anyone in canada? got the chance of twp...

[Romy7]

we're sitting at the back of the ever-lengthening emigration queue (well, not quite at the back - we've been on it a while) but dh has been (almost) offered two jobs (he only needs to formalise his interest) which would make it possible in a much shorter timescale...
the difficulty is, dd2 has sn and may be medically inadmissible for permanent residence... which is why we chose to go the long slow route initially...
help?
would you go for it or not?
i am utterly torn!
he rang me last night and said 'do i want a job?'
aaargh! i don't know!

[SirDigbyChickenCaesar]

where are you thinking of moving to?

[Romy7]

alberta...

[SirDigbyChickenCaesar]

we used to live in calgary.
why not go for it? would you get a different result on the slow route? would they seriously not let your DS in because of SN? that's appalling.

[Callisto]

Go for it. It is easier and faster to get PR once you have a job and Alberta is part of the PNP which fast tracks applicants. As for the SN, it may or may not be a problem. The only way to find out is either ask CIC or get yourself over to British Expats and ask there. There will be at least one person who has the experience/knowlege to help you.

I'm very jealous btw. What is your husbands profession?

Canada forum is here: britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=56

[Callisto]

It depends how much of a 'burden' the SN is percieved to be, ie how much it will cost the Albertan heathcare system.

[Romy7]

sdcc - tell me about it - but they have a rule which says if you are going to be a burden on the state (ie cost more than the allegedly average canadian per annum) then they refuse you entry.
if we wait and go slow route, we would get medicals before they granted us entry, so we would know we were 'safe', if we take this route, we get to move probably about 3 or 4 years earlier, but have medicals in canada, and then they can refuse to let us stay, and we have to leave - it's a bit of a gamble...

callisto - have posted on britishexpats before, but the only answer is 'no way of telling until you have the medical' - i even rang one of the designated medical practitioners to find out if there was a way of paying for a medical to find out if there was any hint before we forked out oodles of cash... but no cigar.

do you know if they add in education cost or is it just healthcare?

dh is an engineer btw.

[Callisto]

Gawd, Canada, esp Alberta is crying out for engineers. I have only heard of it being a burden on healthcare and nothing to do with education, though I could be wrong. Have you thought of hiring an immigration expert? I know Andrew Miller of Expats is very well respected. Otherwise perhaps just find out where medicals have to be held in your area (ie which doctor/practice) and see if the doctor can assess your DD2 and then ask CIC if she would be disqualified? Otherwise I guess you'll have to bite the bullet. It is a mad situation. Still, with your DH's profession the world really is your oyster, he'll be able to find work anywhere. (Not much comfort if your heart is set on Canada, sorry).

BTW, immigration of skilled workers is set to change very soon, but only for applicants after Feb 08. I have just posted a thread on it in the Canada forum of Expats.

[Romy7]

yeah - we're AOR Jan 07 i think so it shouldn't affect us - other than it'll change the rules completely so we have no real idea what the priority will be!!
what's your interest then callisto? are you in canada at the moment or in the same queue as everyone else? (trying not to be too nosy... but now going to surf expats forum nonchalently...)
we decided to go through an immigration expert at the beginning because of the likelihood of it being a little more complicated, but tbh their only answer at the mo is - 'yep, get us the LMO and we'll arrange TWP, then fast-track your PR', which i guess is what we paid them for - they too are hopelessly in the dark about whether or not she would pass her med, but are happy to help us with appeal if that becomes necessary... having paid out our cash though, he then sent us a Hopi prayer to chant over her daily and asked us to feed her blueberries... i say no more on the subject...
needless to say, it wasn't andrew miller. perhaps he's a better person to ask.
i can't get a clear answer on the health/ed thing either - as it is a 'burden on the state' i'm slightly freaked that they'll add in TA costs - we'd probably get away with it on the health side... maybe...

[Callisto]

We are going down the work permit and PNP route, though that may change depending on what the new rules are and how long it takes to land a job. DP's career (manufacturing manager) is listed as an occupation under pressure on the NOC list for BC so that is our target province, but we'd really like to end up in Alberta. We are going for a couple of weeks in Sept to check out BC and Alberta and hopefully make some contacts out there. I'm Sinope on expats btw.

It does seem crazy that you can't get a definitive answer about your daughter. What sort of SN is it?

[Romy7]

she has mild cerebral palsy. Walks, talks, mainstream with no learning difficulties, but has routine (but not frequent) physio/occupational therapy/speech and language therapy for fine and gross motor skills... on paper she is very scary (it's the big fat red headline 'brain damage' which automatically leads to expert referral on from designated medical practitioner as 'neurological problems'), but in reality she's going to lead a totally independent life, and everyone sort of looks at her in the flesh and says 'so what's all the fuss about?' She gets some additional support at school for physical stuff inc extra fine motor (so that she gets additional practice for handwriting etc) and might use a laptop later instead of writing when she hits juniors, but we'll have to wait and see.

oooo, i love BC too. where do you think you will end up? we did the road trip over the rockies from banff... i don't much like vancouver, but i know it's v popular with expats! i looooove vancouver island tho (and whistler lol, not that we're emigrating because of the skiing or anything...) we had looked at bc pnp, but we actually already own a condo just outside banff national park so are really planning on alberta - and dh's job offers would potentially allow commute... that sounds v glam - it's not, we rent in the uk and are totally skint, but don't want to/can't afford to sell up in canada until we get a definitive yes or no... double tax whammy etc.

i'm v jealous about your sept trip. how exciting to be doing a recce. whereabouts are you heading? we lived about 2 1/2 hours outside of calgary in the middle of the prairie - a veritable desert, but medicine hat very boomtown. calgary is mushrooming out of all control, but i do love it.

good luck for trip! hope you get some good leads!

[Callisto]

We're flying into Calgary and hiring an RV to drive to Vancouver and back. I'd originally planned for us to get over to Vancouver Island and drive to Torfino to whale watch from the coast and see the Pacific Rim NP, but I don't think we are going to have time - with 3.6 year old DD I don't want to do too much driving each day. I'm really looking forward to seeing Banff and Jasper NP's though. Will have to save Pacific Rim for another time.

Your DD's cerebral palsy doesn't sound like a big stumbling block really. I think you should go for the TWP and medicals and see what happens. If the medicals go well and you're accepted it'll mean a fast-track into Canada, if not you'll have to regroup and find another way. At least you'll know though. Waiting for PR via skilled worker takes soooo long and with the new rules coming in you may have to re-apply to stand any chance of getting to the head of the queue (I've heard that this may happen). We didn't do the skilled worker, despite qualifiying, simply because the time-scale was 5 years and growing when we looked at it.

[Romy7]

i do think you're right. but it's such a huge gamble - with sw we could wait until we knew before handing in notice at work etc, this way it's all or nothing!

we did that rv trip when dd1 was 18 months and i was pg with ds1 - it was lovely! (really like jasper too btw)
our condo is in canmore, up on the hill on your right as you charge through on the transcan from calgary - wave as you go by - i'm sure our tenants will be thrilled!

have a lovely time - i'll let you know what we decide to do... eeek.

[Callisto]

Do you have to give your notice in before the medicals? I'm not that clued up about time scales on TWP but I think there is a couple of weeks between medicals and getting work permit. Or do you only know the medical decision when the work permit is granted or not? Does your DP need to give a months notice? Just thinking that the employer might be willing to wait one extra month?

It is so nerve-racking and no decision is an easy one in the immigration process. I sometimes wonder if DP and I will ever make it there, getting a job from another country seems impossible sometimes.

So do you recommend any stops/sights etc on the trip? I've never done an RV holiday and the last time I went camping was at school (too many years ago) so I'm really looking forward to the 'roughing it' aspect, though I might not be saying that by day 3!!

[Romy7]

that's the big problem - we wouldn't need medicals for twp - could literally rock and roll. we would only get medicals done when we had already got to canada and applied for pr whilst we were in country on twp status... so we wouldn't know if we could stay or not until it was too late and we'd already moved lock, stock and barrel... in theory, they could then refuse to extend twp, and we'd be back to the UK with no house or job, da daaaaa.....
there doesn't seem to be any short circuit to meds at all...
i've posted on expats to see if anyone knows what we would do about health insurance and stuff for dd2 on twp... gulp. have a feeling we'll be responsible ourselves as pre-existing condition etc... so private, but no idea how we would go about it - i'm sure someone in country will know about that though... not really too worried about that bit - it's just organisation, but the prospect of getting that far and then getting turned down...

aaargh!

what to do, what to do...

and dh is still there with work - not back until next weds - so i can't even discuss it properly - he literally rang me and said 'do i want a job?' (which sounds a bit loopy - but he's been watching the job and the guy handed his notice in that day, and dh was approached... on the same day he met up with another company who are also v keen) he's not even out there on a recce - it was supposed to be a 10 day standard work trip with no complications!!

ooo, it'll be bear season for your trip as well! i'll see if i can work out which routes we used - i remember going to salmon arm and having to explain to dd1 about the fish... it was spawning season... but you're supposed to be going on a recce trip, not a holiday...

[Romy7]

don't bother with kamloops (darkly)
it's like coventry...

[SirDigbyChickenCaesar]

lol @ kamloops!

[Romy7]

please don't tell me you were born there...(cringing)
i was more worried i was going to get flamed by cov mners...

[Romy7]

hey, sdcc - you don't know anything about alberta health do ya?

when were you in calgary?

[BrownSuga]

Romy7 I don't know about your SN side of things. But wouldn't the company your DH is proposing to work for pay for your shipment of goods, then at end of job if you can't get your PR then pay for you to return to UK. Only say this as we are in Montreal, our company brought us over for 2yr project, then will send us back, paying for everything. That is the norm (we're in engineering also).

In which case if your PR failed, you could still stay on TWP as long as the Canadian company had work for you (which is what we may do after 2yrs if we really enjoy it here). Also plenty of engineering in UK, so don't imagine it would be difficult for your DH to get a job if you had to go back. I'd say it's worth the risk.

[Romy7]

oh, that's interesting brownsuga - do you think cic would approve an extension to twp if we had been refused pr? i hadn't factored in that the company might pay some of the removals in both directions lol... i know most of the people they have recruited have ended up staying on pr, so i imagine it would be fairly new for them have to pay to send someone back!
how long have you been in montreal? not tempted to apply for pr yourself yet?

[BrownSuga]

If they're desperate for engineers, I'd say the employer could get the TWP extended (maybe you could check with them before you make a final decision). Ours is for 1yr initially, so will need to be extended for the remainder of the project. Even if we went for PR we'd keep it to ourselves, we're here as expats, much better conditions than the local employees, housing allowance and paid in sterling.

We've been here a grand 3 weeks! I'm still looking for childcare so I can start my job. It is dire here in Montreal, with 2-3 yr waiting lists.

[Callisto]

Ah, I didn't realise that meds are not required for TWP. As far as I know in theory you can get indefinite extensions to your TWP but the Province expects after the second extension, that you apply for PR. So you could be there for four years (2 years TWP is fairly standard, though depends on the job) without having to apply for PR. I also think that BrownSuga is correct - if the company wants you then you should expect a good relocation package for your troubles. This is also something that you can get an idea of on Expats, but I know that depending on the job you can get up to several thousand dollars expenses plus up to 3 months accomodation paid for and so on. The least they will do is pay for flights I would imagine.

[SirDigbyChickenCaesar]

Hi romy,

sadly though i lived there for 3.5 years i don't know that much really. all i know is that you had to pay $50 a month to get Medicare (like the NHS)
My cousin has CP, but I don't know much about the treatment he got.

what's twp by the way?

and no i'm not from Kamloops i'm from winnipeg but when you are in Calgary interior BC is a bit of a running joke (along with edmonton, saskatchewan, manitoba... and pretty much everywhere else!)

[Callisto]

Bear season sounds a bit alarming! We are planning on stopping somewhere around Salmon Arm, and I'll bear in mind that Kamloops is best avoided.

How are you getting on in Expats?

[Romy7]

temp work permit... which you obviously didn't need lol! we had an emergency stop in St John's on the way back last time (someone had a heart attack on the plane) - and i just remember thinking - we're leaving this poor woman HERE? is she ever going to get home?! we lived right in the middle of the prairie, so going to calgary was def visiting the big city - all wide eyed and slack jawed... dh spent a long time in foothills after an accident, so i saw a fair bit of the city... although prob not in the right state of mind to appreciate it much!!

i'm happy with the general alberta health stuff as we were all covered and ds1 was born there - it's the extra dimension of pre-existing condition whilst on a work permit that i'm scratching my head over... i think i'm just going to have to ring alberta health or blue cross and ask them... if it's going to cost a fortune it'll be a non-starter anyway... (unless it's a V good job offer...)

dh did ring last night - he now claims to be juggling 3 job offers lol... like no. 19 buses, but is going to sit down and talk money and timescales today. one sounds like a 3 year contract so not perm... but enough for a permit anyway.

callisto/brown suga - have you ever heard of anyone going out on twp and leaving their family in the uk? if you do that, can you apply for family pr when you are in canada and the family aren't? (just trying to test all available options here... ) it would be a pita for a year or so, but would save moving small girl away from nhs/ed until we knew... dh will go loopy if i suggest it i suspect...

i'm going to ask that on expats - they are ignoring every other q i post so why not... i can't believe no-one knows about health care other than the routine...