What came first, the chicken or the egg? (ie the job offer or the work permit?)

[Leon]

You may qualify for a NAFTA visa depending on your line of work but I think you still need to have a job offer regardless. If you don't qualify for NAFTA and you don't think a place will wait for a year for you, try and make it so that they don't have to wait for a year. Ask them to give you a job offer so you can use it to speed up your skilled worker application or ask them to apply for a labour market opinion for you so you can come on a temporary work permit.