Any advice welcome

[dphobson]

Hi everybody,

I'm after a little bit of advice and you all seem like a friendly bunch so I thought I'd sign up and give it a hot here.

Surprisingly I want to emigrate to Canada. I am British and have wanted to emigrate to Canada since I was about 8, I have an aunt in Canada who moved there when she was 18 (now 51) and have visited here many times and loved it every single time. After uni I lived there for 18 months too on a work visa for the first year and a holiday visa after that (ski hill for 6 months, golf course for 6 months and living off of the credit card for 6 months).

Last year my girlfriend and I went over on a holiday for 3 weeks and I used it as a show piece to see if she'd be interested, fortunately she loved it and wants to go too. We are now 30, about to be married (4 weeks to go) and really starting to look into this seriously as it'll be houses/baby time in the next few years and I'd rather spend the money on a house/baby over there if I have the option.

I have a degree in computing and am currently a computer programmer for a small company that codes software for banks and financial institutions for processing payments, as it's a small company we all do a lot of different things so I have quite a large set of skills. My girlfriend is an admin assistant to a health sciences department at a university but doesn't have any university qualifications which means that I will most likely be the one who needs to head this up. Money-wise we do ok and we could easily live off of my wage if it came to it.

With my job I have the ability to work from anywhere that has an internet connection, so if I already have a job that I can move with does that give me any advantage? Is it in anyway similar to having a job lined up? I already sort out all my own taxes out here so all I could just move over and start paying taxes there.

My aunt is quite willing to sponsor us, is she even able to do that?

Thanks in advance for any responses, I hope you can help,

Daniel.

 

[Leon]

If your aunt is alone in the world, not married, no kids, no other close relatives in Canada and no close relatives overseas that she would qualify to sponsor such as living parents for example, then she can sponsor you.

Otherwise, if that is not the case, if she lives in Manitoba, she could help you immigrate there under the provincial nominee program. Same if she lives in Saskatchewan but then you would need a job offer.

You can also apply under the skilled worker program but in most cases you need a job offer.

You can look at all these immigration classes here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/apply.asp

It will not help you to immigrate to Canada if you have an online job in the UK. You need a job offer in Canada in order to apply for your immigration, that or a job offer (LMO) you can get a work permit for and then qualify to immigrate later on.

Your girlfriend can be a part of your application if you have lived together for 12 months or longer because then you are considered to be common law partners in Canada. If you haven't, then you'd have to get married to apply together. Your girlfriend could also be the primary applicant if she finds a job faster than you do. As a couple, if one of you gets a work permit, the other qualifies for an open spousal work permit.

 

[dphobson]

Thanks for the quick response.

My aunt is married with 2 kids so I guess thats out and lives just outside Vancouver too.

My girlfriend and I have lived together for 4 years so we'd class as common law.

I'll take a look at jobs and see what's out there.

One more, is there any benefit to getting a company, such as the owners of this site, to deal with the application process for you?

 

[Leon]

One more, is there any benefit to getting a company, such as the owners of this site, to deal with the application process for you?

Not really. You can fill out all the forms yourself. If you don't want to be bothered by that, then you can hire someone. However, number 1 is finding a job or otherwise finding an application class where you don't need a job. Skilled worker allows some positions without a job offer. Quebec skilled worker also doesn't require a job offer but it helps if you speak French.