Brain Fart

This will be like getting advice from a drunk guy; not much structure or eloquence and listed in the order that things occur to me. Everything that follows comes from our experience of living in Canada for the past 3 and a half years. Hopefully you can find something useful...

• No matter how prepared you are, the move will still be stressful. Neither my wife nor I are what you would call highly emotional people but my wife cried almost constantly for a week before we left and I turned into the most intolerant arse who ever lived for the first year of our new life. My point is that stress can surface in different ways and it's important that you realise that your worrying, temper, distraction, guilt, sadness, etc may well be due to the fact that you've just moved you, and possibly your family, half way round the world. If you didn't go through at least some strong personality ripples you should be seeking out the services of a good psychiatrist (or you just handle stress well).
• Give yourself a chance. No matter how miserable you are, don't even consider going back for at least a year. You put a lot of effort into getting here.
• Expect money to be short. In most cases, the first year in Canada is financially difficult so try to plan for it. Be cheap. Get a credit card as soon as you possibly can to get your credit rating established. The Royal Bank of Canada were good for us as they gave us a Visa card when we opened an account with them.
• Your new life is different; try to focus on the good differences and don't let the bad differences obsess you.
• Make the most of your new home. Get out there and see all there is to see. Make a to-do list of all the places your want to go and all the experiences you want to have and add to it as your new friends tell you about things.
• Try to meet as many people as you can. Join clubs, volunteer, attend your kids' organised activities, be approachable. The more people you meet, the more friends you stand to make and, when you make friends in Canada, it truly will feel like home.
• Expect people in your old home country to change - they won't have the same attitude towards you. Some will be offended that you moved, some will want to show you that you made a mistake, some will just lose touch. Remember that you moved for personal reasons, because it was the right thing for you to do. It wasn't a critisicm of your old home, it's not a statement of superiority, it's just a thing that you're doing for you. Your real friends will be the ones your still have, years after you've moved.

And that's it, the story of my emmigration to Canada. Four years on and we're very happy with no plans to move.

If you like what you've read here, please visit my writing website at http://www.ourwrites.net/ (where you can read some of my short fiction pieces or even buy my novel). You can also read my other blog rantings at calgaryblueflame.blogspot.com.

So, on a final note, this year, we have finally seen our first bears, in Waterton National Park in May and in the Jasper area in July; they're still dangerous but we survived our encounters so perhaps we do belong here after all.

Montrecalorontouver???????

So, had a bit of a break while I was recertifying my CCIE but, now that it's done, I can get back to the fun stuff !!

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Yes, Canada is big and you can't live in all of it (unless you have some pretty thick Gypsy blood in you) so now that you've submitted your immigration application, it's time to find a home.

Where you want to settle may be closely linked to your reason for emigrating in the first place or you may just want to live in Canada, somewhere. Or, like us, you may have decided to go to Canada because you visited one particular place (Vancouver in our case) but end up settling somewhere else (Calgary).

Whatever, your situation, you need to decide on a location. Some factors you might consider are:

• Your weather preference - if you're moving because you hate the weather at home, e.g. if you hate the UK rain, don't go to Vancouver. If you hate extreme cold, go to Vancouver. If you like snow, go to Alberta; if you like a lot of snow, go to the Rockies, the prairies or out East. If you love boats and flying kites, go to Newfoundland or Nova Scotia; if you love flying REALLY big kites, 300 days a year, go to Lethbridge in Alberta. You get the idea.


• Your leisure pursuits - if they are linked to the weather, see above. If the are linked to terrain, take that into account, e.g. if you like skiing, don't go to Saskatchewan or Manitoba; if you like mountaineering or hillwalking, don't go to Saskatchewan or Manitoba; if you like sailing, don't go to Saskatchewan or Manitoba.


• Your intended occupation - even though it's third in the list, this is actually very important. If you intend to do the same kind of work as you do now, you location needs to be somewhere that the work is available. However, if you are going all out for the Canadian adventure and starting a new career, your choices are much wider but you need to understand what the employment (or indeed business) options are for your chosen location.


• Your mental image of Canada - Canada means something different to everyone and, if one of your reasons for emigrating is a particular perception of Canada, such as the grey mountains of the Rockies, the big, dramatic skies of the prairies, the atmosphere and diversification of the cities or the coastlines of BC or the Atlantic provinces, then you should plan to end up somewhere that, at least partly, fulfills your fantasy. I never ask my wife to dress up as a farmer or a WWF wrestler, if you know what I mean.


• Your politics - this might seem a strange one but I mention it because some provinces stray further from the political centre than others. BC is the socialist stronghold of Canada and the unions there hold a lot of power so if you have strong liberal tendencies and don't mind lots of public-sector strikes, BC may be the place for you. On the other hand, Alberta is unashamedly conservative so, if your aim is to make money and you're comfortable with landlords pricing people out of their homes because the provincial government refuses to impose any form of sensible and fair rent control (or indeed, you want to try to change that), then you should keep Alberta on your list.

But, at the end of the day and no matter how much reading you do, there is no substitute for actually visiting a place and getting a real feel for it. As I said, we originally decided to move to Canada because of Vancouver but ended up coming to Calgary because it fitted our criteria better and we like the feel of the place. This brings up another important point. We ended up in Calgary because of my uncle, who lives on Vancouver Island (known to us 'Canadians' and "The Island"), telling us to go to Calgary because of the economy. I can't overestate the importance of having people 'on the inside'. If you are thinking of moving to Canada (or any country) and you haven't spoken to people who actually live there, you will contract the plague and die a horrible death.

Okay, so maybe that's a slight overstatement.

Howoever, the whole emmigration experience can have a lot of its scariness removed if you make contact with people who live and work in your new home. This is actually easier than it sounds. For one thing, the Internet provides access to all sorts of discussion groups. When we moved, another source of contact information was the Canada News. This is a subscription publication in the UK which publishes accounts from both prospective and successful Canadian immigrants. My wife actually wrote an article after our first research trip to Calgary. A lot of the contributors include their contact info and are more than happy to talk to anyone interested in coming to Canada. In fact, we did just this and became friends with a couple who had moved to the town in which we now live and with whom we are still friends today. I'm not sure if it is still going but, if so, it's definitely worth the subscription.

So, in short, take as many factors as possible into account when deciding on an area, do as much research as possible and talk to as many people as possible.

Next, my final post will be a list of any hints and tips that occur to me. Hope you enjoy !

Thunderbirds are GO !

You know that you want to go to Canada. (You might not know exactly where, but at least you've got it down to a country).

You know that you you want to immigrate under the 'skilled worker' class.

You know that there's 'stuff about immigration' on the Canadian Government's website.

So, you're good to go? Well, pretty much, but this isn't like filling in a bank-deposit slip (remember them? Even Canada doesn't have those anymore). You are going to have to work a bit for your Permanent Resident's card.

So, here's what we did.

1. Go onto the website and read everything about immigration.
2. Take the online evaluation to find out if you qualify.
3. If you do, invest in some folders (not fancy ringbinder, just something simple that will hold loose sheets of paper). You'll see why, later. If you don't qualify, look at why - some of the requirements can be open to interpretation.
4. At this stage you don't need to know exactly where in Canada you're going. You will, however, need to know whether you're going to Quebec or not, as a different skilled worker process is used by this province.
5. Download and print off the relevant application kit. (When we applied there was only one type of form for non-Quebec Canada but the government has since introduced a 'simplified' application which reduces the paperwork from multiple forms which were the paper-version of the Spanish Inquisition to a single 3-page form which is still quite the interrogation). The criteria for using the simplified process are clearly stated on the website.
6. Complete the form using the accompanying guide as a, well, guide. Don't expect to complete it in one sitting as you'll find yourself scooting all over the house looking up in the loft and in that cardboard box under the bed or in the dresser drawer under old videotapes and newspapers for details of your past addresses, education and jobs, among other things. Therefore, when not writing on the form, keep it in one of the folders you bought at step 3. Also, put any documents you use for info in the same folder - you may need them later. Write CANADA IMMIGRATION FORM & PAPERWORK or BYE BYE UK or PLEASE LET ME IN Mr. HARPER! or something meaningful to you on the folder. This will keep it crisp and non-yellow for the nice immigration people.
7. When you've finally completed the form, read it through and, if you are taking family, get them to read it through as well. When you're happy there's no mistakes, make a copy. Send the form and the required payment ($1400 for a family of 4 with kids under 22) off to the closest visa office.

8. Put all your copies in your 'Emigration' folder and put the folder somewhere safe, but not obscure.

9. Sit back and relax.

Ehm, no. Now is when the real work (and most fun part) starts, such as deciding where you're going to live, getting a job, preparing to leave, making announcements, organising parties, telling people what you really think of them, etc, etc. There's no telling how long the application will take; I've heard everything from 3 months to 2 years. In fact, here's a quote lifted from Immigration Canada - "There is a waiting list to come to Canada as a skilled worker. This means it may be several years before your application is processed."

Several !!

When the visa office starts to assess your application, they will send you a request for supporting documents. Hopefully you've already amassed a lot of these such as proof of education, proof of funds, evidence of police record (or, hopefully, lack of one) and other pieces of your paper-life. When we applied it was necessary to supply all the documentation with the initial application but now, you only have to send in the form and payment, hence the 'simplified' process. I'm not sure if this is good from the applicant perspective as it's now very easy to apply. It took us a couple of months to complete the forms and compile all the documents, during which we had plenty of time to become sure that we were doing the right thing. But, conversely, the new simplicity might be just what a lot of people need. At this point, I'd say something witty about the dangers of procrastination but I can't be bothered.

Next, the fun stuff.

How many Fingers am I holding up ?

When Bruce Forsyth was host of Play Your Cards Right, probably the greatest TV gameshow ever devised, he had a few catchphrases, the most profound of which was, "What do points make?", to which the well-trained and obedient audience would always cry, "Prizes!"


Well, emigrating to Canada as a Skilled Worker is just like being in a gameshow but, in this case, What Do Points Make??


That's right.


Happy little immigrants.


You see, Canada doesn't let just anyone into the country. You either have to come here on 'holiday' and just forget to go home (as many people do) or qualify as an eligible immigrant. In the case of the Skilled Worker class, this means subjecting yourself to a kind of Antiques Roadshow evaluation where, if you get enough points, you're allowed in. Kind of like Airmiles.


You might be thinking that this sounds a little complicated but, actually it's not. A tad cumbersome perhaps, but all the info you need is freely available on the Canadian Immigration website and in you own head (or under you own bed or in you own kitchen cupboard or wherever you keep your important personal information).


If you do need help, there are many Immigration Consultants and Immigration Lawyers out there who will provide advice and assistance in the form of "Free Consultations" or "Free Assessments" (in fact there are probably some in the ads on this blog).

These generally involve asking you the same questions that are posted on the Canadian Immigration website, applying the same points values to the answers, adding those points up and telling you whether the total is higher than the qualifying threshold set by the Canadian government (and also published on their website).

So, really, what these consultants and lawyers should be doing is offering free assessments to assess whether you need their free assessment. The "pre-assessment assessment" questions would be:

1. What is 40 + 28?
2. Is 68 less than or greater than 67?
3. Do you know your own name, address, age, what language you speak, the other members of your family, academic qualifications, occupation and how much money is in your bank account?

If you can't answer any of these questions, please, PLEASE, take the free assessment. Otherwise, my advice is try doing it yourself first; there's even an assessment test on the Canadian Immigration website.

Immigration consultants want to help you immigrate, but their assessment is the only thing that's free. The rest of their service comes at a price which is usually significant. They don't have any special, exclusive line into the immigration bureaucracy and they can't accelerate your application. They will tell you what documentation you need to supply (which, again, is also published on the Immigration website) and they will fill in the form for you and send it off. These are all things that you can do yourself if you have some basic organisation skills and the ability to read and write.

Having said all that, I do realise that some people don't like filling in forms or become overwhelmed by the amount of documentary information that is required as part of the immigration application process so, if you have tried yourself and just can't do it, by all means use an Immigration Consultant/Lawyer. I've spoken to people who have and were very pleased with the service they got. I've also heard some horror stories where the company "forgot" to send the completed application in and it was only six months later when the customer requested an update on progress that the mistake was discovered.

So, if you're really serious about this, you owe it to yourself to spend time on the Canadian Immigration website before you make the decision on whether to spend a thousand pounds or more on a consultant. It is not the first piece of research you'll do on your journey to a new life.

Next, my own experience with the immigration process.

Water Soluble or Indellible?

So, you've decided that Canada is for you, with it's scenery and animals and smoking French-speakers (that's a literal description). Well, the first thing you need to do is decide how you want to get there. The two options open to you are temporary work (with or without a visa) or full-blown immigration.


Washes Off with Water and a Quick Rub


In a previous post, I suggested that it is very difficult to come here on a temporary basis and, depending on how you intend to earn money, that can be true. I work in IT and I wanted to use my career experience to earn a decent wage in Canada so, for me, immigration was the only real option because, at the time, most employers in my field wouldn't hire you if you didn't have Permanent Residence status.


However, many people do come to this country on a temporary work permit(otherwise known as a Temporary Resident Visa) on company transfer, to fill specific labour gaps as identified by the federal government or for seasonal jobs; the ski resorts are full of foreigners every winter and I think some of these may not even need a temporary visa, depending on how long you're here.


If this is your intention then you need to be ready to do a fair bit of research. Getting a Canadian Temporary Resident Visa can be quite the excerise in lateral thinking, not least because there are different ways of applying for a work permit, depending on who you are, where you're from, what kind of work you do, how long you want to stay, you favourite Star Wars film, etc etc.


As I've already said, it was our original intention to come to Canada on a temporary basis because it would have allowed us to decide if we liked it or not so, if you're not 100% sure but also not ready to say "Niet" to Canada just yet (and if you did say Niet, you're probably confusing Canada with Russia - ie both cold with bears), it may be worth pursuing the temporary option. If you do, try to have a good idea of what kind of work you want to do and how long you want to stay. Remember that, for most jobs, if an employer wants to hire a foreign worker, they have to prove to the government (via a forest of federal paperwork and a few gallons of ink), that they can't hire from within Canada so you may be more likely to succeed if you already have a tentative job offer (which suggests that the employer is ready to make this justification).


A couple of useful resources are:


http://www.canadaworkpermit.com/
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/index.asp


Good Luck !


Stays FOREVER


Let's assume that you've tried the temporary option without success or you've decided that you only live once and life is what you make it and nothing ventured, nothing gained and today is the first day of the rest of you life and now you're sick of thinking in cliches. In these cases, you are truly ready to commit to Canada.


And that means immigration !

Now, don't think that just because the temporary visa option is so convoluted. the immigration process must be easier. Nope; there are more variations of Canadian Immigration than there are O.J. Simpson mug shots. Well, not exactly, but you get the idea.

So, the first decision you need to make if you want to emigrate to Canada is how. You options are:

• as a skilled worker or professional - i.e normal
• as an investor, entrepreneur or self-employed person - if you have money and a business-brain
• as a sponsored family member - if you already have family in Canada
• as a provincial nominee - if you do something that a province REALLY needs. This varies by province
• Quebec-selected skilled workers - if you do something that Quebec REALLY needs (apart from smoking heavily). Yeah, I know, Quebec is a province but it is also different, on many levels.

Of the above imigration 'classes', the skilled worker is the most common and the one in which I emigrated to Canada.

So, for the rest of the blog, I'll be concentrating on this class, starting in the next post with, well, how to start.

Ah, what the hell...

In previous posts, I've talked a lot about the practicalities of moving to Canada which are important but let's be honest; if you're the type of person who only considers resale value when you're buying a car, or you won't get a tattoo because it'll hurt, then you're probably not going to up sticks and move to a different country.

People tend to emigrate for one of two underlying reasons; to escape appalling circumstances or for the sheer adventure of it.

I definitely fall into the latter category because, despite what some people might say, living conditions for the majority of people in the UK could hardly be described as appalling.

So, we've been here for just over three years and, in that time, we have had some memorable experiences, moments that we'll always remember and that, in some respects, have justified our decision to move to a new country.

Here are some of the best ones:

Beer at the Cedar House - I originally landed in Canada 2 weeks before the rest of the family because of my job so I had a fortnight on my own. One of my new colleagues (who is now a good friend), took pity on me and invited me to spend a night with his family. Well, nothing could have prepared me for where he lived; a cedar-clad house surrounded by forest. My hosts fed me the biggest steak I'd ever eaten and then we sat on his front porch drinking beer and watching his border-collie chase squirrels. It was a great evening and I really felt like I was somewhere special.

Coming across deer on the pavement (sidewalk). I was walking back to our house in Okotoks one afternoon when two deer came around the corner. I was amazed and a little unsure of deer-human sidewalk-etiquette but they were good enough to cross the street before they reached me.

Sitting in a hottub, looking out on a snow covered forest in the middle of winter. The colder it is, the more fun it is, and this time it was -20 Celcius - your body's warm but your hair freezes!

Finding a young moose in the McLean Creek campsite. The kids freaked! Luckily, he was too young and timid to be dangerous

Listening to the coyotes howl when we're sitting out on the deck in the evenings.

Some of the other wildlife gets even closer...

Skiing at Lake Louise - great skiing and an incredibly beautiful place. Other great skiing close by is Sunshine (Banff), Nakiska (where the 1988 Olympic downhill events were held) and Fernie.

Doing anything in Kananaskis. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

Leaving the house one winter's morning and having one of my eyes freeze shut! That was a cold day...

Having lunch at Marv's Diner in Black Diamond (especially when he plays the guitar).

Discovering Vietnamese food.

Making friends. Sounds like a cliche but the people here are really nice.

Having the temperature going from -14C to +14C in one day; got to love those chinook winds...

Drinking beer with my neighbour on his driveway last Thanksgiving. I had bought him some beer to say thanks for helping me lay grass in my garden but he would only accept it if I had one with him. Felt like I was in 'King of the Hill' !

Camping at Crimson Lake. Just fantastic...

It's not you, it's me...

Emigrating to Canada is a bit like cheating on your spouse; lots of people think about doing it but fewer actually take the plunge. And for those who do, the experience isn't always what they imagined.

For this reason, it's important that anyone considering coming to this country understands exactly what they're in for. There seems to be a common misconception in the UK that Canada is some sort of futuristic discount superstore on a national scale, where everything is either unbelievably cheap or so advanced that the UK couldn't possibly be ready for it. I think this comes from a period when a lot of people emigrated here from a rented flat and a low-paid job and found a life, full of big cars, cable TV, detached houses and dollars that stretched further than the trans-Canada. I visited family in Canada in 1979, when I was 11, and it was like going to a different planet; they ate stuff like Spaghetti Bolognese and Cheescake and Coleslaw for God's sake. At that time, fancy food for us was having 2 spoons of sugar in your tea or peas in your mince. And that was the the first time I'd ever been to Macdonald's; a TOY with your HAMBURGER!! I could have died happy at that very moment...

But that was before globalisation. We're all one big market now. MacDonalds and Subway and Ipods and Halo 3 and "(insert country here)-Idol" (and even Cheesecake) are everywhere. In terms of popular consumer-culture, you have to look pretty hard to find differences between the two countries and in many cases, Canada is actually behind the UK and Europe. (One example is banking; another is the proliferation of bluetooth headsets back in the old country. Walk around Edinburgh city centre during the week and the place looks like it's been invaded by well-dressed Borg).

While there are still financial benefits of coming to this country, they get less and less with every year that passes. Petrol is still cheap compared to the UK (although people have panic attacks whenever the price of a litre pops above $1 (approx 50p)). Dining out is also pretty reasonable and plentiful. I was going to say that housing was no longer a real bargain but a friend recently told me about someone buying a semi-detached (duplex) house in Edinburgh for approx 500,000 pounds (sorry can't find the 'pound' sign). Compare that to around $400,000 for a decent sized detached house here and it doesn't look so bad. But Calgary is booming. Three years ago, that $400K would have been around $250K so I'm not sure how affordable houses will be in the future.

So, the point here is, don't come to Canada just to save money, because you will find it harder, financially, than you expected. Instead, think about the lifestyle question. Is there something about Canada that you really want and can't get at home? If the answer to this question is YES then go for it. If the answer is DUNNO, then do your research. You'd be amazed how many people emigrate to a place that they have NEVER visited and then wonder why they can't settle.
And there's no excuse for ignorance. In this age of the Internet, there are plenty of information sources. Canada Immigration has a great website (link on this blog) and most Canadian newspapers have sites. We used to watch the CBC news on the web from Scotland, just to get a feel for the big issues. And I'm sure this isn't the only blog about immigration...

Canada is a great place, but so is Scotland, and England and Wales and Ireland, so be sure you know what you're getting and what you're leaving behind.

This post is a bit on the overly realistic, cold-light-of-day side so, in the next post, I'll talk about some of the cool things we've experienced since we arrived and then I'll talk about how to actually get here!

It's Been a While

Kananaskis Mountains

I wrote the heading to this over five years ago and then proceeded to forget that I had a blog; strange how life distracts you.

Where was I?

Oh, yes; Canada.

So, at the time, all those years ago, we (my wife, Sheina, and I) were seriously considering moving from Scotland to Canada.

Many people have asked me over the years, why? Why would you leave a place where you had a good standard of living, good job, good social network, family close by. It's not an easy question to answer in a few words although I did develop a few soundbites:



"Why not?"

"For the skiing."

"For the weather."



Of course, when people heard these, their jaws would drop and their eyebrows rise because, while each is in some part true, they don't explain why I would make such a big change in my life. Sane people don't leave everything behind and drag their family to another continent for a high-speed quad chair and a large vertical drop.



So, here's the real reason, and it's not short:



Sheina and I have always thought of living away from Scotland. Perhaps it's in our blood as two of my uncles and Sheina's brother moved away when they were younger. I even lived in London (England, not Ontario) for 2 years (which is a whole other blog) and we have tried, unsuccessfully, to get to Dubai and Bermuda. In 2001, we went on a skiing holiday to Whistler, just north of Vancouver, and we loved it. When we got back to Scotland, we decided that we would try to live in Canada, just temporarily, to see if we liked it.

It turned out that a temporary move to Canada was about as likely as me getting a sex-change. I wanted to work in my chosen field, as I had a family to support, but no employer would look at me unless I had an immigration visa. So we had a decision to make; give up on the whole idea or go for it. We discussed it with family and friends and we received many differing opinions but there was one comment that we heard over and over. So many people told us that they had once had the chance to go to Canada but didn't and they regretted that decision. Both Sheina and I didn't want to look back on our lives and think "I wish we had taken the chance" or "I wonder what it would have been like" so we decided to go for it. Life is only so long and you have to cram as much into it as you can and, what's the worst that would happen; we didn't like it and came back to Scotland.

It was about this time that I wrote the heading, referring to "Fortress Canada" because of the trouble in getting temporary work and the long and involved test of personal organisation that is the Canadian Immigration process. We applied for an immigration visa in January of 2003 and received it in March 2004. By June, I'd been offered three jobs and we moved to Calgary (no, not Vancouver) in August of that same year.

Why Calgary? Well, my uncle, who lives on Vancouver Island, told us to look at Calgary when we told him of our intention to move to Canada. As he put it, "It's booming!". Well, that was in 2002 and he wasn't wrong but that in itself wasn't a reason to move there. We looked at both Vancouver and Calgary and tried to weigh up the pros and cons for each. This is what we came up with:

Vancouver for: it's beautiful, good skiing nearby. high standard of living
Vancouver against : climate is too similar to Scotland (ie rains a lot), high cost of living, strong trade-union presence (I'm left of centre, but not that left).

Calgary for: even better skiing nearby, cold winters/warm summers and dry!, second sunniest place in N. America (after Miami), cheaper that Vancouver.
Calgary against: a little redneck, not nearly as pretty as Vancouver, Tory provincial government.

Calgary at Night

You'll notice repetition of my ealier soundbites because these were a big part of our decision process. But, when we wrote down the pros and cons it became pretty obvious that Calgary was the place for us. Of course, this was a personal choice and it'll be different for everyone.

So, we went to Calgary, well actually Okotoks, a little town just to the south. It's now 2007 and we're still here. We miss Scotland but we're enjoying our new surroundings and have no plans to return.

I intend this blog to be a prospective immigrant's guide to the process and will post hints, tips and anecdotal tales as I think of them.

I hope you enjoy.