Moving to Canada as a couple

[wreckofthehope]

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of working in Canada as an American?

I'm looking at a number of Canadian universities for my PhD, I'm English and my boyfriend is American - we both live in London currently, and we don't live together because I've had to move back in with my parents in order to afford my Master's course so we will not qualify as a "common-law partnership" which would allow him to come with me automatically if I were accepted.

So, I'm wondering how easy or difficult would it be for him to get a job and a work visa in Canada as an American citizen?

[spunky]

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of working in Canada as an American?

I'm looking at a number of Canadian universities for my PhD, I'm English and my boyfriend is American - we both live in London currently, and we don't live together because I've had to move back in with my parents in order to afford my Master's course so we will not qualify as a "common-law partnership" which would allow him to come with me automatically if I were accepted.

So, I'm wondering how easy or difficult would it be for him to get a job and a work visa in Canada as an American citizen?

i'm surprised no one has yet responded to your question because it's kind of an important topic for people planning to come to canada to pursue their graduate studies, but i'm happy to help out with whatever i know....

as i'm sure you're aware, your common-law partner/husband/whatever can get a work permit as soon as you're accepted to your graduate program and you get your student permit (his work permit will be sort of tied to your student permit). now, when i applied to graduate school i was living in canada and my now husband was living in mexico (he's mexican) but to qualify as "common-law" we simply went to a lawyer to formalize our relationship by signing a piece of paper we downloaded from citizen and immigration canada's website. yeap, that easy... and all it took for him to get his work permit was that little paper and my student permit.

as far as to get a job in canada well... that gets tricky. it depends on what he does, what kind of experience he has, which city you're moving to etc. i'm currently at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and live in downtown Vancouver so i can only tell you about my experience here. full-time, decent-paying jobs are pretty scarce right now with a lot of people competing for them (recession stuff, y'know..), but i know other provinces like Alberta and Ontario are faring a little bit better. what i know most people do here is that they usually have 2 or 3 part-time jobs and once they add up all the paychecks you get enough for rent, groceries, etc...

hope it helps!

[wreckofthehope]

Thank you so much for your reply,

It seems like it may not be as difficult as I had thought to get "common-law" status - I'll look into this some more, as it would definitely put my mind at ease if I knew we could do this.

I hope he wouldn't have too much of a problem getting a job as I'm looking at UBC and Toronto, and both cities have an office of the (very large) company he currently works for, he wouldn't be able to directly transfer, but still... it's a foot in the door. I looked at the Canadian immigration website and apparently he could probably qualify on the skilled worker scheme so perhaps that is another way, if we can't get common-law status.

Are you also international? I'd be interested to know how you are finding UBC and Vancouver. The department I'm applying to is probably the best fit of all my applications, but I've never even been to Canada so I'm worried that I have far too rosy a picture of what it is like, it has such a reputation for friendliness, liveability and generousness - it can't all be true, can it?!

i'm surprised no one has yet responded to your question because it's kind of an important topic for people planning to come to canada to pursue their graduate studies, but i'm happy to help out with whatever i know....

as i'm sure you're aware, your common-law partner/husband/whatever can get a work permit as soon as you're accepted to your graduate program and you get your student permit (his work permit will be sort of tied to your student permit). now, when i applied to graduate school i was living in canada and my now husband was living in mexico (he's mexican) but to qualify as "common-law" we simply went to a lawyer to formalize our relationship by signing a piece of paper we downloaded from citizen and immigration canada's website. yeap, that easy... and all it took for him to get his work permit was that little paper and my student permit.

as far as to get a job in canada well... that gets tricky. it depends on what he does, what kind of experience he has, which city you're moving to etc. i'm currently at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and live in downtown Vancouver so i can only tell you about my experience here. full-time, decent-paying jobs are pretty scarce right now with a lot of people competing for them (recession stuff, y'know..), but i know other provinces like Alberta and Ontario are faring a little bit better. what i know most people do here is that they usually have 2 or 3 part-time jobs and once they add up all the paychecks you get enough for rent, groceries, etc...

hope it helps!

[snowballed]

It's a great place to live:

http://www.internationalgraduate.net/country/canada.htm

One of the highest ranked countries in the world in terms of good places to live. Clean, safe, with abundant nature and most importantly - a diverse, multicultural, and compassionate population.

As an American, you probably won't have any trouble finding work here. Although times are tougher with the recession, we are the least affected of any Western nation. Vancouver and Toronto are huge cities with tonnes of opportunities, and most likely you can match up previous experience to something comparable here. We are dying for trades, health, engineering, IT, etc.

Post if you have any questions.

[spunky]

Thank you so much for your reply,

It seems like it may not be as difficult as I had thought to get "common-law" status - I'll look into this some more, as it would definitely put my mind at ease if I knew we could do this.

I hope he wouldn't have too much of a problem getting a job as I'm looking at UBC and Toronto, and both cities have an office of the (very large) company he currently works for, he wouldn't be able to directly transfer, but still... it's a foot in the door. I looked at the Canadian immigration website and apparently he could probably qualify on the skilled worker scheme so perhaps that is another way, if we can't get common-law status.

Are you also international? I'd be interested to know how you are finding UBC and Vancouver. The department I'm applying to is probably the best fit of all my applications, but I've never even been to Canada so I'm worried that I have far too rosy a picture of what it is like, it has such a reputation for friendliness, liveability and generousness - it can't all be true, can it?!

hello there. yes, i am an international student as well. my situation is a little bit different than that of most graduate students (i'm a trustfund brat so i've never applied for funding or worked... but i think i'm pretty kewl and down-to-earth...and a little bit shy and insecure lol) but i think i have a good insight about graduate life from my best friends (both international and canadian).

first of all... although you're supposed to somehow "show" that you've been living together for more than a year, that can be toyed with and tweaked around. the form you'll be asked to fill-out will ask you to prove in 1 of 5 ways that you two have been living together for over a year(with option 5 being "other"). what i did was that i got a credit card in my name and made my now husband the secondary cardholder from the first time we both arrived in canada. when my lawyer asked me for proof of our relationship, i pointed out that we had been sharing a credit card for the past year and showed him the statements. there are other 4 ways but i cant remember them now (joint bank accounts, insurance, stuff like that) plus the "other" option so just get creative and it should be fine.

now, let's assume the "common-law" thing doesn't pan out. what exactly does he do? you mention a "company" but there's quite a few things that could or could not work on his favour. just as snowballed said, if your husband is into IT, computers, accounting/bookeeping, health industry, stuff like that, he should have nothing to worry about. if he's just like a "manger" in general or into stuff like sales and that then he might have an issue. i've friends who lost their jobs in the recession and have been out of work for more than a year now because there simply aren't enough jobs to go around as they used to. being an american he'll definitely have an advantage on having his credentials validated (people from english-speaking countries have an easier time getting jobs here than equally-qualified people from asia, latin america, etc. i'm not judging it and, if you ask me, it is perfectly understandable but i know there are people out there that signal this out as proof of "racism". something i totally disagree with but that's a whole other issue) *but*, if i were him, i would look at my options in having the company somehow vouch for me. i mean, it's always better to play safe, right?

canadians are awesome in every sense of the word. nice, clean, fun, friendly, respectful... it's *very* hard to find anything bad about them. as a non-christian, gay, visible minority (i'm also mexican) i have only been shown respect, appreciation and understanding, treated with fairness and felt welcome everywhere i am. truly, truly remarkable people. adapting to the life in vancouver, however, can be a whole different thing. rent is expensive around the downtown area but if you move to the suburbs you shouldn't have too much of a trouble. rent around ubc i know is also not very cheap because there's a huge demand for it (and a lot of people willing to pay for it) so i'd recommend somewhere close to a skytrain/bus station (i have never driven a car in my life since i moved here. public transport gets me everywhere). i have heard that vancouver people are sometimes kind of cliquey... but since i'm shy and not very social in the first place i might not be the best person to ask about it. the people i know who complain about vancouver worship toronto like there's no tomorrow so perhaps you could also get the viewpoint of a torontonian just to balance what i have just said.

oh! and one last thing. you mentioned you something about your husband and the "skilled worker scheme".... do you people plan to eventually immigrate to canada? that's a whole other story then on which i guess i can also provide a little bit of insight because my husband went through it.

thanks!