Anyone with experience with NAFTA?

[beeelythe]

I'm a Canadian citizen living in the US on a student visa. I graduate in May and will be returning home. My common-law partner wants to come with me and he has one of the professions that qualify for the NAFTA visa. He is a graphic designer. He has completed his BA in graphic design and is currently working for a firm in downtown Chicago.

For those of you who have come to Canada through NAFTA:

How hard was the job hunt and how hard in advance did you have to start it?
From start to finish how long did it take you to find a job and start working?
Is it really as simple as approaching the port of entry with the written job offer, the passport and $150 for the visa?

Is anyone else applying for this right now? Are there other things (forms) to be filled out before coming to the POE? Has anyone had success as a graphic designer?

The requirement to enter Canada as a graphic designer through NAFTA is with a BA in GD as well as 3 years experience. I'm a little confused with what the latter means. By the time we would ideally be leaving the US he will have been consistently working 9-5 for two years, but he also freelanced for a few years before he graduated from college. Would that count for the third year?

Thanks!

 

[Leon]

Job hunting is always easier if the person is in the country and easier if they can start right away and don't need any permits. For NAFTA, the employer does not need to apply for a labour market opinion, just give a job offer. He should make sure that he tells them that. The employer is also not taking on any obligations by giving him a job offer. He can be laid off as fast as anybody else. Those two things work in his favour if the employer knows that.

You could also sponsor him for PR as your common law partner. That is if you have been living together for more than a year. It will take a few months though to get it through.

 

[beeelythe]

Thanks for the great reply!

We're going to try for NAFTA and then work on his PR being sponsored as my common-law partner (we've lived together for two years now).

Trying to do research on NAFTA has proven difficult. Assuming he gets the job offer, all he has to do is go to the POE with his passport, the written job offer and $150? No criminal record check? No additional forms? No proof of a certain amount of money saved up?

As for the PR, I'd really like to do that, but I don't know if I'm eligible for sponsoring him because I have a bit of outstanding student loan debt and I won't have much money saved up at the time (considering, as his sponsor, I will be financially responsible for him). I plan on working immediately upon my return, but I wasn't sure if I had to have a certain amount of money saved to qualify as a sponsor.

Thanks!

 

[Leon]

As far as I know, all he needs for NAFTA is a written job offer, $150 and his US passport. Somebody with a job offer never needs to show funds. After all, he is about to start working where he will be getting paid.

As for sponsoring, you also don't need to show funds to sponsor a spouse nor do you have to be employed. Student loan debt doesn't matter either. You just can't be bankrupt or on welfare.