Roads To Employment

I need to preface this with the fact that I am not, in anyway, an expert on immigrating to Canada.  The following post includes the pathways that I have come across to begin working as an RN in Canada.  I will share what I do know, but always contact the required organizations and verify the steps for yourself.

Ways that I know of to work in Canada as a US RN:

1) Be amazingly well trained bringing something spectacular to the table that only you and a few others can provide.  You will probably be hired because you are that incredible.  Your new employer will most likely take care of all the paperwork which I believe involves their completion of a  Labour Market Opinion and submit to HRSDC gets taken care of.  The following link explains what the Labour Market Opinion is and when it is needed:  http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/workplaceskills/foreign_workers/ei_tfw/lmi_tfw.shtml

2) If you have completed your education and this is a move you are making on your own, start all of your paperwork for immigration and RN licensing 18 months or more before you want to move.  Start with the CNO and the Immigration websites.  (Both links are available on my last blog posting.)

3) Come to Canada as a student.  This helps clear a path way to a work permit and eliminates the need to prove education and also allows you to be eligible for the new nurse guarantee.  Nurses who graduate from Ontario programs are assured nursing positions after graduation.  Under this program you can work, after you finish your nursing program,  as a nurse graduate before you pass the CRNE.  It is a supervised nursing position but at least you are getting a paycheck and getting experience while all the testing process takes place. This is the link to that program:      htttp://www.healthforceontario.ca/en/Home/Nurses/Training_%7C_Practising_In_Ontario/Nursing_Strategy/Nursing_Graduate_Guarantee

4) Marry a Canadian.  I am amazed at the questions I have had to answer, as well as the proof of a "real" relationship we have had to provide, but I realize this system is abused.  If you happen to fall in love with a Canadian and you decide as a couple that Canada is the right place to live then your spouse can sponsor you.  This is what we are in the midst of right now. File immigration as soon as you are married.  Begin the RN process before you are married.  You must have the right to work to actually obtain your RN in Ontario, but there is so much to do that beginning your RN application right away allows both immigration and licensing to be processing at the same time.

A personal update:
My CRNE was 4 weeks and 5 days ago.  My results are expected in the mail at any moment!  I still do not have a completed immigration but that is also on schedule to be done any day now (though it could still be a few months).  In the interim I hope to be offered an RN nursing position which I can then take to immigration with the hope that I will receive a work permit.  With a work permit I will be given my RN from the CNO (assuming of course that I have passed the CRNE).

My fingers are crossed and I am hopeful that I will be working soon!

Stephanie