International Nesties
cheekywife
member
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
XP: work visas for US citizens in canada
DH & i are throwing out ideas for places we might want to live in
the next few years but since we're both US citizens, would work visas
be difficult/near impossible to get? would we need to be sponsored by US
companies?
a little background: we both have bachelors
degrees and have been working in NYC & DC for 12+ years. i've done student work permits in london & sydney but that was always a temporary thing, we'd want to be able to stay indefinitely.
we are thinking toronto or montreal since most of our family & friends are on the east coast. any ideas of where to start would be greatly appreciated.
TIA
Re: XP: work visas for US citizens in canada
My English H and my American self got work visas because he got a job in Vancouver, they sponsored him and I was sponsored as his common-law spouse.
I'm no expert, but I think that's your best option - to get a job and have them sponsor you.
I came to Montreal on a spousal sponsorship, so my case is a little different but I do know a few people who came here on work visas. They were offered jobs at Canadian companies and had the companies sponsor them. From what I know the process was pretty simple.
What type of jobs would you be looking for? Depending on what you do, if you're in an in demand field, you might qualify for a skilled worker permit, I can't remember what the exact term is called so don't quote me on that haha. If you're thinking about Montreal, you should know there is an extra step in the process to come here on a work visa and you have to get a selection certificate from both the province and then the country. Here's a link to the CIC website with a little more info about that. If you want any extra or more specific info, feel free to PM me! I love living here (most of the time) and would recommend it as a great experience if you're considering new places.
I was in Ottawa for 3 years without finding work. It can be tough, especially in big cities where a lot of people want to live and work.
DH and I weren't married at the time so I couldn't jump onto his work visa. And competition was tough for English-only positions. You'll do a lot better if you already speak French.
There's a test you can take on the immigration website to see if you qualify for the highly-skilled visa.
thanks all! i will look into these suggestions. it's just an idea we're throwing around. we don't speak french but we've both taken 6 years of it so we could re-learn it pretty easily. if we could get work permits for the UK, i'd move there in a heartbeat but that is damn near impossible. *pout*
ebartzen: is this the test you are referring to?
another excellent piece of info to keep in mind, thanks! i've lived in NYC, DC, and briefly in london, sydney, & SF so i am very familiar with a high cost of living.
I live in Quebec City - I moved here for my husband's job and they sponsored him. The whole paperwork process was pretty easy. I am not sure how Montreal is in terms of French but Quebec City is very Francophone and that presents a unique set of challenges but also a very different experience than what you would find in Toronto. I think it's about as different as you can get but still be in North America.
That said, jobs are very difficult to find here without being fluent in French (after one year, 20hours a week in lessons, I am still just conversational). - I think Montreal is a lot easier and speaking English as your native language might give you an advantage. Good luck.
Yes, Montreal is much easier to get by with just English or conversational French vs Quebec City. In terms of job search, you CAN find an English job, but it depends on the industry you are in, how flexible you are in terms of what you want to do, and if you have an 'in', kwim? That being said, options are still certainly much more limited vs. if you are fluently bilingual. There are quite a few Americans I've met here as well and it is a nice little community which makes transitioning to a new place much easier in my opinion, how about in Quebec City? I just love the culture of the city, it's a really special place and there is always something going on.
Toronto you don't run into the language issue, but the job market can be tight there depending again on what you'd like to do. We looked at Toronto briefly, but the cost of living is much higher imo (real estate prices are probably more on par with what you'd be used to in DC and I wasn't comfortable dropping 500K to live in a 2 bedroom duplex in the city) and the metro system sucks. We didn't want to spend all of our time commuting.