Immigrating to Canada (insurance, lawyer, find a job)

[mistymountain]

First off I have been doing a lot of reading on Immigrating to Canada. We live in the US right now in Alaska. We would be applying for permanent residence status under the skill worker class. My husband works in the insurance industry doing claims and adjusting and has 8 years experience. His field is one of the 29 qualify fields. We both have bachelors degrees and are proficient in English. I think that will allow us to apply. I looked and there are jobs in his field that he would qualify for.

The problem is that he could get a job but it still would take months to a year to get permanent residence status and no employer would wait that long. We want to secure work before moving. It looks like you can do both a temporary visa and a permanent residence under dual intent. Would he be able to start the application process for both then look for jobs then work under a temporary viisa while he is applying for permanent residence? Would a company hire a non Canadian?

Does anyone know if an immigration attorney is worth it. What do they cost?

We want to look for jobs all over except for Quebec and other small select areas because we don't speak French.

[jambo101]

Have you applied for any kind of Canadian resident status?
Welcome to Citizenship and Immigration Canada
If so what was the verdict?, if not you may want to get that ball rolling as the governments Dept. of immigration will be the final arbitrator as to your success or failure.
On that web link there must be a way of actually explaining your predicament to a human.
Getting a lawyer seems a waste of money as he's only going to take you where you can go yourself.
As for the time period between securing a job and getting your immigration status through the bureaucracy, a temporary work visa would probably be what you need.
Good Luck..

[tarp]

Once the permanent residence visa is granted, you have a period of time (I think it is 1 year or at least six months) before you must "land" then you have a five year period of PR status where you must be present in Canada for at least 2 years out of those 5 (and it doesn't have to be consecutive). It probably would make sense to just start the job search once PR status is granted. You can then move once you find a job. You basically have 3 years to find a job and move to Canada without risking the loss of your PR status.

[AnnaM123]

Hi MistyMountain,

I moved to Canada from Europe 12 years ago and the company that did my immigration was great.
Moderator cut: Removed company name. Please DM for info. I don't know the fees, I guess it depends on your situation but it's worth asking for a consultation to see where you stand since everyone is in a different situation.

Good luck!