Okay my American friend. I'll gladly share my journey. For those who have heard it before or are here for immigration advice, look away now. Please, you have been warned.
My love affair with Canada started during my university days when I was younger, much younger. I did an IT degree in a university in Northern Ireland and as part of all our IT degrees in Northern Ireland we need to do one year of work experience. I expect this is similar in other countries. Most of my fellow students did their year of work experience in a local business, a few go across the water to Great Britain, but in our university one lucky student gets to do their work experience in Waterloo, Canada in Wilfrid Laurier University. The work was to be the dedicated IT assistance to the School of Business and Economics (SBE). This assistance for SBE was in addition to the normal IT provision to the rest of the university staff. This department is probably the most prestigious in the entire university and as such probably had the budget to hire an Irish student to be their personal IT help for a year so they didn't have to wait for the normal university IT help. They have been taking an Irish student since way before I arrived in 96 and when I went back in 2013 they were still taking them. It truly is a win win situation.
I was the lucky student to get picked. To be honest Canada was my second choice for a destination, but as I quickly found out there was no placement in Australia and the only placement outside the UK and Ireland was Canada. Luckily Canada was number 2 on my 'want to be there' list and even before Canada I knew that Northern Ireland was quite near the bottom of my list. I passionately hated the sectarism here and still do, albeit it's not as bad as it was during the troubles. But from an early age I knew I did not want to bring children up steeped in that Catholic vs Protestant environment. Religion has so much to answer for, but that's another drunken conversation.
So I landed in Waterloo in the summer of 96 and lived with 12 other students in a house near the university. I spent a wonderful year there and very quickly decided I needed to live there. Canada became the number 1 on my 'want to be there' list. I started to plan how I could make that happen. I was young, free and smart. How hard could it be?
I loved Canada and the university, particularly SBE which had their flagship program, their MBA. I decided to pursue this avenue and sat the GMAT (which you needed to pass before they would even consider you) and passed. They gave me a conditional offer to enrol for their MBA once I finished my degree, on the condition I obtained a 2.1 classification in my IT degree. That was it. Simple. Go home after my placement year. Sit the final year of my degree. Get my 2.1 classification and Wilfrid Laurier would offer me a place in the MBA program starting 1998. I knew from my friends doing the MBA there that they were snapped up by Canadian firms and citizenship was assured.
I went home home studied hard, just managed to get a 2.1 and sent off my results to Canada. Wilfrid Laurier sent me back my offer of a place and that should have been it. Objective achieved. Mission accomplished. Dreams come true.
But during that final year when I was trying so hard to get the 2.1 that I needed for a place in Laurier, I met the only thing in this world that I realised I loved more than Canada - my future wife. I also received an excellent job offer from a local company and decided to accept the job offer, delay the MBA enrollment for a year while I convinced by girlfriend that Canada was the place for both of us. The delayed enrollment turned into two years delayed enrollment and then Laurier stopped asking me after that. My new company offered me the opportunity to do an MBA in Northern Ireland and I convinced my then girlfriend to take up the future wife role permanently.
However Canada was never far from conversation, but there always seemed to be something that was just more pressing, like a wedding, or building a house or having our first child, or our second or our third. Years passed and then looking back I realised that I wasn't 21 anymore. I now wasn't one of those people who pass through this forum asking if 467 is going to get me a ITA and why is there not a draw this week because I've been waiting for a week already.
It was 2012 when I woke up and started to really push for my dream. And I mean my dream, because I'm still not 100% sure my wife shares my dream, but again a story for another day. So in 2012 we looked again seriously into immigration. I had to convince my wife to give Canada a try for a few years. We sat the IELTS and started to work through the complicated application process. A friend a mine had recently been turned down after 5 years because he has twin boys who are both severely autistic and they failed the medical. Back then processing time were measured in 3 to 5 years, so forgive me if I don't have the patience I should for some of our fellow forum members who are in a little more of a hurry.
We both passed the IELTS and started to complete paperwork, but ironically Canada got in the way. My work had an assignment based in Canada to work in Toronto for about 6 months. I jumped at the chance and took my family with me for a large part of it. It only reinforced my desire to immigrate and my wife enjoyed the experience as well. That actually distracted us from following through with the old paper based application. I have actually still got the copy printed out and half filled in.
When we came back and finally made the decision to try again it was the start of 2016 and EE was upon us. EE is so much better than what went before. I entered the pool with so much enthusiasm in June 2016 and that enthusiasm turned sour very quickly. The CRS scores were consistently above 450 and not looking like they would budge anytime soon. I realised that the only way (or thought the only way) I was going to be able to get the required points was to get a job offer. Easy. I was a senior IT Manager, with an MBA and had loads of very highly desirable experience. I was enrolled in the Job Bank (as you had to be back then). How hard could it be?
I applied to about 20 jobs over 6 months and only one (Deloitte) had the decency to send me a rejection email. A company in the Job Bank even invited me to apply and they never bothered to reply. Many of the jobs I was applying for were below my experience level and I could have done them with my eyes closed. It was a real eye opener. While I agree with lots of the comments that were said to
@andieangel post, I do expect it will be much tougher than you imagined to get a job. Don't underestimate the effort and time it will take to get the job you deserve. It will probably be much harder than you expect, but more worth it as well.
At that point I decided to stop applying and ignore the Job Bank emails. The only thing worse than rejection was hearing nothing. To be perfectly honest I lost hope and gave up on the idea. I thought that I'd missed my chance. That was until I happened to look at the CRS cut offs in early June and saw the legendary 413. I quickly got excited, started doing some research and found this forum and my new friends here.
The positively here has been really inspiring and has actually got me to get off my ass and got me to do something. Our score has been increased. We have a plan A, plan B and now plan C. I can now see a way forward and options. I can see it happening, maybe not this month or possibly even this year, but by early 2018 at the latest I expect an ITA.
That brings me up to the current date. I've just scanned back over what I've written and want to apologise for any of you who have actually waded through my journey. I expect that's not what you expected
@trumprefugee when you asked for my 20 year story. That's it, warts and all.
If you've got this far I just want to cover one more point - my regrets. I don't regret choosing my wife over Canada, and still would in a heartbeat. No question or contest. I do regret taking the 'bribes' that have kept me here; the comfy job, the local MBA and the easy path. I wish I had just been more focused and determined before.
But on the bright side I'm only 42. I have more than half my life ahead of me - I hope! And I'm going to get to share the best place in the world with my best friend and 3 wonderful children.
That's my story, my journey and I can think of no more fitting way to finish this stage of it than to get drunk and reminisce with my new found friends here watching the Northern Lights at the Yukon party. Thanks for listening.
