pamiwhite05 said:
Hi everyone, my boyfriend and I are in our late twenties, both skilled workers and looking to immigrate to Canada (probably Alberta) from Scotland. I am a registered nurse and he is a police officer. Ive looked up loads of information online and im a bit confused with all the different bits of info out there. Can explain what the best first steps to take would be. (At this point we have done nothing except read online literature) Are we best to go through an agency or apply for a visa directly? Can anyone recommend the best way to go about applying for nursing jobs (I understand its better to have an offer of employment before applying for a visa. Any other information would be greatly appreciated guys. Thanks
If you want to emmigrate as a skilled worker you have the following options
1) FSW1 - Federal Skilled Worker, Category 1. This is where you apply and obtain permanent residency, without a job offer, before you move over to Canada. In order to apply for this you need to have at least 1 year continuous work experience in one of 29 in-demand occupations in the past 10 years. The semi-good news is the nursing is on the list (currently). The bad news is that they only allow a set number of applications per year (July to July) for each occupation, which this year is 500, and the nursing "cap" of 500 has already been reached.
2) FSW2 - Federal Skilled Worker, Category 2. This is where you obtain a job offer, and having a job offer means you don't need to have have the 1 year's work experience. You can do this in 2 ways. One is with an Arranged Employment Offer, where a company will agree to offer you a job, then you go and apply for residency, then you start the job when you get it. This option isn't so common since few companies are prepared to wait 6 to 12 months+ for your visa to come through before you start. The second option is to get a job offer and start working in Canada under a temporary work permit (TWP), and then apply for residency whilst in Canada. In order to do this you need an LMO (labour market opinion) from the government which the employer has to secure for you.
In both cases the LMO and AOE have to be approved by the government (HRDSC) prooving that no canadian could be found to do the job (normally this means advertising the job for at least 2 weeks in the previous 3 months).
3) Provincial nomination - this is kinda like FSW2 with a TWP, except that you have skills that the local province needs, and therefore they will sponsor your residency application. In real terms, this means that you don't need an LMO to get the TWP, so if getting an LMO is difficult this can be a better option.
You also need to score 67 points on their points matrix, and they consider things like age, educations, work experience, adaptability, language etc.
My advice is to go to www.cic.gc.ca and have a good look through.
FSW1 is generally a lot less hassle then FSW2 or provincial nomination, so is usually a better bet if you have the experience to do it this way. You'll need all kinds of supporting documentation with your application such as IELTS language test results, degree transcripts in sealed envelopes from your University, work experience letters and contracts etc.
Anyway, my advice would be to do some research and see what new rules and numbers they announce on 1st July 2012 when their new "year" starts. The FSW1 caps will reset, although it is highly anticipated that the occupation list will change so there's no guarantee that nursing will remain on the list.
I'd wait until 1st July, and if neither you or your boyfriend are eligible for FSW1 at that time, looking into FSW2 or provincial nomination options.
Best of luck
Wayne.
