O Canada!

[Mihail]

This is for all the wonderful Canadians who visit, frequent, or indeed own this forum.

I've been mulling over for a while a possible (drastic) course of action, something that I might do within the next few years - moving to Canada, either temporarily or permanently. Now, from what I've seen this is no easy task. To work(and thus get government approval to stay there, and, to a degree, survive) you need to have a Canadian employer jump through the hoops for you, prove that they need you and can't make do with a Canadian applicant, etc. Studying there, unless it's for a Masters degree, is out of the question - the costs are simply too high and I'm not too confident in my ability to get a scholarship, as well as not wanting to take on massive debt so early on in life.

Canada and Latvia have a visa agreement - I can go there for 6 months without having to get a "serious" visa(so say Wikitravel and some other websites), so I might just do that next summer holiday.

The reason? Europe is stifling. Latvia especially so. If I don't feel that I'm improving my life and my society there after this year, or maybe two, I'm simply going to take off for a while, get a breath of fresh (Canadian) air. The USA is out for reasons that I can't articulate... But I would very much love to explore the beauty of British Columbia and the Yukon, hitch-hike from the West coast to the East(Toronto - Vancouver, smth like that), experience things that simply won't appear in Latvia for many years yet.

But the reason why I'm making this thread is to ask those who know how difficult this would be, thoughts on what it's like to live in Canada, how much slogging grunt work it would take for an Eastern European to eke out a residency & work permit from the gov't. Pictures are welcome, too. Thanks!

[Gruntlord6]

This is for all the wonderful Canadians who visit, frequent, or indeed own this forum.

I've been mulling over for a while a possible (drastic) course of action, something that I might do within the next few years - moving to Canada, either temporarily or permanently. Now, from what I've seen this is no easy task. To work(and thus get government approval to stay there, and, to a degree, survive) you need to have a Canadian employer jump through the hoops for you, prove that they need you and can't make do with a Canadian applicant, etc. Studying there, unless it's for a Masters degree, is out of the question - the costs are simply too high and I'm not too confident in my ability to get a scholarship, as well as not wanting to take on massive debt so early on in life.

Canada and Latvia have a visa agreement - I can go there for 6 months without having to get a "serious" visa(so say Wikitravel and some other websites), so I might just do that next summer holiday.

The reason? Europe is stifling. Latvia especially so. If I don't feel that I'm improving my life and my society there after this year, or maybe two, I'm simply going to take off for a while, get a breath of fresh (Canadian) air. The USA is out for reasons that I can't articulate... But I would very much love to explore the beauty of British Columbia and the Yukon, hitch-hike from the West coast to the East(Toronto - Vancouver, smth like that), experience things that simply won't appear in Latvia for many years yet.

But the reason why I'm making this thread is to ask those who know how difficult this would be, thoughts on what it's like to live in Canada, how much slogging grunt work it would take for an Eastern European to eke out a residency & work permit from the gov't. Pictures are welcome, too. Thanks!

You need a decent skill to get approved here, but from what I have seen and heard if your skill is good enough to get you in, it will not take you long to pay off any debt you take on and start making a name for yourself. Good luck!