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| Oh, Canada! |
I wasn't going to write this post, but I can't keep my frustrations to myself any longer. So, excuse the Friday morning whine.
The first bureaucracy frustration ... Canadian Immigration. As some of you may know, I'm planning on staying in Canada for a while (not my first preference, but the man is here and his very-good-and-difficult-to-find-elsewhere job). So, we are going through the complicated, time consuming and stressful experience of exploring permanent residency options. And, let me get this out of the way first - yes, we could get married, but even then, the process can take up to 18 months. We would prefer not to have to get married just for the benefit of the immigration office. There are, of course, other immigration options, mainly revolving around employment. Unfortunately, Canada isn't looking for lovely, enthusiastic Australian teachers ... they can't even provide their own teachers with jobs. More on the teaching issue later. So, unless, I have some entrepreneurial dream, Canada doesn't want me. The situation is even further complicated by the fact that I spend some of the year in Australia, which discounts me for the 'Canadian Experience' class, where after two years of full time work in Canada, you are deemed 'experienced' in Canadian culture and they are willing to let you live here forever. After hours and hours of spare time spent on the immigration website, getting even more confused, we have decided to get some expert advice. In the next few weeks, we are going to meet with a member of parliament (it's in their job description to help wannabe permanent residents) and if that doesn't get us anywhere, a costly immigration lawyer.
The second bureaucratic frustration ... teaching certification. Obviously, if I want to stay in Canada, I need to be able to work, which is easier said than done. In January, I put in my application for teaching certification and the process is still continuing. The application required me submitting all the important documents like reference letters, university results, evidence of teaching certification in Australia and ... my high school results! That's right. I needed to submit an original high school certification, along with detailed descriptions of all the subjects I studied 13 years ago in Year 11 and 12 (and university). Not only that, but they wouldn't accept any documents from me, they had to come directly from the institution. Fast forward to June, when my application was finally evaluated. They seemed happy with all my documents, but in order to get certified, I have to do a university course (6 months) in Canadian Studies. Which is frustrating, but there are some really cool subjects to choose from, so it could be okay. I also can't get certification until a school board wants to hire me, but ... they have to prove that they can't hire a Canadian teacher to fill the spot. Which is all incredibly frustrating given that I know which school I want to work at and the school wants to hire me. So much red tape in between us! The final straw came when I learned that the teaching system here doesn't recognise any teaching experience outside of Canada. So, when I finally get a job here, I will go right back to the bottom of the pay scale.
Ah, that feels good to get all of that out! Hopefully next time I write about immigration and teaching certification it will be because I have those precious little pieces of paper in my hand (along with a job!). Wish me luck!
2 comments:
Urgh, I feel your pain. We've started the residency process, sending off the enormous envelope full of delightful month-by-month details about everything we'd been doing since turning 18, and all of that sort of thing. Luckily we were able to go with the Canadian Experience Class though - although Provincial Nominee and Skilled Worker class would also have been an option for us, the CEC were being processed faster... then at least... now they seemed to have slowed down considerably. It took 6.5 months for our Acknowledgement of Receipt to turn up, and now nearly 8 months later and we haven't heard anything else yet. Oh, and we got to take the English tests too, that was awesome (and delightfully expensive). During the oral interview section, I was asked when I started learning English. Good fun.
Thanks for sharing your story Megan! (even if it's not the positive story I hoped to hear!) It's incredibly frustrating at the moment, but we're inching through bit by bit. I hope you had a great time in Iceland!
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