Hi Steve :o)<br><br>Adrian had his interview
waived. He applied independently, without a lawyer. When
he did the self assessment he thought he'd be called
in for an interview, but he never was. Here is his
timeline.<br><br>September 2000 - Filled out Independent Immigration
Application and sent.<br><br>December 2000 - Received his AOR
(acknowledgement of receipt) and was informed his application was
selected for the Pilot Project in Ottawa. The letter also
stated that London would not have knowledge of his
application after this point and that all correspondence etc,
should go through Ottawa.<br><br>January 2001 - Received
Medical forms and request for ROLF and once again was
told at this time no interview was required. (there is
always a clause at the bottom saying they can change
their mind at any time they like).<br><br>February 2001
- Completed Medical and sent in ROLF (right of
landing fee.<br><br>March 2001 - Medical was sent to
immigration by Doctor's office.<br><br>April 2001 - Received
Approval and Landed Immigrant Papers.<br><br>May 2001 -
Officially landed in Canada after a weird experience at the
US border.<br><br>Soooo I would say Steve, that you
should always keep your hopes up that you may have your
interview waived. Nobody really knows until you hear from
Immigration. Keep the faith!<br><br>As far as interview
questions, I have been told that their main objective in an
Independent interview is to ascertain your ability to settle
in Canada. Having family, friends, money and
knowledge about Canada will probably help. There is a guide
out there as to what they may look for in an
interview, I will have a look around and see if I can find
it for you.<br><br>all my best<br>Catherine

hey Catherine :)<br><br>I'm sure your experiences
will come in handy - I am slowlyyy coming around to
the idea that I don't have a hope in hell of being
considered 'Skilled', so I might have to be married instead.
Obviously said boy is a Canuck, which is handy!<br>Be
interested to hear your story...<br>C x

...and Virgin Atlantic start doing Gatwick ->
Toronto on June 12th. They're usually fairly competitive
[and who else hands out ice-creams at the start of the
first movie? ;)]<br><br>Dunno about one-way flights
though (anyone'd think we all wanted to *live*
there!!)<br>Claire-with-an-i<br>x

I'll second that.<br><br>I booked a Canada 3000
flight to Toronto through Canadian Affair a few years
back, very good agent specialising in Canadian travel,
and Canada 3000 offers a very good chartered flight
to Canada, very punctual and professional
services.<br><br>Alfred

Just for your info folks - check out this website
for cheap (inc one way!) flights from UK airports to
Canada.
<a href=http://www.canadian-affair.com/fs-trans.htm
target=new>http://www.canadian-affair.com/fs-trans.htm</a><br><br>I've popped
the URL in the links section
:o)<br><br>Clare<br>x

Hi Catherine,<br>Many thanks for the intro. Did
your other half need to have an interview? I have been
tolad that i still may have the interview waived. but i
do think i will hold out on that idea.<br>What sort
of things happen in the interview and what sort of
questions do they ask.. questions questions
questions<br><br>Well take care<br>Steve

Hi my name is Catherine and I am an alcoho....oh
wait a minute, wrong club!! LoL<br><br>Seriously, I am
a Canadian by birth. My Fiance is British by birth
and just recently completed the whole immigration
process. I'll expand on a timeline for you in another
post, I just thought I'd take a quick moment to
introduce myself.<br><br>We did not hire a lawyer, and
Adrian applied as an Independent Immigrant (he started
the process before we were seriously involved). Start
to finish from the time the forms were filled out
until the day he landed was 8 months.<br><br>If I can
be of any help I will certainly jump in and offer up
our experiences and knowledge (though it's pretty
limited to our specific experience).<br><br>Cheers to all
and the best of luck :o)<br><br>~waves and flashes
her Canadian smile~<br>Catherine

I read somewhere that the averagev processing
time in London is about 14 months. I also read that
they are trying a new process out in London and other
areas to cut this down. Does anyone know anything about
this?<br><br>Another posting I saw indicated that a special fast-track
scheme for IT immigrants was being trialed. Anybody got
any details on this?<br><br>I still at the asking
questions stage myself. I've started going through the
paperwork and some of it seems quite daunting. Being almost
40, all those 'since you 18th birthday' questions
involve a lot of research to answer. The organisations
part seems to be the hardest for me. I have never kept
a diary with details like which month I joined my
church or the Japanese language exchange group I'm a
member of, not to mentions the dance studios I took
lessons at when I was a student. Am I taking the question
in the wrong way? What are CIC looking for here?
Certainly the amount of space doesn't seem to expect there
to be many items.<br><br>G<br>First time mailer

ooh bummer! On more than one count...having to
have one...and it being that far off. At least it
seems a long way off...maybe it is realistic. And it
certainly gives us an idea of how long CHC London is
taking. Steve, was there a reason for your not being
waived, d'you think? Or are you a 'quality control'
candidate?<br><br>C<br>PS Hello new ppl :)

Have been told by my Attorney that i will need an
interview. and that its will take approx 10-12 months to
come through. has anyone out there had to do an
interview with the CHC in London and how long did you have
to wait to get one.<br><br>Regards<br>Steve

Thanks Darren,<br><br>Just what I was looking
for, a positive confirmation from someone who has
submitted to CIC London. I do have enough savings, but
might as well go ahead and get a market valuation on my
house and submit it anyway.<br><br>Cheers,<br>Alfred

Hi Alfred.<br><br>My wife and I received our
Visa's in Feb of this year. <br><br>We do not have any
real savings to speak of, so we provided CIC London
with a copy of our mortgage statement, together with
two estate agent evaluation/"market appraisal"
reports on our home - this seemed to suffice (we have a
reasonable amount of positive equity in our
house!)<br><br>Not an oficial answer, but hopefully it might help
clarify...<br><br>Regards,<br>Darren

Greetings !<br><br>I'm a Computer Systems
Analyst, hoping to move to Canada with my wife and 13 year
old son.<br><br>Having made the decision about a
month ago I am now in the process of collecting all the
required documents and filling in application
forms.<br><br>I have a question regarding the proof of settlement
funds. The CHC London documentations<br>indicates that
"These funds must be readily transferable to Canada in a
convertible currency", but I have seen conflicting comments
indicating that proof of stock ownership, property, etc, are
also valid proof.<br><br>Anyone who has already
applied know ? or is this<br>just a requirement CHC
London imposes ?<br><br>Alfred

Hi folks,<br>since I have (or want) to send my
application kit to the London office as well, I hope I can
also partizipate in this club although I'm German but
living in Ireland.<br>Short introduction: I want to
apply in the independent category as a skilled worker
(IT specialist) and am heading off to
BC.<br>Cheers,<br>Matthias

Claire.<br>We used an attorney to ensure the we
had completed everything the way we should had. I
understand that the process is easy but i just wanted a bit
more clout behind us. the cost for the attorney works
out to be £800 but this is paid off over 18 months by
Direct Debit.<br><br>Works out to be about £53 per
month.<br><br>Steve

Cool, eh? :)<br><br>Yes, Darren [hello!] if you
are also a member of the yahoo canadianimmigration
club then you will get to see me trying to round up
the Brits for a THIRD time! I haven't posted yet, but
I will!! Persistent, if nothing else....<br><br>I'm
so pleased to see everyone, I was very surprised
that there wasn't already a club in existence. I hope
we can all shine lights for each other. Here is my
question of the day:<br><br>The online forms at
canada.org.uk, which I have d/l and printed; is there any
difference between these and the 'kit' that you can mail in
a request for?<br><br>Also, have you guys checked
out www.adcritic.com ? Do a search for Molson and
check out the 'I am Canadian' campaign and tell me it
doesn't bring a tear to your eye ;)<br><br>ttfn C x

hey Steve...<br>I was wondering what benefits you
get from having someone represent you...? Its not a
route I was considering, more from a financial point of
view than anything [any idea, ballpark...roughly what
it costs??] but I am definitely interested in what
the reasons for using one are. Cheers for the link -
I'm off there now :)<br>Claire

Hey!<br><br>Just found the group (Thanks Clare
for the link! - that's twice now! =;O) ), so a quick
post to introduce myself...<br><br>Darren, 30,
currently working in IT Distribution (8 years exp) Applied
as a "Technical Sales Specialist". My wife, 3yr old
son and I received our B(ig) B(rown) E(nvelope) back
in February after posting our application to London
CIC back in November 2000. Suprisingly simple
process, although we did hire the assistance of an
EXCELLENT consultant (Stuart Bennett of "Hand In Hand
Immigration" e-mail: hand_in_hand@...), and subscribed
to "Canada News" - if anybody doesn't already (and I
can't believe you're in here if you don't?!?), let me
know & I'll post the subscription address. <br><br>We
are currently in the process of flogging our kit and
selling our home - for those just beginning on the
immigration ladder, getting your visa is the *relatively*
easy bit - our crappy UK property sales laws and regs
in this country have meant that the house-selling
process has caused us far too much stress, and to be
honest, we'll be glad to be out! (we lost a buyer THREE
DAYS before we were due to exchange contracts - AFTER
my wife and I had handed in our notices at work -
there's a moral in there somewhere...!)<br><br>We'll be
heading to Vancouver having successfully secured one job
already (can't wait to see those mountains again!). We're
looking forward to feeling like "kids in a sweetshop" -
after all of this time spent saving money, it'll be
great to go out and spend a small wedge of cash
replacing all of the day-to-day possessions we're selling
over here!!!<br><br>Anyway, looking forward to reading
all your posts, good bad or indifferent...<br><br>The
very "Best of British" to all,<br>Darren

Claire,<br>Hi i starte dthe immigration process a
few weeks ago. I have chosen to use an attorny from
Canada to represent me. They have a free asessment that
you can fill in to see if you can go as a skilled
worker. here is the
link.<br><br><a href=http://www.canadavisa.com/assess.htm
target=new>http://www.canadavisa.com/assess.htm</a><br><br>hope it
helps<br>steve

Hi Clare!<br>I am joining everything I can lay my
hands on, in order to bore the pants off people by
asking the same question in 57 different
ways!<br><br>I'm very interested to hear from all of you guys how
your journey so far, has been? [even if, like me, you
are still at the asking questions stage] Easier/more
difficult than you expected?? What's your timeline been
like? And 'why do you want to move to Canada?' hehe...I
am just curious...unless of course you need practice
for the interview?!<br>C

Excellent! I am now feeling decidedly less alone
in my Canada quest! This is me:<br><br>Live in
Brighton and am a web developer/computer programmer for a
digital media company. My longterm boyfriend is Canadian
but we aren't married and currently don't want to get
married just for us both to go to Canada. Having said
that, we aren't ruling it out!<br><br>I have only been
in my job for a year, so my original plan was to
stay in it for two, then proceed with my application,
but there are a couple of things I am unsure about
[that's a complete lie, there are about a million] one of
which is not having a degree/'formal' qualifications
and whether that would lessen my chances of
qualifying as a skilled worker.<br><br>Improving my skill
set/saving up money will be what I will be spending the next
year doing. There is only a 2 'point' difference if I
apply with one year's experience, rather than two,
so...I am currently trying to decide if there's a chance
of applying sooner rather than later and doing my
learning/saving while the application goes through instead of
adding loads of time afterwards. That's if the
self-assessment things carry that much weight, or maybe they're
more a guide for applicants...?<br><br>OK, I can see
me going on for hours here, so how about I ask
something constructive!<br><br>How can I find out whether I
would be taken seriously as a skilled worker, in my
chosen occupation?<br><br>Is there a 'best' place to ask
official-y type people what one's chances are, before
gambling the 250 quid?<br><br>Cheers everyone...I'm so
glad you're here!<br>Claire<br>PS Destination Toronto

Phill,<br>I have started to look at two good job
search engine's<br>WWW.monster.ca<br>and
<br><br><a href=http://jobs.workopolis.com/jobshome/db/work.search_cri
target=new>http://jobs.workopolis.com/jobshome/db/work.search_cri</a><br><br>bot\
h places you can store your CV. have found out that
it is very pointless looking for a job until you
have landed. Companies to not offer jobs outside
Canada. or that you have your SIN (social Insurance
number)

Hi,<br><br>Have you found any "good" IT job agencies over there, as Calgary is
one of our target areas ?<br><br>I'm a freelance SAP consultant.<br><br>Phill

Hi, I'm steve come from Gosport and i am in the
process of immigration to Calgary. Just waiting for the
interview. I have an attorney work on my behalf as i did not
want to do all the paperwork. so if you need any info
give me a shout and i will ask my attorney.

Just an intro.<br><br>We (Julie & Phill) are in
the process of waiting having submitted the forms.
<br><br>We are going on our factfinding tour for 3 weeks
starting on Sunday ! Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa. Can't
wait. <br><br>Any help we can give , we will
try.<br><br>I'm an IT Consultant and Julie is an artist btw.

...for setting-up this message site.<br><br>My
name is Gary and I am from Dublin, but live and work
as an Manufacturing Engineer here in Essex and
intend to emmigrate in about 2 years when I finish a
current education program and get "Chartered"
status.<br><br>I live with my girlfriend and she is now warming to
the idea after an uneasy start. <br><br>Because of
her uncertainty, I want us to go over and live there
for a couple of years before considering marraige or
anything, so most of my questions will relate to her
eligibility and the process that I must follow for
her.<br><br>Anyway, I hope to speak to you all again, I may be some
way off going, but I need to start gathering the
information now to ease the process.<br><br>Thanks again and
best of luck to those who go before me.<br><br>Gar.

I'm a Canuck living in the UK. (Now doesn't
*that* fact seem contrary to this list?) Although I
don't know much at all about the ins and outs of
immigration to The Great White North (I had it easy coming
over here; my mom's birth papers meant I was a shoo-in
for a Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of
Abode) perhaps I might be able to answer background
questions about Life north of the 49th that anyone has.
Other than that, best of luck to all those embarking on
this adventure, leaving pavements and boots behind,
anticipating sidewalks and trunks. Not to mention the joys of
buttered popcorn and Tim Horton's coffee &
doughnuts.<br><br>Canada, eh?<br><br>:)

Hi Claire<br>We (hubby and toddler) are moving
over to Vancouver in August. <br><br>Having joined
<a href=http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/immigrationcanada
target=new>http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/immigrationcanada</a> and the mailing
list
<a href=http://groups.yahoo.com/group/van-immi
target=new>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/van-immi</a> has made this process much
easier. <br><br>People
have been very generous about sharing info over the
internet! It has helped me sort out accomm when we arrive
and also find out those burning issues like "yes we
can buy marmite in Vancouver" <br><br>We've been
through the form filling and waiting and got our Visas in
March. Just at the selling the house and burning the
bridges stage now!!<br><br>Clare

I haven't found any other forums that are
specifically for to going to Canada from the UK, and I know it
can't just be me that is plotting my escape...! I am
still in the planning, pre-form-filling stages and
would welcome the chance to talk to others who are
going through the process...or considering it. C'mon,
we have to start somewhere!

Welcome to the Yahoo! Message Board for Britain to Canada Immigration