Moving to Canada - after some visa advice

[Alleycat281]

Hi all. I'm after some specific advice pertaining to visas. My partner and I would love to move to Canada for either a few years or permanently(depending on how much we enjoy it there). We live in New Zealand at the moment, both having permanent residency here. My question is do we apply for a 23
Month working holiday visa or do the express entry skilled migrant visa? We are both well qualified in our fields - mechanic and teacher - but I've heard the express entry can take up to 6 months to be approved? I don't really want to be waiting that long as I've read the working holiday visa only takes 6-8 weeks to be approved. We would want to live in or near Vancouver... I'm wondering if we can start off on the working holiday visa then arrive in CA and start working towards PR while we are there...? Ideally the express entry would be the best, I'm quite confident we would both be accepted but I'm not sure I want to be waiting 6 months to hear about acceptance... Has anyone else been in a similar situation and can give me some ideas about where to proceed next?? Or does anyone know of any trustworthy immigrant consultants that could help out?
Thanks in advance

 

[ozlis]

What is your citizenship? And age?

 

[Alleycat281]

Sorry I should have mentioned that ! I am a NZ citizen and my partner is a Uk citizen. We are both 25

 

[ozlis]

If you are not 100% certain on Canada the IEC visa program is available for both of your countries and you are in the age group. Both countries have a quota and it would not be possible to apply together so one may get an invite to apply and the other might not.

It costs nothing to be in the pool so might as well give it a shot. This program lets you work for anyone for 23 months (NZ) and 24 months (UK).

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/iec/

As for PR in express entry - the processing time itself takes about 6 months but there is quite a bit to do (and spend) before considering an application.

I'd recommend IEC, you can apply for PR once you are in Canada if you want to stay (disclaimer that it is not guaranteed to be approved of course).

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Have you actually looked at the Express Entry program? Done your language tests, had your educations evaluated, calculated your score? You may be confident that you'll be accepted but it's not that easy.

As said above, you can submit your profiles to the IEC pool. However, you would then need to wait for an invitation to apply for the actual work permit. There is no guarantee of receiving an ITA, especially for your partner, as the program is VERY competitive for the UK.