Work Visa?

[Zhade]

So I'm following up on some resumes I sent to broadcast facilities in Vancouver (I leave in 9 days for a two-week visit, partly to land some interviews) and one person tells me I need to give a number related to my work visa to the manager who he's passed my resume to due to my experience.

I thought, from reading the official Canadian immigration website, that the employer hooked you up with the visa after offering a job, but now I'm confused. Can anyone help me understand the process better?

I'm trying to relocate, along with my friends, as soon as I can. A huge part of that is obviously landing a job. After this call, I'm concerned that it will be harder than I thought. Happy to work harder, of course, but I need to know how to approach this.

If it matters, I pass the skilled worker test, even after I dropped my semi-fluent French skills, which are kinda rusty.

Any help would be immensely appreciated!

[Spazito]

1. It certainly looks like you have it right....

You must be offered a job BEFORE you apply for a work permit, you don't need a visa to visit Canada if you are a US citizen. You should have a passport though, it would make it smoother for you when you pass through both US and Canadian customs.

It probably would be helpful if you phone the
nearest Canadian Embassy and double check that you have it right.

[Zhade]

2. Well, I did some further investigation...

...and now I'm really upset.

According to the manager of one facility I applied at (and where I barely missed the window for a major hiring process that JUST ended), they had an employee who was from the States, and his yearly visa was DENIED, and so they could no longer employ him even though they wanted to. He's now back in this hellhole waiting to get back into Canada, EVEN THOUGH HE MARRIED A CANADIAN CITIZEN.

Apparently, to retain your work visa you have to somehow convince the Canadian government that you're doing a job that no native Canadian could do. This guy couldn't, so he lost out and had to come back to this...madness.

So now I'm wondering 1) how does this policy make sense in terms of Canada's negative population growth and the government's alleged desire to increase immigration, especially of skilled workers like myself, and 2) am I going to have a hard time finding work, since I'm not irreplaceable? Will I be able to only live in real freedom for a year before maybe getting shipped back?

I gotta call the embassy. This is really, really bumming me out. :cry:

[Spazito]

3. It is true that if there are deemed to be Canadians skilled in the area

in which you are working or applying for a work permit, it may be denied.

I would definitely call the embassy to get the straight goods on this and what might be the best way to go about achieving what you are wanting.

I think the strict limitations may be due to the "temporary worker" status rather than the status of wanting to immigrate to Canada, the processes being different.

[Zhade]

6. Here's my main concern...

I understand not taking a job away from a native. What worries me is, say I land a job, and in a year a Canadian with similar experience moves to my area.

Does the employer re-open the job, since I have a 1-year work visa that has expired at that point? Or does my having been employed in that job for a year work in my favor in keeping the job and thus visa?

I definitely plan to contact the embassy tomorrow. This question will keep me up tonight if I'm not careful - I don't know that I can leave behind a job here for a one-year job that I might lose in Canada.

[Spazito]

7. I agree with you, it would be unfair, imo, to allow you to take a job

for a year and then turn around and turf you out again. Either you are given a work visa or you aren't right at the beginning so you know immediately and can look elsewhere, at other jobs.

I am sure the embassy will be able to help clarify this, I sure hope so anyway. Good luck!

[imouttahere]

4. I'm going through the skilled worker process right now....

an employer has to do a job offer letter for you, and if approved by HR Canada, would make your immigration application very strong, with a probable turnaround time of 6 months or so. My job offer is the only reason I will get in, without it I don't pass the assessment.

My understanding with a work visa is that your prospective employer would have to post the job, and if a Canadian citizen can fill the job, you're out of luck. I could be wrong about this and maybe if you have a special skill that most Canadians don't possess, that would improve your chances significantly.

[Zhade]

5. If I may ask, what profession are you in?

NT!

[Jazz2006]

8. Unfortunately, I think you're right...

...I lost a very good legal assistant as a result of that very process and she had to move back to New Zealand.

On the up side, though, after three years, you can apply to become a "permanent resident" and, if accepted, the risk of being turfed ends and your job no longer has to be posted, etc.

[Zhade]

9. So...even if you've been in a job for a year, it could be TAKEN AWAY...

...and given to a Canadian?

Pardon my course French, but what a bullshit policy!

I mean, I can see not letting a foreigner take the job initially until it's clear no Canadian can/will, but to take away your job after the hard work it takes to get it?

That's nonsense!

[Jazz2006]

10. I agree with you

But, unfortunately, that's how it turns out sometimes.

I am a commercial & civil litigation lawyer and not an immigration lawyer, but the firm I work at is a large, national firm with hundreds of lawyers, including immigration lawyers who tried to help Jacqui to allow her to stay - to no avail.

That's not to say that it always happens that way - particularly when the position you obtain requires special skills, education, certification, training, a certain level of experience, etc. And if it is a position that is consistently listed as under-fulfilled, it is more likely that renewals will be granted. I think there is a way to get the data on which professions are consistently under-fulfilled, and that might help you determine whether the risk is worth it.

In Jacqui's case, it was tough to argue that there was a shortage of legal assistants as there really isn't. (And I don't know whether she worked somewhere else or in some other type of job before she came to our firm - which I mention only because I imagine that it would have been difficult for her to get the initial work visa for a legal assistant position). In the end, she had to leave, but she did manage to stay (and continue working) for close to 2 years while fighting with the powers that be about the renewal.

Again, I'm not an immigration lawyer, so don't abandon all hope on the basis of my understanding of it. I only got involved with it peripherally because of Jacqui's situation.

I agree with you that the policy can have harsh results.

As I understand it, the rationale behind it is that when a country requires workers to fill jobs that can't be filled by citizens, the country allows (and even encourages) non-citizens to fill those jobs on a temporary basis. They keep it temporary so that if the need changes (i.e. and citizens can fulfill the jobs), the country is not obligated to allow the non-citizen to stay (thus favouring its own citizens on the theory that if the non-citizen stays in the job, the citizen will be unemployed). They "balance" that by putting a time limit on the temporary nature of it so that if the non-citizen is still here after three years and wishes to become a permanent resident, they can do so.

That said, I know that the rationale doesn't help a damned bit when you're the one in the midst of it. I hope that it all works out for you. I'd love to welcome you to the country personally! So, do keep us posted!!

[Zhade]

11. Well, it has a discouraging effect, that's for sure.

It makes me wonder if I can risk giving up the decent job I have in this nutjob country for a decent job in a decent country that will throw me out of that job a year or two later.

I guess the best thing is to time it so that becoming a resident coincides with the work visa expiration. When I meet with one of the potential employers in a week or so, I'll be sure to discuss all of this with her.

(And thanks for the compliment! I'd love to be a citizen of your country...if your government allows me to become one, that is.)