricks and £9.00 per metre on 6"blockwork all in. All in means you dont get paid for concrete lintels, sills, tresseling, shooting ties into steel etc, we found out later that the midleman was getting pai good money for this. On top of that they took £500 retention which you will never see again, Thats five gangs amounting to £5000 just in retention money. Thing is because its owing to us DHSS wont pay us anything so we really stuck at the moment cant wait to get out of this countr its gone to the dogs

[Getting There]

[quote=brrttpaul;84478]

Originally Posted by Getting There

Hi brrttpaul,

Hi getting there, it is bummer but middlemen have ruined the building trade here in UK. We were getting £300 per thousand bricks and £9.00 per metre on 6"blockwork all in. All in means you dont get paid for concrete lintels, sills, tresseling, shooting ties into steel etc, we found out later that the midleman was getting pai good money for this. On top of that they took £500 retention which you will never see again, Thats five gangs amounting to £5000 just in retention money. Thing is because its owing to us DHSS wont pay us anything so we really stuck at the moment cant wait to get out of this countr its gone to the dogs

Well we don't know enough about the building trade to know whether similar exploitation goes on here but we would be surprised if the industry here was completely clean and fair. All the same, TOTALLY understand why getting away from it feels an attractive option.

Eamonn & Janet.

[mark rowe]

Thanks for your reply, Okotoks is somewhere that we have heard of as we bought a house (not one we are in now) from a couple in 2007 who moved to Okotoks and unfortunately I lost their contact details as I would be interested to know how they are getting on. My role in the Estate agents is admin based but obviously it's a dodgy time all round for agents at the moment, and I think I may have to look for another job soon anyway !!.

We are going to arrange a holiday your way for 2009 and go from there, but we have already downloaded the application forms, think our minds are already made up.

thanks for now, be great to keep in touch,

Vicki (& Mark) Rowe

Originally Posted by Getting There

Hi Mark,

We're writing this from a very snowy Okotoks, Alberta (although winter got into gear very late this year so we can't complain). We can't speak for Nova Scotia although we are aware that many Expats settle very happily there. Alberta was our choice for lots of reasons but the proximity of the mountains, the friendliness of the majority of the people (we know that sounds like a cliche but we find it to be true), the ability to get around with relative ease, current weather excepted, the feeling of space (remember that Alberta is 3 times the size of the UK but has only 3 million people) and more. Economic conditions are worsening here, as they are everywhere, but (and maybe this is blind faith) we are hopeful that over the medium to long term, the fact that the province is not carrying any debt (think of the debt the UK government is carrying) and the abundance of natural resources here will help to drive the economy forward in the years ahead.

Our blog below will give you something of a flavour of life out this way. As to employment, we would imagine that you would be able to find employment here as there are shortages in many skilled trades. For your wife, if her estate agency role is in the office in an administrative role, then she will find many similar opportunities here. If her role is in sales, then she, like Eamonn has, would need to think about getting licensed to trade in Real Estate as a Realtor. This involves a significant amount of training and several thousand dollars of cost and is not a "job" that will get you into Candada but is a career choice your wife can make if you guys get here via another route (happy to share chapter and verse on that if you connect with Eamonn via the blog).

It is definitely easier to get here in a reasonable timeframe if you can find employment beforehand.

Best wishes with your plans.

Eamonn & Janet.

[mark rowe]

Hi there,
Sorry to hear about your problems, just another nail in the British coffin I guess !. Well, where are you hoping to move to in Canada ?. Are you going in 2009 ?. Think our minds are pretty much made up, although we do have a 13 year old, but by the time everything is sorted he will probably have left school !. Devon is nothing like it used to be and shops etc are closing and there is no community spirit left anywhere, people only worry about themselves nowadays.

Let us know your plans, you never know we could end up in the same area. !.

Thanks,

Vicki (& Mark) Rowe





[quote=brrttpaul;84478]

Originally Posted by Getting There

Hi brrttpaul,

Hi getting there, it is bummer but middlemen have ruined the building trade here in UK. We were getting £300 per thousand bricks and £9.00 per metre on 6"blockwork all in. All in means you dont get paid for concrete lintels, sills, tresseling, shooting ties into steel etc, we found out later that the midleman was getting pai good money for this. On top of that they took £500 retention which you will never see again, Thats five gangs amounting to £5000 just in retention money. Thing is because its owing to us DHSS wont pay us anything so we really stuck at the moment cant wait to get out of this countr its gone to the dogs

[brrttpaul]

You saying about Devon its exctly the same in Merthyr, Hoovers used to employ 5000 people in its heyday now its closing after 40 yrs. The only shops you see are poundland types, and pawnbrokers. The community spirit which was very strong in the valleys has totally gone. This country has been raped and left to rot