Alright, that's it. I'm moving to Canada.

Another thing that just dawned on me is that I'll have to sell my pistol. At least that's more money in my pocket towards the move! Not like I'll need it in Canada anyway.

I'll be taking the official English test within the next couple months. It's scored on a scale of 1-10, with a requirement of 7, which I don't see being any issue. I'm going to study hard for another 6 months or so and take a French test as well; the higher I score on that, the more points I'll get towards immigration. I'm 40 years old and only have an associate's degree, so I need all the points I can get. I may apply for Provincial nomination if need be, which will give me an extra 600 points. Can't remember how much that costs. The most important thing is that when the time comes, I get a work permit and a job offer, then apply for permanent residency.

In my previous life I have imported some engineers from the US. 

The key to getting the person that I wanted was the Labor Market  Impact Assessment.

This is a document that your potential employer fills in that explains how you, and only you ,are the sole human being who can fulfill the given job requirements. I always thought of it as fitting a key into a lock and each tooth was a unique requirement that only my chosen engineer could fulfill. The story always included how your unique talents would create exponential growth of the company that would create additional jobs in the community  and benefit the greater glory of the nation. Seriously. Kinda corny but it works. Same deal for grant writing.

Got both of them into the country. They both went back after a few winters.

In reply to NOHOME :

Great point! I imagine it shouldn't be too too hard to get that from an employer--last year 318K people immigrated to Canada, and this year I believe Canada wants 330K. I've found a number of jobs I qualify for, so when the time comes I'll just apply for every single one until I get one. There's probably a youtube video for how to maximize my chances.

John Welsh said:

In reply to Steve_Jones :

For me, it is very inspiring to see the strong progress OP has made.  I especially enjoy his new found passion in novel writing. 

I think his progress is great. Based on the fact you had to remove a post (that I did not see) and my reply used to have 3 upvotes, he must think I feel differently about it

My problem is that I want to be a Canadian citizen, but my problems are A) I don't work in an industry that recruits or has the HR to do anything about immigration, and B) I don't want to move to Canada for a career.  I would be a snowbird.  Winter is not my jam.

In reply to Steve_Jones :

Your reply posting above contains a positive first sentence but then a speculative, negative second sentence.    Life here might be better if you kept it to just the one sentence.  

infinitenexus said:

Keith Tanner said:

The trick to surviving a Canadian winter is to embrace it. Ski, snowshoe, enjoy that crisp blue sky you only get when it's below freezing,  the silence of woods covered in snow. If you need to hide from it, you belong somewhere else :) 

If you're cold, put more clothes on. This is a solved problem. There's a limit (both legal and practical) about how far you can go the other way when it's hot...

I love cold, snowy winters, so Canadian weather is a huge plus for me. I've never been a fan of hot weather, especially hot, humid weather. I always found that odd since I'm from Florida.

I know Windsor doesn't have the most ideal winters, but again, it's easy mode for immigration. After a year we should have a more permanent place picked out. Somewhere I can have a nice, small house with a garage on about an acre close to a city. Preferably with a 996 or 944 in said garage, and in a location where I can go autoslalom and maybe do a track day at some nearby track.

I'm a summer kinda guy.  It's just what I do.  I spent 15 years living in the awesome climates like L.A., New Orleans, Florida, and Austin and I would spend the summers in Ontario.  I'm always chasing 80 degrees and 70% humidity.  Now that I'm back in PA I try to get time in the south during the winter because I get really cranky with the cold.

I can stay cool in the heat with next to no effort, but winter existence is like a flowchart of epic effort:

- purchase $150 worth of capable cold weather clothing that you know won't do a bit of good on this body including gloves that everyone knows makes your hands ultimately colder but no one wants to admit it
- save an extra 10 minutes to assemble said hard-earned pay on your body before leaving the house
- save an extra 30 minutes to shovel or blow the driveway so you can get to your destination
- save an extra 15 minutes for the heat to start thawing the 1/4" of ice on the windshield so it can be removed with a plastic hatchet device that is always in the way on the passenger side floor.
- remember to get that extra hour of overtime twice a week so you can bank $2500 to repair the rust holes in your vehicle when it will no longer pass inspection
- drive with your hands at 5 and 7 on the wheel doing the steering-wheel-shuffle because you can't move your arms - both because your $150 worth of winter clothing prevents it, but also because lifting your arms re-inflates the insulation in your coat's armpits and draws in cold air
- Get to your destination and either spend 10 minutes disassembling the layers you've just created, or leave them on and potentially die of heat stroke.
- Repeat all of the above every time you want to go outside.

Or, the same list for summer

- put on shorts you got at GoodWill for $2.50
- go outside at will for as long as you want whenever you want and be able to smell things without your snot freezing to your nostril hairs.

NOHOME said:

In my previous life I have imported some engineers from the US. 

The key to getting the person that I wanted was the Labor Market  Impact Assessment.

This is going back a decade or so, but I was shocked how easy it was to get a work permit in Canada as a Professional Engineer for a particular project that my then employer was doing in a University there.  I don't recall all the exact details (we had an attorney that specialized in this do the paperwork).  Had something to do with a clause in NAFTA for allowance of free exchange of "professionals".  Brought my paperwork in (the crossing at Detroit if I recall) and wasn't there more than 15 minutes to get my permit.   I was visiting a project site with a client a few years after that to attend a meeting, and did get my only trip to the "back room".  They clearly knew I once had a work permit, but now coming back in without one.

Welcome to Windsor! I'm a little early with that since you're not moving yet, but based on how things are going it probably won't be long. When things start happening, if you have any questions about the city or need someone local to help you out with anything, let me know.

For work permits, look into a Temporary NAFTA work permit, it's kind of the easy button for that. Assuming the job you get is on the approved list all you need is an offer letter, a copy of your resume and your diploma, then you just show up at the border and apply (and cross your fingers that the customs officer is in a good mood and doesn't find fault with something) and pay the fee (currently $55 I think). It's good for three years, is renewable indefinitely, and let's you and your family move here. One potential sticking point is an Associates degree vs a Bachelors degree, but that usually isn't a problem. Another downside is that it isn't permanent,  but after moving here on a TN permit you can then start the process for permanent residency. I'm not an immigration lawyer though, so it's probably a good idea to get professional advice and not rely on my experience.

You can own a handgun in Canada, there are just a lot more restrictions than in the US. I have no idea about importing one though, so it would probably be easier to sell yours and then buy another once you're here if you want one.

Good luck!

John Welsh said:

In reply to infinitenexus :

I took down one post.  Deleting posts is not how we usually handle things here but I thought I would appeal to the author in you and ask for a rewrite/refresh/resubmission.  I'm not saying I disagree with the sentiment of what you wrote; they are your true feelings.  Rather, I am asking for a "rephrase" or fresher choice of words.  

I like this thread and didn't want to see that posting taint the otherwise good nature of the thread.  

Understandable, here I'll try.

Steve_Jones: I really resent how you purposely get all the details wrong about my past hardships and like to point out how you think so negatively of me, but try to word it so you don't come off as such a shiny happy person. I would appreciate it if you never posted in any of my threads and just pretended I didn't exist. I do not enjoy talking to you and I don't see that changing, especially when you've made it a point to remember things just flat-out incorrectly. This is the last thing I'll bother saying to you, since talking to you is a complete waste of my time and sadly this forum doesn't have a block feature.

There, now let's move on to things that matter instead of creepy Steve and his comments.

NOHOME said:

Then I will put this here so you can put a pin on a suitable location. Looks like we might be neighbors kinda of.

https://grandbendmotorplex.com/

Looks fantastic! From my limited searching, southern Ontario looks like it has several race tracks, which is a strong plus. I'm hoping I'll be able to get back into autocross and motorsports in general after such a long break

Schmidlap said:

Welcome to Windsor! I'm a little early with that since you're not moving yet, but based on how things are going it probably won't be long. When things start happening, if you have any questions about the city or need someone local to help you out with anything, let me know.

For work permits, look into a Temporary NAFTA work permit, it's kind of the easy button for that. Assuming the job you get is on the approved list all you need is an offer letter, a copy of your resume and your diploma, then you just show up at the border and apply (and cross your fingers that the customs officer is in a good mood and doesn't find fault with something) and pay the fee (currently $55 I think). It's good for three years, is renewable indefinitely, and let's you and your family move here. One potential sticking point is an Associates degree vs a Bachelors degree, but that usually isn't a problem. Another downside is that it isn't permanent,  but after moving here on a TN permit you can then start the process for permanent residency. I'm not an immigration lawyer though, so it's probably a good idea to get professional advice and not rely on my experience.

You can own a handgun in Canada, there are just a lot more restrictions than in the US. I have no idea about importing one though, so it would probably be easier to sell yours and then buy another once you're here if you want one.

Good luck!

Thank you for the tips! I've been reading and digging (and sadly, posting on reddit) and I'm starting to lose a bit of hope. The reality is that I'm 40 years old with an associate's degree and I'll be competing against 25 year-olds with masters and possibly Canadian work experience, so immigrating there is absolutely not going to be easy and there's a chance they just won't accept me. I just checked and didn't see anything like my job on the NAFTA-approved list, and everything requires a BS degree as well, so I don't think I could do that. 

It's looking more and more like 1) it's just going to be very difficult for me to immigrate there, and 2) I would probably benefit from hiring an immigration lawyer to get every advantage I can.

My wife is signing up to be a surrogate mother to raise money for our immigration. If nothing else, that's ~$40K towards a move, possibly more.

I do qualify for express entry under the federal skilled workers program, but due to things like my age and lack of an advanced degree my points aren't very high. That makes it very tough, although they do accept people with all different scores. 

There is another option; my wife could apply for a student visa and go to college there, which many people say is the best way to get in. With that, I would/should be able to get an open work permit which would allow me to build up Canadian work experience. The downside of that is I'm still at the entry-level end of IT jobs so I don't make a ton, and I'd need enough to pay for rent, college, and childcare. That could get expensive real quick. 

Oh, I also wanted to apologize if anyone finds it annoying that I sometimes post like 8 times in a row. I just try to reply to as many people as possible.

In reply to Steve_Jones :

...and Steve,

Just so you don't feel you didn't get to be heard, yes, we understand that you don't agree with Mr Nexus' characterization of you.  There, now its said, and now its done.  I agree that it would be best to no longer address Mr. Nexus in Mr Nexus' thread.  Take it elsewhere.  If you want that to be Hamilton-esque dueling pistols on the lawn; I'm okay with that...just not here.  

We now return to your regularly schedule program. 

Really, not another word from either on this topic.  Both sides have been heard and it's clear it wont be solved here, so go solve it somewhere else.   Or, can we just agree it doesn't need to be solved...drop it.   

Thank you, John

ninja edit: one of these days I need to think of a better username.

After reading about other people's efforts to immigrate on reddit, I'm starting to feel a bit defeated before I even begin! The wait periods are very slow, Canada is picky, and my points aren't very high. There is a genuine chance I won't receive an Invitation To Apply, and even if I did, getting an LMIA for a job looks to be extremely difficult. As I mentioned before, there is another option where my wife gets a student visa (which everyone seems to agree is the easiest and safest way to immigrate) and then I could apply for an open work visa, but that's still tough. I finally hopped on my LinkedIn profile, which I saw several sites say that I should try to network on LinkedIn and use that to find a Canadian job. I have a lot of updating to do, and of course I need to update my resume in a major way. All this because I want to live on someone else's dirt!

NOHOME said:

Keith Tanner said:

The trick to surviving a Canadian winter is to embrace it. Ski, snowshoe, enjoy that crisp blue sky you only get when it's below freezing,  the silence of woods covered in snow. If you need to hide from it, you belong somewhere else :) 

If you're cold, put more clothes on. This is a solved problem. There's a limit (both legal and practical) about how far you can go the other way when it's hot...

And hence why I do not advocate for South West Ontario as a place to live. There is not much to do in the summer, and even less in the winter. Winter activities are 3 or more hours north. There is not quite enough reliable snow to run a snowmobile and way to many restrictions as to where you can ride.

I neither advocate for or against SW Ontario, but I think there's another way to look at it.

We moved up here from the GTA because it was darn cheap. It ain't that anymore, but as far as things to do in the summer, there is so much to do locally that even if I were fully retired I wouldn't have time to do it all. I have Waterford on one side, the Grand river on the other, and lake Erie is 15 minutes away. If fishing, or water sports, and activities is your deal, you're golden. Port Dover is close, Turkey point Provincial park, with it's camping, beaches and trail system, and Port Rowan (Backus mill), and long point are less than an hour away, and those are only the well known areas.  I have a dirt oval 10 minutes from my house, two paved tracks a half hour each way, and TMP with it's small road course, frequent track days, and test and tune events at the drag strip less than 30 minutes. If you care to drive another 30-60 minutes there are numerous other dirt and paved oval, and drag strips. There are 4 MX tracks within half an hour and probably a dozen within an hour or so drive, as well as 2 local clubs that put on their own events, and a separate one with a provincial series. Of course we have all the small town festivals, dining, breweries, etc. that is prevalent across the province these days.

As far as weather, I no longer enjoy the snow, and even though I'm only an hour from NOHOME, we get less than half their snow, which, for me, is a bonus. I have a sled, but some years we get so little it's not possible to take out. Those are the better winters, as far as I'm concerned, as most of the time the temps are hovering around, just above or below freezing, and snow for a day or two is nothing more than a nuisance.

One positive about this area is your proximity to the GTA. It's still possible to commute from here and into the big city money, and though that seems to be changing, there will always be jobs available if you have the option. In this area people are generally left alone to do what they please and local government interference is minimal. I know that's not always the case in some parts of the province, FYI.

In reply to infinitenexus :

Don't give up before you've even started! Give it a shot, if they say no that's not any worse than not ever applying, right?

infinitenexus said:

All this because I want to live on someone else's dirt!

And that dirt is really just 60 miles away "as the crow flies" to like an Ontario city like Chatham.

Cleveland is a 4.5 hour drive to GTA 
Windsor is a 3.5 hour drive to GTA (but no border delay)

In reply to infinitenexus :

I haven't given up, but I also haven't really started yet.  I got the itch to expat a few years ago and looked into it.  It's daunting enough that I realized I would need to change some priorities before I did it.

I got into the US on one of the NAFTA visas. Very quick and easy if you have an employer waiting on the other side and you can make the job description work. It wasn't a direct match to everything I did but it was a legit subset and I had the background. The downside is that it's supposed to be a temporary visa with no intent to emigrate, so you have to go to the border every year and get it updated. I think I had to get 6 of them before I got married and unlocked the green card upgrade. 

If you can find an employer and be up front about your situation, they may be able to help. 

Seems like the best way to become a Canadian is to apply for a Canadian job first. If you find an American employer with Canadian interests they will take care of the E visa for you. It's a good time to be looking for work, so now is about the best shot you will ever have. And once you are here you can start building relationships and networking and branch out. I do know two Americans who are now Canadians. They both came up as employees of American companies. Both are now Canadian citizens, but I note neither actually cut the cord and revoked their American citizenship.  That seems like a big scary thing for expat Americans, despite telling everyone they know on both sides of the border how superior Canada is. 

The job offer is one of the big issues, and becomes a sort of barrier for someone old and undereducated like me. In order to qualify for the Federal Skilled Worker program, I need 67 points on their chart. I had always assumed I would be able to get a work visa and a job, so I included the extra points for that and scored 71 points so I thought I was okay. Now I've learned how hard it is to get an LMIA, so I have to be realistic and total up my points without a job offer. That puts me at 61 points, meaning I do not qualify for the Federal Skilled Worker program in Express Entry. The NAFTA thing won't work because I didn't see my job on there or anything like it, and pretty much everything on there required a bachelor's. So basically, I am not qualified enough to immigrate to Canada. My wife, however, might be able to. If we got her a student visa she would be able to go to college there, and then I could apply for and hopefully get a spousal open work permit. That would at least get our feet in the door, and then we'd just have to do whatever was needed to qualify for permanent residency. The issue, of course, is that I'm still at a fairly entry-level job and I would need something to pay for rent, my wife's college, and childcare while she was in school. That could be tough, but doable. We tried looking up colleges in Windsor to see what programs they had, and nothing really appealed to my wife. A larger city would have better colleges and better programs, as well as more IT jobs (something Windsor doesn't have many of) but then it would be way more expensive. So I dunno. 

We still kinda want to go up to Canada for Avi's birthday in 3 months and we're thinking of maybe trying to visit Montreal. However, it's a 9-hour drive so we'll have to break that up, probably drive to Niagara-on-the-lake, stay the night, then drive to Montreal. Spend a few days there, enjoy some food, speak some French, sounds great. My fear is that it'll wind up being super expensive, and this is a time when we're trying to save all the money we can. So I dunno. I'm just in a bit of a down and worrying mood right now, that's all.

Keith Tanner said:

I got into the US on one of the NAFTA visas. Very quick and easy if you have an employer waiting on the other side and you can make the job description work. It wasn't a direct match to everything I did but it was a legit subset and I had the background. The downside is that it's supposed to be a temporary visa with no intent to emigrate, so you have to go to the border every year and get it updated. I think I had to get 6 of them before I got married and unlocked the green card upgrade. 

If you can find an employer and be up front about your situation, they may be able to help. 

At this point, I think that's my only real option for immigrating. Otherwise, we'll have to explore the other option of my wife immigrating and bringing me along. My plan was to work at my current job for one more year so I can build more experience and then try to find something better paying; it would be pretty awesome if I found something that could get me north of the border!

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm a summer kinda guy.  It's just what I do.  I spent 15 years living in the awesome climates like L.A., New Orleans, Florida, and Austin and I would spend the summers in Ontario.  I'm always chasing 80 degrees and 70% humidity.  Now that I'm back in PA I try to get time in the south during the winter because I get really cranky with the cold.

Honestly, high elevation in southern latitudes seems like it'd be your jam. 

My parents friend's have moved to the Lake Arenal area of Costa Rica and love the climate down there. It's almost always between 70-90 degrees with 90% humidity, but a nice steady breeze. 

If Mexico had the political climate of Canada without the near constant drug wars and corruption, I'd be down there in a heartbeat.