Canada here i come!!

billybob01

Just been told that my application for permanent residency is going through and so it looks like i will be living in Canada next year!! Whats the IT market like over there? wages etc? looking at Vancouver, Abbotsford, Clearbrook areas to live.

GT-Rob

Vancouver is nice. Kind of expensive to live there, but in turn they do pay well. Also you get the olympics there in 2 years


You can also live outside of vancouver and take the train in. I have a friend who lives in Abbotsford and it takes him 20mins to downtown vancouver on the train.

keenon

billybob01 wrote:

Just been told that my application for permanent residency is going through and so it looks like i will be living in Canada next year!! Whats the IT market like over there? wages etc? looking at Vancouver, Abbotsford, Clearbrook areas to live.

where are you moving from

jryantech

I'm so jealous. I have a "Move to Vancouver" fund.

One day I'll be there with a sweet IT related job.

Go Canucks!

JDMurray

I hear there are a lot of good Vietnamese, Thai, and Cambodian restaurants in Vancouver. No reason...

pLuhhmm

I was also thinking about moving to Canada its not to far from Michigan. I heard they have a pretty good market for IT as well + idk how it works but if I can get a dual citizenship there and get free health care that would rock

billybob01

I am in the UK at present and cant wait to move out of this rubbish bin!!!

gorebrush

billybob01 wrote:

I am in the UK at present and cant wait to move out of this rubbish bin!!!

Can I come too? The UK sucks hard.

JavonR

Canada is the awesome I would personally recommend vancouver... lots of good IT jobs available over there. Good luck.

mikesz

How did You actually manage to get Your residency? Was it very difficult? They need IT skilled professionals, don't They?

I envy You, want to go too.

Congratulation though

bertieb

gorebrush wrote:

Can I come too?

Hey, no queue jumping! Take a ticket and get in line

gorebrush wrote:

The UK sucks hard.

+1

billybob01

The wife and i found it very simple to be honest, we went to one of these JobExpo exhibitions and went from there, although we have been waiting for 4 years!!! Thats because the British Consulate are 4 years behind with their processing!! Aparently! Now we need to sort out where we are going to live and jobs and basically sell everything now!! exciting times!!

7255carl

billybob01 wrote:

I am in the UK at present and cant wait to move out of this rubbish bin!!!

congrats on the move, id love a move out of this hole

arvalea

Hi to all British IT guys!

Please, can you say what's wrong in the UK? Salaries? Job conditions? Or just too little vacancies in IT Filed?..
I know some guys who dreams to go to the UK and get job here. So it's really strange and interesting for me.
Thank you!

billybob01

By all means you are very welcome to come to the UK, as everyone else seems to be leaving. The IT jobs are out there, and to honest there are quite a few, but it`s not the work thats the issue, the main problem for me anyway is the living, if you can put up with high cost of living and low wages and increasing taxes and increasing food costs and paying taxes that dont even mean anything, i,e Council Tax, and the increase of violence, ****, and robberies, and the increase of gun and knive crime then if you dont mind all that then your made for this country. I will miss seeing my beloved football team though!lol.

nel

billybob01 wrote:

By all means you are very welcome to come to the UK, as everyone else seems to be leaving. The IT jobs are out there, and to honest there are quite a few, but it`s not the work thats the issue, the main problem for me anyway is the living, if you can put up with high cost of living and low wages and increasing taxes and increasing food costs and paying taxes that dont even mean anything, i,e Council Tax, and the increase of violence, xxxxxxxxx, and robberies, and the increase of gun and knive crime then if you dont mind all that then your made for this country. I will miss seeing my beloved football team though!lol.

Thats SOCCER TEAM now dude!

Everyone slates the UK and dont get me wrong its becoming a hell hole as of late mainly down to the BS in this country and constantly getting screwed. but one thing about every place in the world is that it has its good points and its bad points. Try living in bagdhad or somewhere then see how your opinion changes.

Good luck with the move though - i would love to try something like that for a few years!

billybob01

Living in Bagdhad? You have`nt heard of Pompey then?? LOL

astorrs

First of all congrats on the move. If I can help you out in any way let me know, in fact give me an idea of what your experience/skill set is and when you might be moving and I'll pass it along to others.

GT-Rob wrote:

You can also live outside of vancouver and take the train in. I have a friend who lives in Abbotsford and it takes him 20mins to downtown vancouver on the train.

Your friend is exaggerating... it's more like a little over an hour to take the Westcoast Express train from Abbotsford/Mission to Downtown Vancouver. Driving it's about 75km distance along a 4-6 lane freeway (minimum 1 hour and up to 2.5 hours depending on the time of day and if there are traffic accidents).

JDMurray wrote:

I hear there are a lot of good Vietnamese, Thai, and Cambodian restaurants in Vancouver. No reason...

Yeah we are blessed with a lot of good <insert ethnic type here> restaurants. Vancouver is a very multicultural city so it helps.

billybob01 wrote:

I will miss seeing my beloved football team though! lol.

While it won't be the same, Vancouver is currently bidding for one of the 2 expansion franchises in MLS. Our chances are fairly good, especially considering how we beat Beckham and the LA Galaxy just a few months back.

bellhead

billybob01 wrote: »

Living in Bagdhad? You have`nt heard of Pompey then?? LOL

Hah

Try living in Detroit. + 15% unemployment + high crime + nobody lives inside the city no more everybody lives in the suburbs + corrupt politicians + fleeing population.

Seen where a guy graduating law school in Boston applied for a job in Detroit. The HR person saw he wasn't born there and asked him if he made a mistake and told him the firm was in Detroit and why he was moving there. He had to tell them his wife was from there originally.

morpheous7411

I am also waiting for my permanent residence application to go through, and I will be bound to Alberta next year. I have been looking into Calgary or Edmonton as a good starting point to move to Alberta. How is the IT market there right now? What skills seems to be in demand there? By the time I move there, I plan to have my MCSE , CCNA plus over 6 years of experience under my belt.

I am open to job leads from Techexams members in Calgary or Edmonton, as my application will be expedited if I get a job offer before moving there.

GAngel

morpheous7411 wrote: »

I am also waiting for my permanent residence application to go through, and I will be bound to Alberta next year. I have been looking into Calgary or Edmonton as a good starting point to move to Alberta. How is the IT market there right now? What skills seems to be in demand there? By the time I move there, I plan to have my MCSE , CCNA plus over 6 years of experience under my belt.

I am open to job leads from Techexams members in Calgary or Edmonton, as my application will be expedited if I get a job offer before moving there.

As an ontarioan I'm so sorry for you (The alberta guys will understand)
Alberta has been as hard hit as ontario in terms of job losses. Think they're starting to get back on there feet. Overall IT was one of the more stable fields during the recession though. Wages are higher than the rest of the country but so is the cost of living especially housing there.

If i wanted to work in alberta I'd apply to gov jobs which you're probably not eligible for as yet. Or use monster or workopolis canada sites. Sometimes even craigslist points you in the right direction. Senior engineers of any type are always in demand anywhere in canada.

People reccomend vancouver because it's the best weather you'll get in canada. We call it gangcouver now though. Welll paying IT jobs are not as easy to get but they are out there. There are 600k IT jobs in Canada 250k of them are in the toronto region and 50% total in ontario.

Phliplip112

billybob01 wrote: »

and the increase of gun and knive crime then if you dont mind all that then your made for this country.

wait i thought the UK banned guns and knives.................. oh wait, why would criminals follow a ban?

anyways, I'm just curious as to why Canada? Is it easier to get into than the US?

GAngel

Phliplip112 wrote: »

wait i thought the UK banned guns and knives.................. oh wait, why would criminals follow a ban?

anyways, I'm just curious as to why Canada? Is it easier to get into than the US?

Unless you have a job offer or are doing schooling there the U.S. has pretty much closed its doors. Canada isn't hard to get into it just takes a long time and then for most professions we don't accept there credentials so we have doctors driving taxis while they spend 18mths getting "trained" while we have a shortage of health care workers.

CompuTron99

GAngel wrote: »

Unless you have a job offer or are doing schooling there the U.S. has pretty much closed its doors. Canada isn't hard to get into it just takes a long time and then for most professions we don't accept there credentials so we have doctors driving taxis while they spend 18mths getting "trained" while we have a shortage of health care workers.

That explains why when you go to a doctor's office in Buffalo, the parking lot is full of cars with Canadian license plates.

morpheous7411

Phliplip112 wrote: »

wait i thought the UK banned guns and knives.................. oh wait, why would criminals follow a ban?

anyways, I'm just curious as to why Canada? Is it easier to get into than the US?

The U.S immigration system is pretty much non functional at the moment, it does not have a streamlined way for professionals to immigrate here even when they went to school here and have worked for several years.

I have been in the US for almost 8 years now, I did my Masters degree here and I have worked for over 5 years as a system administrator. If your employer is not willing to sponsor you for permanent residence , then you are stuck. On the other hand, Canadian immigration system is a little better,as they have a point based system that allows individual with the right level of education, family ties, or work experience to apply for permanent residence. I started my application last december, and they way things are going, it seems I will have my permanent residence before the end of next year. That will be two years to complete the whole process. In US the same process could take more than 10 years depending on your country of origin.

I know a good number of people all with Masters degrees from top US schools who decided to immigrate to Canada after getting frustrated with the US immigration system.

I hope they will get their Sh*t together and fix the immigration system to remain competitive in the future years.

Pash

Ill +1 to the UK sucks hard part, it's down to our idiotic government and their nanny state politics.

Huge gratz billybob, do you have a degree mate and whats the residency application like?

Piers

Here's my usual weekly search
IT Jobs in calgary, Canada | Monster.ca

also
Calgary Region job search and jobs posting. Find a high quality employee. Find the perfect job.

Aldur

Congrats on the move!

I have to say though that the immigration process was a huge pain in the butt though. I had to have a current job offer, a bachelors degree, and I had to give specific reasons to why this job should go to me and not a Canadian citizen. And then there was no guarantee that I would get a work permit. The whole process was overwhelming and made me think twice about taking this job.

With all that said I'm really glad I took the job up here. I enjoy the work and the area is a great place to live. I'm honestly planning on applying for citizenship when I can and I wouldn't mind staying up here for good.

JavonR

Aldur wrote: »

Congrats on the move!

I have to say though that the immigration process was a huge pain in the butt though. I had to have a current job offer, a bachelors degree, and I had to give specific reasons to why this job should go to me and not a Canadian citizen. And then there was no guarantee that I would get a work permit. The whole process was overwhelming and made me think twice about taking this job.

With all that said I'm really glad I took the job up here. I enjoy the work and the area is a great place to live. I'm honestly planning on applying for citizenship when I can and I wouldn't mind staying up here for good.

ONE OF US!

UnixGuy

JDMurray wrote: »

I hear there are a lot of good Vietnamese, Thai, and Cambodian restaurants in Vancouver. No reason...

So if we're fed up with IT we can work there :P

UnixGuy

billybob01 wrote: »

The wife and i found it very simple to be honest, we went to one of these JobExpo exhibitions and went from there, although we have been waiting for 4 years!!! Thats because the British Consulate are 4 years behind with their processing!! Aparently! Now we need to sort out where we are going to live and jobs and basically sell everything now!! exciting times!!

For relocation information, tips, experiences, ..etc

this is the best place:
British Expat Discussion Forum

It welcomes all nationalities not just Brits..