Entry Options for British Graduate

[markphilipstern]

Hi!

Let me start by saying I hope that this is in the right board, if I am a little lost it would be much appreciated if you could redirect me to where this is more appropriate!

I am a British Graduate in International Business and am looking for the optimum way of entering Canada for work. My partner has recently been accepted to UBC in Vancouver for a two year masters course and I am very keen to move to Vancouver with her and work in a career oriented job. I have spent the last few hours negotiating the immigration website and the conclusions I can draw so far are:

(a) I dont think my partner and I can be considered as common law partners. We have been together for over two years, however 8 months of that was long distance and six months was travelling together. By the time we want to arrive in Canada we will have been physically together for over a year and living in the same place for 7 months. We have two joint bank accounts from two different countries (Germany and Australia where we are currently living and working) but no name on a lease as we are house sitting - and while we pay the bills jointly, they are all under the name of the house owner. Am I right in thinking that this situation would not constitue a common law relationship?

(b) My main goal should be to achieve a written offer for a job. Once I have that then I will be able to sort out work permit / temporary working visa relatively easily? Will such a set up allow me to stay for upwards of 2 years or will I have to start looking at fully immigrating (as a FSW?)?

(c) In the event that I achieve no job offer, then I have no other options as the applications for Working Holiday Visas for British citizens have closed. Will these applications open up again at another point in the year or is that them full until 2014?

I apologise in advance for this confusing mumble of a post, but if i could get any help at all confirming what I think / answering the questions that I have then that would be absolutely fantastic!

Thanks in advance

Mark Stern

 

[brightyellowjeans]

Hiya,

I think I can answer some of your questions, but any more advice would be helpful as I'm in a sort of similar situation. I've been in a relationship with my boyfriend for 4 years, and he lived in the UK for 2 years. He's a Canadian citizen, and I'm looking to join him in Canada once I finish my BSc (Chemistry) this summer. Your questions first:

(a) - I have no idea to be honest. Not a route I've considered

(b) - yes, from what I can see (and this is what I'm planning on doing), you need to get a job offer. Your employer then needs to apply for an LMO to assess the labour market to check that it isn't saturated with loads of Canadians wanting that job. Once this is done, you can then apply for a Temporary Work Visa, which seems to look like a pretty smooth application process. The job offer and LMO seem to be the hard bits. Those are for up to 4 years, but are really conditional on the length of the job. Assuming it's permanent, I think it's all fine unless you lose the job, then you would have to change your status to visitor, find another job and start again. But, I get a score of 48 on the FSW eligibility scheme (20 for degree, 18 for language, 10 for age), then if you can add any points for work experience (max 21) or if you and your partner could be considered common law after this time you'd score in adaptability too (max 10) and the pass mark is 68 currently, so assuming you're in a similar situation to me, after 2-3 years work, FSW looks like a pretty good option.

(c) This was the same scheme that my bf was under when he came to the UK, except he could stay for 2 years and apply at any time, pretty much no quota. He got the visa in under a week and was good to go. The Canadian one seems much harder to get, and as far as I can see, we can't get it until next year. Looks like they have 3 rounds in Feb/March, and that's it for the year. I would have thought they'd have them throughout the year, but apparently not. It's only for a year anyway, and then you'd have to go through the whole hassle again.


The other option is (I'm considering this), if your partner is able to support you a bit, you can go as a visitor (no visa needed from the UK), then look for a job while you're there, then do the whole LMO and TWV from inside the country. You may need to cross the border and re-enter, but it's not hard. Might be easier to get a job that way around.


If anyone else can shed any light on this for us, please help! My one big question about the TWV is that one of the requirements is needing 'to prove you can financially support yourself'. For the Working Holiday/Experience Canada visa this is $2500, which is £, but presumably if you have a job already lined up.... ?! Nowhere does it give an actual amount of money that you need for this visa, does anybody know!?!

 

[amira_mais]

Hi!

Let me start by saying I hope that this is in the right board, if I am a little lost it would be much appreciated if you could redirect me to where this is more appropriate!

I am a British Graduate in International Business and am looking for the optimum way of entering Canada for work. My partner has recently been accepted to UBC in Vancouver for a two year masters course and I am very keen to move to Vancouver with her and work in a career oriented job. I have spent the last few hours negotiating the immigration website and the conclusions I can draw so far are:

(a) I dont think my partner and I can be considered as common law partners. We have been together for over two years, however 8 months of that was long distance and six months was travelling together. By the time we want to arrive in Canada we will have been physically together for over a year and living in the same place for 7 months. We have two joint bank accounts from two different countries (Germany and Australia where we are currently living and working) but no name on a lease as we are house sitting - and while we pay the bills jointly, they are all under the name of the house owner. Am I right in thinking that this situation would not constitue a common law relationship?

(b) My main goal should be to achieve a written offer for a job. Once I have that then I will be able to sort out work permit / temporary working visa relatively easily? Will such a set up allow me to stay for upwards of 2 years or will I have to start looking at fully immigrating (as a FSW?)?

(c) In the event that I achieve no job offer, then I have no other options as the applications for Working Holiday Visas for British citizens have closed. Will these applications open up again at another point in the year or is that them full until 2014?

I apologise in advance for this confusing mumble of a post, but if i could get any help at all confirming what I think / answering the questions that I have then that would be absolutely fantastic!

Thanks in advance

Mark Stern

Hi, if you and your partner have been physically together for at least a year by the time you plan to be in Canada (even if you were travelling together for part of that year), then you would qualify as common law. And that in turn means you're eligible for an open work permit by virtue of your partner possessing a study permit. You could always call CIC to verify: 1-800-242-2100 (not always easy to get through from overseas but give it a try).

If for some reason the common law approach doesn't work (although I don't see why it wouldn't), then go with brightyellowjeans' suggestion to enter as a tourist and commence your job hunt after arriving in Canada.