Getting a job offer and using the same job offer for FSV and Job Permit?

[bothateam]

Hi everyone!

We have decided to move to canada and are so excited about the opportunities there!

We have had some hiccups..paid a deposit to a scam migration company IXP Visas.. but have now started the process ourselves, getting all the documents together etc until we find a more reputable company.

At the moment we don't meet the funds requirements and would like to get a job offer and use that job offer to apply for a job permit (to get there faster as the processing time in South Africa for the FSV is 19 months) Can we use the same job offer for a FSV and Job Permit application?

Also - my husband is a mechanical engineer with 5 years experience but finding a job has proven to be quite hard without a permit/visa. What is the best way of finding a job for him in the mines/anywhere in Calgary? or anywhere else in Canada? Is there specific companies/contacts to contact that will consider international applicants? It seems they all want us to have visas/permits already before applying.. but we need the job offer to apply for the permit so it's quite a catch 22..

We were also told that the cap on Mechanical Engineers for the FSV has been reached and no guarantees that will will be on the 2014 list but we should apply in May - is this correct?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[scylla]

Yes - the cap for mechanical engineers has been reached. See here:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/complete-applications.asp

You should only apply in May without a job offer if CIC re-opens the no job offer stream and mechanical engineers are on the list. Otherwise there is no point applying without a job offer since the application will be automatically refused.

You can use a job offer to both apply for FSW and also a work permit provided it meets all of the criteria here:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/apply-who-instructions.asp?expand=arranged#arranged

There is no easy or straight-forward answer to finding a job and employer in Canada. Most employers are not interested in hiring foreign workers due to the amount of time and paperwork it takes (and because there's no guarantee of approval). So you just have to keep trying and applying to various companies and hope you get lucky. You should apply to companies directly through their own web sites or through reputable web sites such as the Canadian Job Bank, workopolis and monster.ca. Stay away from agencies - too many of them are scams.