Hi all
Thought I’d say hello as I’ve been lurking a while
My names derek and as the title suggest, I’m looking to get to canada and live the dream! (Aren’t we all?)
I’ve passed my class c and have my c+e coming up in may so all being well ill be looking for trucking work at the end of may
I have a good job at the mo but it doesn’t give me an entry to Canada so I’m taking a bit of a leap of faith with retraining and and also a pay cut in order to get the relevant experience
My family and I have discussed this for years and have decided its time to crack on and go for it, if we could go tomorrow we would! I’ve gleaned loads of info from here already and will be asking questions no doubt, about uk jobs and advice from others
I have noticed there are some strong opinions here though but when you scrape away the harsh comments there’s actually some good advice lying underneath
I have lots of reasons for choosing canada over other countries both personal and practical but ill save that for another thread
Anyway, I’m sure it will be valuable to be part of such an informative forum and look forward to chipping in where I can
Cheers and safe trucking 
First of all, well done for getting off the bench 
Do you have any experience of Canada at all 
Not being negative, but wanting to fulfil a dream and actually living the dream are often two different things 
There are a lot of good things about it, but only if you’re really into your trucks, as you will, for the first few years at least, be OTR and away from home for long periods of time, some people like that and that’s all they ever want to do, others do not and if you fall into the second category the dream will quickly turn into a nightmare 
You say that you want to come to Canada and you have other reasons, apart from the usual, better for the kids etc reasons, well that’s not a problem and the end may well justify the means, but like I said, the first few years are going to be bloody hard work, so be prepared for that
As you’ve been lurking for a while you may have seen a few things on here, but I’ll advise you to go back and look through the whole forum, most of the questions you have will no doubt have been asked before, people that no longer post on here may have answered them, so you’ll get another perspective as well as that of the rabble that currently post on here
I would also suggest looking at a certain british expat website as they have a forum specifically aimed at trucking abroad. Whats more there is a post strikingly similar to your post there too!
British Expats does have some useful stuff on it, but the trucking forum is crap, this site can be harsh at times, but that place is one big argument after another. Take that Loblaw thread, 50 odd pages before wages and runs questions were answered and that was done by RussJ who had only been there a week ffs, the others on there are people you definitely don’t want to take advice from 
Thanks guys, I’ve only joined the one forum so can’t claim the post on the other site as my own I’m afraid.
I’ve got a trip out to canada this year (October) and will go as default holiday location as often as poss until I’m in a position to go out there for good. I’ve been before but when I was a lot younger so really looking forward to a return soon
I’ve been with my Missus for twelve pretty stress free years and have an eleven year old daughter, I’ve always worked odd hours and extended shifts so another variation of that shouldn’t be too hard on them. Also as has been said, you have to accept some rough before the smoothe !
I love driving and have done it in every job I’ve ever had. Taking class c test (lgv not drugs;) was a real step up and away from “normal” driving, like relearning to drive all over again.
I have read with dismay that pnp may be tightening up for truckers? Just my luck, I always miss the boat!! Do you guys have opinion on this? Is it going to be a case of more paperwork to get out there or a complete stop altogether?
Dereko:
I have read with dismay that pnp may be tightening up for truckers? Just my luck, I always miss the boat!! Do you guys have opinion on this? Is it going to be a case of more paperwork to get out there or a complete stop altogether?
It will probably vary from province to province. Some provinces don’t even have pnp for truck drivers anyway. When I first came to Canada (New Brunswick) in 2009 it took 2 days to get the initial LMO (Labour market opinion) which is needed for the TWP (Temporary work permit) which is what you will initially come to Canada on. Back then you had to be with your company for 6 months before you could apply for PNP/PR (its a joint application all done together). These days you have to be with a company for 12 months before being able to apply for PNP/PR and LMO’s are taking between 6-8 weeks to obtain as they have tightened up a lot and there is talk of making it 24 months of working for the same employer before being able to apply for PNP/PR which would certainly put most people off as the companies who generally employ foreigners en-mass are absolutely terrible to work for.
When I came out I was single and lived in my truck for the first 19 months and the day I got my passport request, meaning I’d finally got PR I booked my flights to England and jacked the job in, flew back to the UK, handed my passport in to the Canadian embassy and got it back a week or so later with my permanent residence visa in it and then returned to Canada to find something which resembled a proper job and not a modern day version of slavery, or at the very least, indentured labour.
Its not for me to preach to you about how well you will or wont adapt to the job over here as I dont know you or your prior experience but just be warned, as NMM has already said that the job here can in some situations be a complete nightmare, especially so for someone new to the country with a family in tow. You can however lower your chances of a negative experience by doing your research and asking questions on here to people who have done the job who are still here or by asking the ones who have gone back, why they’ve gone back so you can avoid the experiences that they’ve had.
I’ve probably said it two dozen times already but my initial advice to narrow things down a bit would be to look at Manitoba. Alberta is more prosperous on paper but you’ll pay more to live there but the real issue for me with that province is that the Alberta nominee program is geared entirely to the employer and not the potential immigrant. You do not have control over your and your families future and instead have to hope that your company will choose to sponsor you to stay and all this follows on to what has already said about how many jobs are here, a nightmare and you can quickly fall foul to office politics and have your life ruined by a company who refuses to sponsor you for PNP. Remember one thing, if a company is having to import huge numbers of foreign drivers its because they have a high turnover which doesn’t lend itself to making you believe they’re all that good to work for, which will mean you yourself may have issues with them in the time it takes to be nominated for PNP. Manitoba on the other hand, like New Brunswick where I live has a PNP system that is entirely in the hands of the immigrant himself, you choose when to apply and your company doesn’t get to put your hand over the proverbial barrel. New Brunswick is a lovely place to live but much of the work is absolutely dire and would be like going back in time to the worst moments in British transport history when it comes to cowboy companies and their practices, especially if you’re working for a firm on fridges, which unfortunetely makes up a lot of our work. You’ll wait all day getting loaded/unloaded (for no pay) and then you WILL run all night and do 1100km (or more, cough cough) before 9am the next morning to tip in New Jersey, and if you dont they’ll just fire you and replace you with another foreigner or local yes man or make your working life hell and make sure you cant make ends meet to punish you (this is the main reason for the system being tightened up in NB). So if you’re coming with a wife/girlfriend and kids do NOT come to NB if you want a better life because life will almost certainly be terrible for you during the time it takes to get PR and even when you’ve got it, the options for a better job are extremely limited.
Manitoba seems to offer a better standard of long haul work and later on, if you so choose, there is a plentiful supply of local jobs, especially in or near Winnipeg where you’ll be home every night and actually get paid for your time by the hour. These sorts of jobs are almost non-existant in NB and its dead mans shoes where they do exist.
I believe Saskatchewan also offers PNP in much the same way as Manitoba and New Brunswick and possibly British Columbia. Ontario dont offer PNP because they have more than enough Indians (from India, not the native type) to do the job who somehow manage to get in to that provinces when the likes of us cannot. Quebec is Quebec and no one knows what they do or think. Then you’ve got New Brunswick which I’ve already covered which leaves PEI (Prince Edward Island) and I’ll stick my neck out here and say the companies there are even worse than in NB and finally Nova Scotia which does have a PNP program but for one reason or another has never really had a great deal of foreign drivers so its not somewhere you’d really find much opertunity. Newfoundland is just a silly place out in the wilds of the Atlantic where all the locals move away from to find work so we wont even go there.
@ robinhood - not that I have any plans at all to go to Canada but I’d just like to say that’s a very interesting and informative post! Good to see people telling it how it is.
Robinhood, if you took the time to type all that (as opposed to copying your post from another thread) then you have my sincere gratitude
Funnily enough, Manitoba is on top of the list for us, would be toronto/ottowa but sadly no dice as you said. I genuinely believe my family and I are prepared for a couple of tough years but our upcoming trips will confirm if its worth it
Spoke to stobarts today and they said they may hand some casual labour my for for experience instead of switching jobs completely. Just need to find out if I can go part time at my current job.
I’ve also looked a a couple of the bigger ca companies to get a feel for what’s required of employees, seems like 2-3 years experience of driving a variety of stuff. Transx and westcan …
All exciting stuff and genuinely can’t wait to get going with it all
Rob K:
@ robinhood - not that I have any plans at all to go to Canada but I’d just like to say that’s a very interesting and informative post! Good to see people telling it how it is.
Many thanks. I’ve seen so many British guys and others come over here with high hopes and believing all the spiel that the companies feed them, only to then face the reality and for it to ruin their family life and often their finances before the family breaks up or they return, often both.
Canada can be a great place to live but it can also be a terrible place to work so anyone wishing to make the move really does have to do as much research as they can to make sure they get on with one of the better companies so they dont become another statistic of the large firms who promise the earth and deliver nothing and while that can be the case in all parts of Canada, I’m sad to say that the Maritime provinces do seem to have a considerable edge in that department.
Dereko:
Robinhood, if you took the time to type all that (as opposed to copying your post from another thread) then you have my sincere gratitude
Funnily enough, Manitoba is on top of the list for us, would be toronto/ottowa but sadly no dice as you said. I genuinely believe my family and I are prepared for a couple of tough years but our upcoming trips will confirm if its worth it
Spoke to stobarts today and they said they may hand some casual labour my for for experience instead of switching jobs completely. Just need to find out if I can go part time at my current job.
I’ve also looked a a couple of the bigger ca companies to get a feel for what’s required of employees, seems like 2-3 years experience of driving a variety of stuff. Transx and westcan …
All exciting stuff and genuinely can’t wait to get going with it all
You’re welcome. I’ll always try and help out someone who’s thinking of coming here or who’s already here.
Follow your Manitoba leads and when and if you do come out and make a go of it, if it turns out you’d rather be in Ontario, you can always move there later on but Manitoba would be a decent starting point and you may end up liking it there anyway.
Personally, I’d stay clear of the bigger companies. They’re an easy and convenient way in, often doing all the leg work for the driver so all you have to do is turn up and breathe but you then run the risk of becoming that statistic again in their huge driver turnover and thats because big companies tend to be de-humanised organisations that treat you as a machine and nothing more. Working for Stobarts in the UK for examle is one thing because you have to drive according to the law, you will probably be home two days per week and its all above board. In Canada you can expect to be out on the road for weeks on end and if you have a 36 hour reset on the road and then get back to the yard two days later, a big company is more likely to only be bothered in the fact that their computer system says you’ve got plenty of hours and they’ll want you to turn and burn again, all while your wife and kids sit at home waiting and wondering when they’ll see you again, add this to your frustration at all of the many potential delays in loading/unloading/waiting for a load at all or breakdowns, which you’ll either get paid nothing at all for, or at most a token sum of 20 or 30 dollars for example.
There was a guy on here recently for a small Manitoba firm running flat beds where you’ll usually be home every weekend and the pay didn’t seem half bad. I dont know if they do LMO’s for a work permit but if they did, or a company like that did, you wouldn’t go far wrong in terms of what the job is, what they’d expect from you and what you’d expect from the job, you’d earn your money and you’d be home with your family every, or most weekends and that means an awful lot out here and is why I’d never recommend New Brunswick to anyone other than someone who wants a temporary adventure bumming around the continent for a while and certainly not someone with a family in tow, never.
I’ve just sent Derek the following in a PM which I’m also going to post here so that others can add their bit to it as he’d like info on Manitoba and as I’m in New Brunswick not everything will necessarily be applicable.
Hi Derek,
Manitoba may have some differences that I’m not aware of when it comes to PNP but I’d think that its mostly the same or similar to how things are in New Brunswick so I’ll go over a few things from what I remember about my own process that should be relevant to MB.
The best thing is to always have all of your paperwork with you before you arrive as its a nightmare trying to get a hold of things in the UK when you’re in Canada. I was lucky when I came in that I had everything but some of the guys had a real hard time and it delayed their application by months.
Obviously the first thing you will do is find a company willing to take you on and obtain an LMO which is the document you will need when you arrive at the airport in Canada to get a work permit. The work permit used to be issued for 12 months, though some have had them for 24 months. Depending on what the time frame criteria is when you come over, you’ll have to work for the company for 6 months as in my case or perhaps 12 months, or maybe even longer by then. Once you’ve got in the required amount of time then you can submit your PNP/PR application. Its basically two parts but all one application and it all goes to the provincial government and once they accept you for PNP they forward the PR bit on to the federal government along with their approval of you. Once you have PNP which took me about 4 months from when I submitted the application, you wont need LMO’s to get new work permits. This is because you’re on “implied status” pending your PR decision from the federal government so when you do need to renew your work permit, you can do so without an LMO and instead by using your PNP certificate.
After waiting for what will seem like an eternity you’ll receive a medical request which means you’ve got to go to a doctors (there will be a list of options to choose from in your province) and do a standard physical examination and then you’ll be sent to the local hospital for blood tests and an x-ray, its all very easy and straight forward, though somewhat expensive. I cant remember the exact cost but I’d say somewhere between 600-850 per person. Once thats done you’ll wait again and then you’ll be asked to pay a PR fee which although another expense, means you know you’ve been accepted and finally you’ll receive a passport request whereby you send in your passport and have a PR visa fixed in to it, that you then go down to your local border to have activated and a few weeks/months later you’ll receive a PR card in the post, which is what you’ll then use in future to enter Canada, rather than your British passport.
Now, from memory the documents you’ll need are,
A work history going back 10 years, or until you’re 18th birthday, whichever comes first. What this means is that they just want to know where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing. It doesn’t have to be an actual reference but it does help if you can get a company on their letter headed paper just to confirm that you have been working for them between certain dates. For any you cant get, for example if the company has ceased trading or they dont keep records for more than 5 years for example, both issues that I had, then simply putting down the month and year to the month and year of employment will be enough, along with a note stating they either dont exist anymore or dont have the records etc.
You’ll also have to do the same thing with regards dates of anywhere where you have lived. If you’ve lived in another country, such as Germany if you were in the forces then you’ll also have to get a German criminal record search, along with a UK one.
A UK criminal record search as above, though this isn’t something you’ll need to bring out with you. This will be requested at some point during your application so get one then. You can get them through the post so dont bother getting one before you come out as it’ll be out of date by the time its requested. Although for employment purposes you may beed to get one for your company before you come, but you’ll still need to wait and get another one later one for immigration purposes.
You’ll need original or certified copies of marriage certificates, divorce certificates if applicable, birth certificates and educational certificates, which is often one that stumps people who finished school years or decades ago. All of these things will be required by anyone who is on your application, not just yourself and for any history not involving you, such as if your gf/wife has being previously married/divorced etc.
You can by all means do the application yourself but as I was living in my truck and away from base the vast majority of the time, making correspondence difficult I hired an immigration lawyer to handle my case, as did many drivers at the firm I was with. It wasn’t cheap at $3000 plus tax but he did an excellent job and none of us who used him had any sort of delay or issue with our process, unlike many of the guys who did it themselves and made mistakes etc, all of which cost a huge delay in time as the whole lot gets sent back to you. Though if you do it properly there is no reason why that should happen.
I’m trying to think of other things that you’ll need but my mind is at a bit of a blank at the moment. I did have a list saved on my computer of everything that I needed but the hard drive crashed a month or so back and its all backed up on a portable hard drive somewhere.
I think I’ll post this in the main forum also, that way others can add their bit to it because there is bound to be lots I’ve forgotten, plus a lot of the guys are actually in Manitoba so they’ll have a better idea about MB specific things than I will.
I hope I’ve helped and if you have any more questions please feel free to ask.
Rob K:
@ robinhood - not that I have any plans at all to go to Canada but I’d just like to say that’s a very interesting and informative post! Good to see people telling it how it is.
I’m sorry to Hi~jack your post Rob but I agree with you too.
I have to say that I’m hardly surprised to read that any Westernised Haulage Industry who relies on turnover based on volume to make a profit is screwing it’s (usually pliable) workforce into the ground.
The bit about taking advantage of those new to the Country or the Industry is especially prescient…
A good wake up call robinhood and a post that many would do well to read.
W
Unfortunately most prospective drivers don’t believe for one moment that they, as willing hard workers will get skanked by any Canadian company and they will believe the recruiter over someone who has returned broke, and obviously has sour grapes. There are good companies out there, just remember that you will be a temporary foreign worker, nothing more and you will be treated as a disposable asset2 by some companies.
And as Mick said the main word is TEMPORARY…your 20+yrs experience is worth very little as its not Canadian experience and to be honest just blend into the background at work until you have proved yourself to the company and keep the hell out o office politics!! .
(unlike some i met!! )
Dont get upset that a Canadian driver with 2yrs experience walks in and receives 2c a mile more than you with 20+yrs (uk,euro ) because you are a 1st yr rookie. and he takes your new Volvo because he doesnt want to drive the 3yr old KW… 
…KW half a day brake down (engine block heater) in 2yrs , volvo was a garage queen .GIUH.
ohhh and to add to robinhoods good post …IELTS now needed to receive PNP/pr an English exam to prove you can speak/read ./write English(or French).
might be easier /cheaper to do in UK rather than in Canada .
jimmy
More good advice ther, cheers guys. I generally have the ethos of keep your head down and be the grey man until you build up some respect. It’s served me well so far
Ill look in to the IELTS, it’s now on the list too!
Great advice from all of you! and extra excellent effort from you Robinhood (if they had a ‘gold star’ smilie you would get it!) 
.
My wife and daughter arrived in Cranbrook at the start of this month, they love it!,
WIFE VISA:
My wife managed to get herself a 2 year work visa at Calgary airport which matches my visa (except hers is open for any job in British Columbia!) it was a bit hit and miss for her as some rules have changed, but she took enough ‘info’ with her to persuade immigration to give her a full work visa, which also has a ‘typed’ section on the work permit which states my 8 year old daughter is allowed to go to school in Canada.
SCHOOL:
My daughter was straight into school (school is two mins walking distance from the house) Enrolling into Canadian school consisted of going to the school, the school giving me a form and my daughter ‘attending school’ the next morning… (Compared to the sad state of affair’s in UK now where changing schools is a beaurocratic ‘pot luck’ nightmare run by the ‘local council’ with a 10 week wait time and you can’t even choose the school anymore 
) it was quick and easy. (the school wanted to see my wifes visa with ‘immigration permission’ and ‘medical travel insurance’ to cover the three months before BC medical covers the whole family.
I guess my next stage will be trying to sort all the stuff you wrote about ‘robinhood’…
contractdriver:
Great advice from all of you! and extra excellent effort from you Robinhood (if they had a ‘gold star’ smilie you would get it!) .
My wife and daughter arrived in Cranbrook at the start of this month, they love it!,
WIFE VISA:
My wife managed to get herself a 2 year work visa at Calgary airport which matches my visa (except hers is open for any job in British Columbia!) it was a bit hit and miss for her as some rules have changed, but she took enough ‘info’ with her to persuade immigration to give her a full work visa, which also has a ‘typed’ section on the work permit which states my 8 year old daughter is allowed to go to school in Canada.
SCHOOL:
My daughter was straight into school (school is two mins walking distance from the house) Enrolling into Canadian school consisted of going to the school, the school giving me a form and my daughter ‘attending school’ the next morning… (Compared to the sad state of affair’s in UK now where changing schools is a beaurocratic ‘pot luck’ nightmare run by the ‘local council’ with a 10 week wait time and you can’t even choose the school anymore ) it was quick and easy. (the school wanted to see my wifes visa with ‘immigration permission’ and ‘medical travel insurance’ to cover the three months before BC medical covers the whole family.
I guess my next stage will be trying to sort all the stuff you wrote about ‘robinhood’…
I didnt’ know they had changed the visa for partners in BC
Well done space monkey, congrats on taking the plunge!
It seems different provinces have different rules for partners then?
Which company did you plump for if you don’t mind my asking ?
Dereko:
Well done space monkey, congrats on taking the plunge!
It seems different provinces have different rules for partners then?
Which company did you plump for if you don’t mind my asking ?
I am due out in the next two to three months all being well depending on the recent changes to the LMO rules. As for the rules for partners afaik Alberta your partner can receive an open work permit which mirrors your TWP. SK, MB, and the east coast provinces do not - according to the above BC now offer the same, i’m not sure on the restrictions though.
Spacemonkeypg:
I didnt’ know they had changed the visa for partners in BC
BC Spouse Visa.
The BC pilot programme ran from August 15th 2011 until Feburary 15th 2013 for ‘unskilled’ workers such as truck drivers.
My wife managed to get her two year visa through this British Columbia pilot programme below. This is because I arrived in January 2013 and the rules changed Feburary 15th 2013 http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2013/ob337A.asphttp://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2013/ob337A.asp
The pilot programme is still running but changed after Feburary 15th 2013 to allow spouse visas for ‘skilled’ workers only. . http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2013/ob337A.asp
As Jimbo says in another post ‘the bubble has burst’ and I think Canada is beginning to make it much more difficult to get in as a family for ‘unskilled’ workers. 