CDDC87 wrote:Before I ask my questions, here's a little bit of background info.
I live in Florida, where I work an hourly manager position (recently officially promoted but doing the work for at least 3/4 of a year) at Burger King Corp. My boyfriend lives in Newfoundland, where he's going to school and working for a privately owned construction business. We're both 23, a few months apart. We met each other a year or so ago on an online forum site. We eventually decided to date, and last May I got my passport and went up to visit him. We're trying to plan for me to come up sometime again when he gets a break between classes.
We've both decided that we want to be together, and that it would be better for both of us if I moved up there. We've become discouraged, however, because every time we start to do research on the immigration process, we run into dead ends, such as he doesn't work in a position that makes enough money to sponsor me as a conjugal partner, or that getting married won't automatically make me a citizen.
I have the number for the Human Resources representative for my job, to speak to her about getting an international transfer, but at the moment her and I are playing phone tag because she's on her rounds to the stores to make sure everything's running smoothly, but regardless I'd like to be more informed before I talk to her about anything.
There's also the option of me getting a student visa, but I'm in the dark about that as well, especially since I dropped out of college in a manner of speaking and don't have near enough money for tuition, etc.
My questions are, what would be the best method for me to move there and apply for permanent residency? Will having a manager position, be it hourly, at a corporate fast food restaurant increase my chances of being approved for a work visa? I've been through thousands of websites, so I'd prefer straight-up answers to simply links to websites, but any and all information and advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I don’t know about all the options that might be available to you, so I won’t be able to answer all your questions, but here are some of the options for you. First of all, instead of going to ‘thousands’ of website as you said you have been doing, start with only the official ones. This will give you all the basic information you need. And then, if you have questions, post them on forums like this.
The first official site is the Canadian immigration website:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/
On the left hand menu, under ‘Come to Canada’, you have three options:
- Work Temporarily
- Study
- Immigrate
With regards to getting a temporary job (that is, not immigrating), the situation is a bit long winded. If you find someone to hire you, they would need to get an approval from the government to hire you. This process takes time and cost money. Most employers won’t want to either wait that long, and may not want to spend money for the process. This option is in place for jobs where there aren’t enough qualified Canadians, for example, nursing. But when there are enough Canadians who can do the job, this option is not really helpful.
Getting a transfer from your current company might be easier and quicker. I would definitely recommend that you continue to contact your HR person and see what the possibilities are.
Studying is an option, but I would suggest you do that only if you really are interested in pursuing a particular course. It’s not inexpensive to study as an international student. But it is a way in, and something to consider.
Marriage will not give you automatic citizenship immediately, but rather will give you permanent residency, which would allow you to stay in Canada. Later on (in 3 to 4 years), if you qualify, you can apply for Canadian citizenship. Again, if the two of you want to get married that is a way in. If you get married, you would still have to apply for immigration (
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/ ... /index.asp
), and there are two ways you can do this. Either inland (application from Canada) or outland (application from outside Canada). Outland applications are usually quicker and you have a right of appeal.
Immigration as a skilled worker is also a possible viable option. There are limited number of occupations that are eligible (
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/ ... s.asp#list ), and Restaurant and Food Service Managers is an eligible occupation, which you may qualify under.
It’s not clear from your post if you work full time in your current job. Also, you need to be a manager for at least one year and you said you were recently promoted. This may possibly cause some issues, but something to look into. Keep in mind that it is not the title that matters, but your job responsibilities. As you said that you have been doing this job for a few years, and if your manager is willing to write a letter detailing your job duties for more than one year, that would be helpful. To find job duties for the Restaurant and Food Service Manager position go to:
http://www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/NOC/English/NOC ... val65=0631
Again, don’t worry about the titles, but look at the ‘Main duties’ section. You need to have done at least half of these in your post.
In addition to Federal programs (as described above), there are also provincial programs. In your case, you may want to look into Newfoundland and Labrador provincial nomination program, in particular, the family connection program (
http://www.nlpnp.ca/familyconnections.html ).
Hope this helps. Keep in mind that immigration is not a quick or easy process. It takes time and lots of research. There are many ways to immigrate to Canada, some may apply to you, others may not. You need to find the right solution.
Ray
