Emigrating from Ireland to Canada Help

[eire1]

Hey all, not sure if this is right forum for this, mods feel free to move it.
I'm fully qualified and have my f-gas too. I'm just wondering if anyone from Ireland/UK can tell me whether these qualifications are enough to find work in Canada. I hope to move to either Toronto or Vancouver but I'm so confused as to what kind of certs I need.
Any help or links please.

Thanks

[al]

Good luck man, did you try the embassy or that recruitment fair at the weekend?

al

[eire1]

Hey Al, I actually never even thought of the embassy. I'll look into that, thanks. I didn't make it to the expo, I had an engagement that I couldn't get out of. I heard there was 12,000 people, 2,000 interviews and 250 jobs offered. Saw clips of the one in Cork too, mental stuff.

[MikeHolm]

The most jobs are in the tar sands in Alberta or in Sasketchewan, lots of qualified people needed there. I'm afraid that your current qualifications probably don't mean much to the authorities but it will to an employer who may take you on as a junior. They have a lot of leaway. Toronto has some jobs as does Vancouver but housing in Vancouver is very expensive.

[danod]

I agree with MikeHolm, Alberta would be your best bet, lots of work, if you could make contact with some companies and are willing to start out as a first year or 2nd year if they would start you there, you should be employable. If you have industrial or ammonia experiance even better.

[eire1]

I agree with MikeHolm, Alberta would be your best bet, lots of work, if you could make contact with some companies and are willing to start out as a first year or 2nd year if they would start you there, you should be employable. If you have industrial or ammonia experiance even better.

When you say first or 2nd year do you mean as an apprentice?
Yeah, it appears most work is in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

[Refer Rick]

Hi eire1:
Here is a link to Alberta Industry Training (AIT) it has details about the recognition of foreign trade credentials by the Alberta Government. Yes we definitely need tradesmen here.

http://www.tradesecrets.org/index.html?page=working_in_alberta/working_in_trade.asp

Hope this helps.

[chilliwilly]

Hi mate

I was looking for work in Alberta back in 2010 and last year and they were sending people home. I tried to emmigrate under the federal skilled worker programme as an electrician as it was on their NOC list and I had to take an English test to prove that I could speak English. When I had gathered all my documents that they had asked for and got copies of them notarised like they had asked, then I sent it off.

Six weeks later they replied and told me that my application was unsuccessful and they weren't satisfied that I was neither an industrial or non industrial electrician. When in fact I have been an electrician for thirty years or more and self employed for eight of them and been involved with fridge and aircon along the way.

I couldn't send them any more information even if I wanted to as I don't have aymore to give them. I sent them every peice of my working life history. It turned out the duties that are performed by an electrician are listed somewhere in their definition of an electrician on the Canadian government website. And are defined how a young kid would define them. ie installs cable, cuts and splices, tests, crouching, bending, lifting, works from a height, etc. I had nothong like that in my application except qualifications and copies of self employed accounts from when I had my business.

Non of the information that I sent wasn't any good, but if I had a reference or a letter from a director or a manager staing that I had performed the duties listed within their website, my application may have been accepted. As most of the firms that I had worked for within the ten year period that they specify no longer exist or have been taken over and have no previous personnel records, I wasn't able to provide such a letter from such a person. My Affit David that my notarising lawyer had me swear wasn't even accepted along with my self declared duties as a self employed electrician.

They eventually responded to an email that I had sent asking if that was it, was I being rejected as being unsuitable? And they replied with something ambigous on the lines of that a letter from a customer or director or manager may be acceptable staing the duties that I carried for them? And I thought how the hell can I get a letter from a director or manager when I can't trace one down as I stated as part of my notarised Affit david. And how on earth does a customer know what duties I performed when I'm under a floor or on top of a machine.

I put it to them again stating my concern that they are not satisfied with a notarised Affit David as they requested, but they may accept a letter from a customer stating my duties? They didn't bother responding and to be honest I didn't expect them to as I honestly beleive that the Canadian immmigration service are just making themselves look busy so they don't shut down departments and suffer job lossess. The number of applicants under the federal skilled worker category was dropped from a 1000 for each trade down to 500 last year. And the amount of successful electricians from international applications was less than 300.

As for your qualification you can have them evaluated from the AIT and they will be valid for 6 months, during which time you will need to challenge the Inter Provincial Red Seal exam. Once you have passed that you are given a licence that is with you for life and you don't need to resit exams every few years, or join any third party industry such as CORGI, REFCOM, or any other attournied theif to give you permission to work for a fee.

If you do manage to get a job lined up it will go in your favour, but stay away from these so called immigration law firms that claim to specialise in immigration. You know the ones that advertise in the newspapers... work in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, etc. They charge at least £7000.00 and they fill in the same forms that you can and the Canadian government don't favour an application submitted through them than they would if submitted from yourself.

So roughly speaking the cost of applying to emmigrate cost me around £1200.00 that I can't recover, the CA$500.00 application fee was refunded to me but ti took them about 3 months to do so? The English test alone cost me £130.00 and it was meant for foreigners coming into the UK and probably Ireland to attend education, so that they could be assessed for their English speaking capabillity. The results that I got back were a joke, they tell me and whomever it concerns that I'm proficient in speaking, reading, writing English, but only moderate at listening? Just enough to scarpe by with 70 points. The minimum requirement to be elegible to apply as a federal skilled worker.

Anyway mate I hope that you do get over there and that you find a job either before or when you get there. I'm 47 next and I'm getting too long in the tooth to mess about with beaurocrats that have jumpers for goal posts and keep putting them on and taking them off. Although if I heard of a genuine suitable job I would pursue it. The only thing is what I couldn't work out though is if I had of landed a job, and the immigration service asked me how I came across it. If I told them that I looked for work whilst holidaying over there I would have still been knocked back due to breaching my holiday stamp in my passport. So it would be interesting to know how anyone actually answers that question if they knocked on doors whilst holidaying in Canada?

There other forums that are for expats, I have looked on them and most of the folk are up their own arses with their self conceited opinions that don't seem to be accurate. So if you go on them make sure you read between the lines.

Anyway I wish you all the best in your pursuit.

[MikeHolm]

I have an employee from Hong Kong. He has ben here for 8 years and has an architect degree from University of Toronto. He had to reapply for landed immigrant status and forgot one piece of paper. Now he is told that he doesn't have enough work experience in the last 2 years to stay in Canada. He happened to fall off a ladder, fractured his pelvis and was off work, on compensation, for 6 months.....being on workers compensation does not count towards workers hours. He is possibly going to be given the boot and every lawyer he talks to either doesn't know or has a very different story on what to do.

To say that the immigration system, or even getting a work permit here is an excersize in futility is an understatement. That said, I would almost say, come on over, get the job, then apply. I will ask around and see what other employers here say. Might take a while to get a good answer. Don't give up though.

[Refer Rick]

Well eire1:
I guess you have it:
• Make sure that your documentation is organized, complete and current.
• Ensure that your qualifications and experience are adequate for the job you are applying for.
• Secure a position before you travel, at least start a dialogue with prospective employers.
• Expect to deal with the endless nonsense of many levels of Canadian Government Bureaucracy.
• Don't deal with private immigration services.
• Listen to guys like chilliwilly, sounds like he's been there.

Two pretty good trade employment sites are:

http://www.eluta.ca/search?order=rank&q=HVAC&l=alberta

http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/rch-eng.aspx?ProvId=09&OfferpPage=50&Student=No

Good Luck