Inside Information

There are a number of things you need to know if you want to settle down or work in Canada for longer than a year. If you have time...

The process is a long tedious one (like this blog entry...there I said it). There are two huge nameless ‘we can’t give you our name’ forces involved, the CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) and HRDC (Human Resources Department of Canada). CIC dissects you into bits for which you need every legal paper you’ve ever had as proof, HRDC’s job is to keep foreign workers out, making it as hard as possible for you to get a job even if you already have a contract. I’ll get into them later.
There are ways around it if you’ve got time, money, patience, a healthy dose of happy pills to take (pink ones first) and also if you don’t mind giving control of your life to somebody else (lawyer or worse: your employer).

I may whine a little, those who know me will feel the heavy dripping of fatty sarcasm but I will give you all some great advice.
Firstly, if you can afford one…get a lawyer otherwise be prepared for a whole lot of ‘vicious circle’ rides.
Secondly, don’t give up and don’t listen to people who tell you what is the only possible way and what isn’t (namely from HRDC and CIC help lines who seem to think that just because you’ve got the questions you must be stupid).
Thirdly, call that free number, learn the digits you have to press by heart so you don’t have to go through their whole spiel to get someone to talk to you…and there is someone (look at the Secondly point), the number to call is 1 888 242 2100, then 1 2 4 1 3 0 and remember it’s ok, you’re on the right line if you’re there for what feels like forever, if you want to run to the loo and just can’t hang up.

Going back to HRDC, go on and read their websites, you think there’s a lot of information there right? Wrong!! There’s a lot they won’t tell you. Apparently they don’t have to put all that information there (they say it’s constantly changing information i.e.; wages, rates per hour, statistics), as they cannot afford to do that. Surprisingly you need this information, here’s a big example. When you apply for a job to be approved through HRDC; this means you have to prove you are the best person for the job and most importantly no Canadian can do it; you need a NOC code (National Occupation Code), which is a code that HRDC give to every job on their list that has potential to be approved. Now that NOC job should have a salary bracket attached to it. One of the main reasons HRDC disapprove of a job is if the wage doesn’t fit their ‘read our minds and guess’ bracket. The wage has to be higher than what a Canadian would get paid. The reason and a good one at that is that a foreign worker has to be enticed to come here. And trust me, Canadian salary is not a huge enticement to come here for if that’s what you want.

There are other reasons, for example, if your company hasn’t put out proper advertisements to look for Canadian employees. Here is a simple example; 2 adverts x 2 weekends x 2 mainstream papers, local media advertising, major employment sites like Monster Board and Workopolis. The best part if that they don’t tell how specifically how many you need to put out, so while the company is already going over the top in advertisement spending (where they usually wouldn’t even go for one of their own) they may still not be doing enough. So make sure all those adverts are in when or before they’ve offered you a contract (because the contract may mean zilch in the end). Oh yeah…it helps if your company wants you pretty bad. Or if you offer to pay for all the adverts yourself (hey there’s a bright idea!).

Maybe there are reasons like the person who has your file is having a bad day. They don’t have a life, they can’t read properly, they have hidden agendas with your name, you look like an exboyfriend/girlfriend’s new friend…but these are reasons for the paranoid. We all think like that sometimes especially when you feel like you’re talking to a brick wall and it’s not listening.

Then there are things you can do like research, talk to others who’ve gone through or going through the same as you but remember every situation is different. Make sure you know all the various visa processes you can go for. Try them. It’ll cost you but what the hell everyone needs a little bit of a shake from sorting out of legal papers, looking for educational proof (yes you did do that degree you have on your CV) locating them from foreign countries, making sure your relationship is real, beginning the notary stamp collection, proving you’re not married yet proving your de-facto (as good as married in the legal sense) at the same time. Maybe there were some convictions you never knew about or blanked out of your memory, maybe you live under someone else’s skin since you need finger print proof, oh must not forget to get fit because you’ll need that medical test.

The biggest confusion for us was which visa one of us could go for that would give the other the right to work as well. There are no direct facts telling you that for e.g. on the temporary work visa you have to go through the HRDC process and all it’s rigmarole but in the end if you have a partner who wants to work they too have to go through the same process. You cannot ride on the coat tails of the other. So if you are accepted and he/she is rejected… there’s a pickle for you to sort out of… do you leave, does one because the house person living on volunteer work and socializing. They also don’t tell you that on the Skilled Worker’s Program, one of you can go for the job and the other can ride on your visa getting any job they can. This visa also works towards your permanent residence. You pay big money for it of course but then you are serious about staying here.

This is where we’re at…waiting… to see if we get the go ahead. The website even says this is a simple process for which you do not need to get a third party. But we don’t trust them. We’ve done the self assessment test; minimum points required at the moment is 67; the trick is not to lie, and then the person who gets the most points should be the main applicant. And of course that person has to be able to get all the paperwork together. So hopefully the main applicant is the person who’s most organized…. In this case not me.

Here I am only talking in couples speak. But you know we’ve been so dependant on where the other person is at that there’s no other way for us to look at it. I mean we’re a couple, we have both been offered good jobs, we both like them very much including the people we work with, we both want to stay here but in the end we do it together or not at all. And it’s not the jobs we want to stay for; it’s the country.

And now we can get all philosophical and think, aren’t we lucky to be from countries like Holland and Australia, that we wouldn’t be forced to go back to countries where our safety is at stake. Are we being too greedy taking the place of someone else who needs to be here more desperately then us? Well I could go on but I know that if we’re given the chance we’d continue the way we have been so far in Canada, we’ve been seeing a lot of the country, making the most of all its’ nature, being environmentally sound, doing volunteer work, making Canadian friends, learning about the culture, skiing. We’d do a lot more and give back to the country too…after all we’ve brought with us many visitors, who’ve fallen in love with Canada and are telling more people. All those tourist dollars!