# USA to Canada: NEED HELP!



## carolinev (Sep 26, 2012)

My little family consists of myself, my husband and our 2 year old son. We're hoping to move to find better jobs, schools and housing markets. 

I'm hoping to get some help and input:

1)Where should a family move? Where is there a cluster of American expats?
2) Where are there good jobs in business as well as in manufacturing?
3) What should I expect to do: rent or buy?
4) How long does the visa process take? Is it a tough process?
5) Do we need to move right after our visa comes through?

And any other information that you all can think of, I would greatly appreciate it!


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## Jrge (Mar 22, 2011)

Hi,

Welcome to the forum!



carolinev said:


> My little family consists of myself, my husband and our 2 year old son. We're hoping to move to find better jobs, schools and housing markets.
> 
> I'm hoping to get some help and input:
> 
> 1)Where should a family move? Where is there a cluster of American expats?


A family can move anywhere they want in Canada. And for my fellow Americans, you can find'em everywhere.



carolinev said:


> 2) Where are there good jobs in business as well as in manufacturing?


Alberta and Saskatchewan.


carolinev said:


> 3) What should I expect to do: rent or buy?


If you are coming with a significant down-payment and have an excellent credit in the US, buy a property.


carolinev said:


> 4) How long does the visa process take? Is it a tough process?


It isn't tough to obtain a Temporary Work Permit (TWP). What's "tricky" is to find an employer willing to sponsor a foreigner.


carolinev said:


> 5) Do we need to move right after our visa comes through?


You activate your Temporary Work Permit (TWP) at any Point of Entry (POE)



carolinev said:


> And any other information that you all can think of, I would greatly appreciate it!


In order to help you more, you need to do a bit of your own leg work. For instance, are you a skilled worker? can you be transferred by your US employer? Are you looking to come over as a Permanent Resident and not as a T-worker? Do you like snow or rain?

Animo
(Cheers)


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## structured01 (Jul 26, 2012)

Hi Caroline, and welcome to the forum!

I am in the process of bringing my US girlfriend to Canada so I can try to pass on some of my own experience to you.

There are over a million Americans in Canada pretty much throughout the country but some areas with higher than usual concentrations are: the major cities of Alberta (Calgary, Edmonton), Toronto and its western suburbs (Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington) and border areas in southern ontario (Windsor, Niagara). With that having been said, you may fall in love with an area not so populated with the US born. Now this is just my own opinion others may agree or disagree but as the previous poster suggested, the major cities and suburbs of Alberta and Saskatchewan is a good choice for jobs (their economy has been on fire the last several years), the inland British Columbia cities of Kelowna and Kamloops are visually stunning and I would also recommend a look into Kitchener-Waterloo or Ottawa in Ontario. If you can afford it, do a road trip through Canada visiting cities you are interested in. 

Right now in Canada the some of the best paying jobs (that doesn't require an advanced degree) are in skilled labor related to resource extraction (oil/gas, mining, heavy equipment mechanic etc.). So that is why the previous poster mentioned Alberta/Saskatchewan, that is where much of that activitiy is occurring right now in Canada. But you can find jobs in pretty much anything from health to retail in cities and suburbs across the whole country. 

The thing is, in Canada nearly every well paying profession has its own provincial (state) licensing which controls who is allowed to work in that profession, chances are you may need to do some upgrading to get licensed locally. For example US Nurses have a fairly extensive upgrading process (may take a year or more) but librarian qualifications from the US are instantly recognized in Canada (go figure) The process will range from position to position so be sure to research this before coming here! What skills does your family have? This is also important for immigration purposes! The easiest way to come to Canada is to be hired by a Canadian company that was unable to find the workers it needs locally (this is called the LMO process). 

Now you could also immigrate to Canada WITHOUT a job offer. This is the Federal Skilled Worker process. You can't start this until January 2013 but basically the application is based on points awarded for your age, education, english language skills, adaptability, etc and if you get above 67 you are good to go! There will be a test to actually verify your english language skills and a few other things. This process could take a while (waiting times up to and more than a year for american applicants however I have heard the recent revamping of the program could make it significantly faster) so that is why it is so much quicker to immigrate WITH a job offer through the LMO process. OR you can get express immigration through the provincial nomination process which is a special program to help settle immigrants in less popular provinces like Manitoba, you may have to look into this to see if this is for you or not.

Regarding houses, I would disagree with the previous poster and rent for a while. Real estate in Canada is pretty expensive and values are expected to stay the same or drop a little for the forseeable future. This way it gives you time to build credit (your american credit means nothing here), and shop around for deals. 

I hope this helps you out! It isn't easy to immigrate even between two closely related nations (like ours!) but hang in there, the process is straight forward and relatively fair. I hope Canada can give you what America couldn't! Good Luck


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