bits | andy smith's blog

Sometimes, people decide to do something big, something life-changing, something that will undoubtedly cause a huge amount of upheaval in their life.

I’m talking about emigration.

For varying reasons, over the past year, me and Bec (my good lady wife) have decided that our medium-to-long term plans are to attempt to emigrate to Canada. We’re under no illusions – we’re aware of the many pitfalls and problems that may or may not arise. It’s certainly not going to be a walk in the park.

So why?

Why indeed – and let me be honest from the outset: I’ve never ever been to Canada. This may strike some many most people as completely insane – why would we want to go somewhere we’ve never been? It’s a good question, and one I don’t really have an answer for, other than

• it looks nice
• we want somewhere better for our son to grow up
• it’s not here

The last point is the one that I do get a bit of stick about – the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, etc. – and I accept that the area of the UK in which I live probably colours my judgement somewhat. I was born, brought up and still live in Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, but it’s not a place I want to bring up my son.

So why Canada? Well, why not? Many of its cities score highly on various quality-of-life surveys, but most of all – it’s somewhere different. It’s true that I could relocate to another part of the UK, but if I’m going to go to the effort of moving within the UK, I may as well go the whole nine yards.

It’s not gonna be easy

Difficult isn’t the word. In fact, before we even think of emigrating, I need to find a job.

I work in the IT industry, and my current role means I have to be highly skilled across a number of disciplines. However, I effectively left school at the age of 16, and this means I didn’t go to university. No university obviously means no degree, which instantly puts me at a disadvantage, because it means I can’t apply for Permanent Residency as a Federal Skilled Worker.

This leaves me with only one real option, which is to find a job. This too isn’t straightforward, because:-

• it has to be a job that they can’t find a Canadian citizen for,
• it requires the company to apply for an LMO,
• the company has to be willing to be involved in the immigration process, and
• I need a work permit

This makes our chances – if I’m honest with myself – vanishingly small. I wasn’t kidding when I said this wasn’t going to be easy – and this is all before even considering the emigration part itself.

The beginning

So, this really marks the beginning of something which might never come to fruition rather than a concrete plan of action. It’s my line in the sand – my mark to say that this is where I started.

I’ve started the ball rolling by applying for a handful of jobs, and sending my resume to recruitment agencies. Bearing in mind that I’m at a disadvantage already, I don’t expect to move from this point any time soon. In the meantime, though, I’ll post bits and bobs as and when I have something to say about it.

Watch this space!