Here is a very helpful set of information on moving to BC, mainly put together by Eric Baack, and updated several years ago by Mike Barker. One of these days we should start sending this out to people BEFORE they move to BC…
This is the most recent version (May 2014), updated thanks to Megan Stewart.
Edit (GB): looking for a place to stay? http://mapliv.com/ can have more postings than craigslist (which is also good).
Thanks Eric, Mike and Nolan. This will be useful for future Rieseberglers.
It will be more useful if we keep updating it here in the comments (or in the post).
The material that Eric has, very creditably, compiled is clearly inspired by the northward migration of the Rieseberg lab from Indiana. The American bias will, presumably, continue to be a realistic reflection of newcomers, but non-US lab members should make comments or add to the post to make it more “universal”. Current Americans should, of course, add new and more information. Current non-Americans will, I’m sure, appreciate how much less hostile the Canadian Immigration and border people are than their American counterparts – Hooray! Loren moved back to Canada!
The first additional thing that I can think of that people might want to know is that you should initiate all applications with Canadian Immigration in good time. This is bleedingly obvious but, nevertheless, Rose and I have left it to the last moment several times and it just increases the pressure and stress. We’ve applied for 12 month work permits from outside Canada (Australia) twice, and from inside Canada twice I think, and our experience has been that Canadian Immigration seems to have rubber-stamped our work permit applications. They are, however, very difficult to interact with – its very hard to get a human on the phone and to find out how your application is being received or to resolve a problem. We once submitted our applications without the receipt for the fee – took more than a day on the phone exploiting the free wireless in the lobby of a fancy lodge in the Grand Tetons to get an answer about what to do about that out of a CI human (admittedly, that is not so bad – but the point stands – its really hard to get a human to answer questions). And that answer was subsequently proved incorrect. In Australia, and presumably elsewhere, the Canadian authorities have a very explicit policy that you are not to contact them – there is simply no phone number you can call if you are not a Canadian. The best way to deal with this is to not make any mistakes and to submit your applications in good time so that you are not forced to follow up on your applications.
Dan E.
Another thing that is worth knowing about Canadian work permits . . .
If you are coming to the Rieseberg lab with your partner and your partner has the option of applying for her/his own work permit you should think twice before doing that. We’ve found that the Canadian Immigration authorities are quite civilised in that they don’t have a problem with spouses who aren’t married (cv US). And there is a very significant difference between standard 12 month work permits and the 12 month work permit that Canadian Immigration issues to the spouses of holders of standard 12 month permits.
Spouse work permits are open – the permit is not related to a particular job or employer. This means that if you get in to Canada with a spousal work permit (i.e. your spouse has a standard work permit that is explicitly connected to UBC and you have a spouse permit) you can change jobs without involving the immigration authorities. This is obviously far better than having a work permit that is explicitly tied to your employment in the Botany Dept at UBC.
It might not seem right but a spousal work permit is actually better than a work permit of your own.
Great resource!
Consider moving the word doc to google docs so that all edits will be kept.
I’ve fixed the broken link to Mike Barker’s version, and uploaded a more recent version I got from Megan Stewart