Wait or proceed ?

[Del Monte]

I'm an experienced 38-years old commercial banker (13 years under my belt) and I will probably receive a concrete job offer from a big Canadian bank within the coming weeks or months. Do I wait for the concrete employment offer to initiate my Skilled Worker Visa aply (category 2 instead of 1) ? Will the offer shorten significantly my immigration process and how fast can it go from there ? I don't want to loose time and I'm a bit in the dark here...

I want to immigrate to the Ottawa region with my Russian 24-years old spouse, who would like to work immediately also as a graduated economist, and my 4-month-old daughter. What's the perception towards Russian immigrants in Ontario ? What are her chances of receiving an offer quickly ?

 

[Leon]

There isn't really any experience with the new skilled worker if category 1 is faster than category 2. Maybe they are the same.

Immigrants are welcomed everywhere in Canada. Nobody cares where you are from because everybody is from somewhere else anyway. The few people who aren't immigrants themselves are usually 2nd generation or 3rd. The only hurdle for a fresh immigrant is that if they don't know your qualifications, they'll often start you lower so your wife might have to take a job and/or salary a tad under her skill level and prove herself. Otherwise, I have really no idea what the job market is like for economists in Ottawa. Look for jobs on the web to get a feel for it maybe.