Hi

Hi! I'm wondering if anyone can provide some advice. My husband and I have submitted our PR and currently awaiting visas. We have sold our house in the UK and are looking to move to BC as soon as possible. We are having problems getting interviews with companies though as we don't have a work visa and, ironically, we cant get a work visa without a job offer! My husband is a civil engineer / contracts manager and I am a commercial property surveyor. Does anyone know the best people to contact that may look at resumes and provide advice? Thanks. Ally

I'm not sure I understand your situation, you're moving but you haven't got visas yet? From the UK the High Commission takes 15 months at least to process applications for skilled workers before you get the visa, from the date you submit all the paperwork to them.

Getting work permits is pretty straightforward, but yeah, major complaint immigrants have is that employers can't be bothered with anyone who doesn't have citizenship or permanent resident status, which is why there are so many immigrants with PhDs driving taxis. It's not even legal, but I've seen lots of jobs advertised with "citizens only" in them.

Human Resources Canada is trying to crack down on it. They have a website you can use with job postings on it, bit like the Job Centre in the UK.

If you've already applied for permanent residency I'm not sure how you're going to do this, because the High Commission assumes you live in the UK still, so if you apply for a work permit and enter Canada, that's going to make things complicated.

What they recommend at the moment is for people to come in on work permits and apply for permanent residency from inside Canada as work permits are faster to process, so it avoids the wait.

One piece of advice I can give you is that if you work in construction and civil engineering, Alberta is the place to move to, not BC. Unless you want to help build the tunnel near Golden, which is a major project.

The housing market in the US going down the tubes I reckon (and so does everyone else) is going to cause problems for the BC economy because of the lumber market. With oil at $130 a barrel, I don't see that happening in Alberta.

Also easier to get a work permit, plenty of employers around Calgary and elsewhere in the Province will hire anyone with a heartbeat, there's a massive labour shortage. I've met several Americans working here on work permits who work in construction.

Steve,

Thanks for your response, all information we can get is gratefully received. We are still in the UK but have an attorney working for us in Canada (PR papers submitted through them). We have sold our house here and are living in a rental. Our attorney has advised that it will be about 21 months for our visa to be processed and the only way we can move over earlier than that is to get a job offer and a work visa. Now that we have got ourselves to the position where we can go, we are imaptient to move and dont really want to wait until the PR comes through. Will have a look in the Calgary market and see what I can find. Many thanks, Ally

You might want to read this: http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/new ... 63db99df1e