[jacquesm]

And almost all of the population is of foreign descent. It's quite funny to have your application denied by a Chinese first generation immigrant.

I've spent 5 years getting 'landed immigrant' status in Canada and finally gave up, to anybody that is planning to try to emigrate to Canada, make sure that you get your paperwork done before you move, no matter what they promise you.

The Canadian government will routinely break their promises to immigrants, also be aware that there is a whole crowd of people who feed of those that arrive in Canada and that do not yet know how the game is played (immigration lawyers especially), and that even though Canada at face value seems to be a healthy and equal society in practice it is much less so, there is a lot of resentment between ethnic groups.

On top of that you lose between 4 and 6 months per year (depending on where you live) to the winter.

[kingofspain]

A good friend of mine has been working as a graphic designer in Canada for 2 years now. He's a UK citizen but has all his reference, a job obviously and several weathly family members dotted around the country. He just managed to get a year's extension by the skin of his teeth after 6 or 7 months of wrangling.

Anecdote it may be, but it wouldn't fill me with confidence if I was considering a move myself.

[JimmyL]

Have him call his MP - I can't stress enough how helpful this is (or even better, have someone who's a citizen and lives in the riding call the MP).

The vast majority of MPs have someone in their constituency offices who spends 90% of their time on immigration issues. They know who to call at CIC, they know their way around immigration laws inside and out, and they know which organizations in the community are reputable when you need one for sponsoring, etc. This isn't something they do in their spare time; a major part of constituency work is helping people deal with the Federal government, and seeing as there is such a high number of immigrants in Canada, this often means dealin with immigration/citizenship issues.

Talk to them - and if they can't help you personally, they'll know every immigration lawyer in the area and who to trust.

[patio11]

n.b. Works in the United States too (my brother used to be the Spanish-speaking constituent services guy for a Republican congressman).

[kingofspain]

Thanks. While he's sorted for a little while, I'll definitely pass this info on for the next time he's due an interrogation. Annoyingly for him (and his bosses) they had to pass him over for promotion in case he was booted. I'm sure he'd love a bit of security!

[lazyant]

I'm sorry that it didn't work out for you.

There's a lot of FUD in this comment. (I'm a Canadian immigrant myself).

"It's quite funny to have your application denied by a Chinese first generation immigrant." Why is it funny? an immigration official is a Canadian citizen, I don't know what you are implying/thinking/feeling here.

"The Canadian government will routinely break their promises to immigrants" this is utterly crap. The Canadian government cannot break any promises because they don't make any. Otherwise please indicate any official site or comment about any "promise".

It's true that there are lots of unscrupulous immigration lawyers or advisers, that's not the Government's fault; actually they recently hardened the requirements to be an immigration consultant to avoid scammers. Also unlike other governments Canada has everything related to immigration clearly explained in their web site, including forms and a tracking system and one of the first things they do is to advise against immigration "consultants" and note that anyone can apply by following the instructions (I did it without a hitch).

The Canadian immigration program is probably one of the most (or "the" most) generous and transparent in the world although of course they can make mistakes, especially when there are many fraudulent applications.

Finally if you don't like long winters (those months you don't "lose") probably you're better off someplace else; this is like wanting to live in Arizona and not liking hot weather.

[jacquesm]

> There's a lot of FUD in this comment.

No, it's just one persons experience that apparently does not match yours.

> Why is it funny?

Because that person has no more or less business in Canada than I do. A native Canadian would, and technically they're the only people that should be running Canadian immigration.

If you can't see the humor in that it's not my problem.

> this is utterly crap. The Canadian government cannot break any promises because they don't make any. Otherwise please indicate any official site or comment about any "promise".

Wow. You must be able to read all my email with lawyers and government officials right through my fairly well closed up imap account.

For the record, I spent a small fortune in Canada on the written promise of the Canadian government that my entrepreneurs status would be enough to get my paperwork fast-tracked through the Buffalo unit. After the investments were done suddenly nobody remembered about these writings, when confronted with them they 'would see what they could do'. After year upon year of being promised that for sure within the next year matters would be resolved I finally gave up, fired everybody and moved back to Europe.

Too bad, and I'm definitely sorry about what happened to the employees of my two Canadian companies.

So, this is the governments fault, they make promises, in writing and they don't give a damn about breaking them.

After we shut down our companies and moved back within two weeks we had our paperwork done and if we would please come back because Northern Ontario needs those jobs. Right. Once bitten, twice shy.

> The Canadian immigration program is probably one of the most (or "the" most) generous and transparent in the world

Gushing admiration for a system that is so broken that people that I know that have been trying to get their landed immigrant status changed to citizenship after 35 years is indicative of limited experience.

The long winters I can deal with, but they don't help. The unreliable government makes things much harder than they need be and causes hardship where none need be.

That my experience does not match yours is fine, but I'm not going to call yours 'FUD' any more than you should call mine that, my case was heard to ministerial level, the local mayor lobbied on my behalf all to no avail. I'm fairly well connected, if I had that much trouble I think that others may have the same or more and hence my warning not to move or invest until you have your landed immigrant status in your pocket.