Want to move to North Canada from with partner.

loriangel14, RN · Feb 4, 2016

The biggest stumbling block may be your education. Canada requires a BSN to be licensed as an RN.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Feb 4, 2016

You can look at employer based work permit however most employers require a provincial licence or at least eligibility to sit local exam which shows you have met requirements. Canada accepts applications as common law as long as you can show documented proof you have lived together for over 12 months. As mentioned BSN is the norm but you really need to check out the college of RN for the province/territories you wish to live and work and see what requirements are

kp1987 · Feb 4, 2016

Places in northern canada also like to have nurses with lots of experience as resources are limited and the closest place can be hours away. Do you have experience working in extremely remote communities?

Fiona59 · Feb 4, 2016

North Alaska isn't part of Canada.

when you say partner, are you in a same sex partnership? Small towns aren't always welcoming

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Feb 4, 2016

I have looked at how do this process over the last couple years but still seem fuzzy on it. It just now is getting to the point where we could actually start the process. But where do I begin? Also, should I hire an agency/lawyer to guide us or try to do in by myself?

One thing you must know about health care in Canada is that hospitals aren't quite free-standing entities with have absolute control over their hiring. They're part of a larger health care system in the province or territory with standardized hiring practices. So there isn't really a role for employment agencies in staffing them. There are some agencies that can assist with the immigration angle, although they're not without flaws. This week a person running such an agency plead guilty to violations of a long list of immigration and employment laws resulting from her exploitation of her clients.

My partner is a Mexican citizen and lives in Mexico and does not have a visa to come to the US. I also live with him in Mexico, but work in the US.

Place of residence is considered along with citizenship in the immigration process. This may be a bit of a snag for you.

We are looking at North Canada and Iqaluit and Rankin's Inlet in Nunavut are interests as well as possibly Yellowknife. I know nursing shortages wax and wane but I'm wondernig if those places have more needs than like say Vancouver or Toronto..?

I'm a little surprised that you asked this. Of course there's a huge difference in the need for stable staffing between those areas. Toronto is Canada's largest city, with over 6 million people. Vancouver has 2 1/2 million people and is the third largest city in Canada. Both are meccas for immigrants for a lot of reasons (limited knowledge of Canada is one, climate - both are temperate with little snow - is another) and have large ethnic enclaves. Iqaluit, on the other hand, is one of the LARGER locales in the north and has a population of about 2370 people. Their catchment area covers thousands of square miles of barren land with small villages dotted throughout. Trauma and chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease are the main health care issues. The lack of resources in these northern communities means health care providers must have lots of experience, strong skills and a broad knowledge base.

My biggest question is, how should I begin? Should I apply through the skilled worker program for myself with my partner on the application before I even think about hospitals? Or is there an avenue to pursue by which I can directly apply to the hospital and they will start the process for me to get visa/work permit etc? How much money should I have to finance the move and how much does the hospital pay for? Obviously I would be the main breadwinner in North Alaska although my partner (not a nurse) is fully bilingual English/Spanish and should be able to find some kind of job up there.

You're mixing up immigration processes with regulatory processes in this paragraph. There's a surplus of health care providers in Canada at the present time and no hospital, city, province/territory or health region is providing any incentive or assistance to foreign nurses, with the possible exception of QuÃ©bec. However, QuÃ©bec has a LOT of strings attached to their offers and are getting a lot tougher on applicants doe to the number of people who have abused the process by coming to Canada through QuÃ©bec and immediately moving to another province.

CIC will want you to provide evidence of enough available cash to support you and your partner totally for at least a year. If you chose Vancouver you'd be looking at probably $100,000. If you go to Iqualuit and have a guaranteed full time job, the amount would be a lot less since the health region would pay you an allowance for the isolation. BUT... gorceries in Iqualuit are astronomically expensive because of transportation costs.

I looked at the Skills Trade option and apparently RNs aren't being recruited through that program currently. Also for the skills worker program, it says you have to have a continuous year of full-time work at the SAME job...?? What if you were offered a job by a Canadian employer, do they still require the continuous year of full-time work?

Immigration rules apply over and above all others. There's no point in regulating someone who isn't allowed into the country, right? Here again you're confusing immigration with employment. And as other posters have pointed out, entry to practice as a registered nurse in Canada requires a BScN. So your application to a regulatory body for registered nurses such as the College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia would be rejected out of hand. You'd more likely be considered for registration as a practical nurse based solely on your education. Practical nurses are not usually one of the skilled professions listed for the skilled worker program.

PS Oh, and I do know that the places I mentioned get SUPER COLD! :-)

They aren't only cold, they're dark for about 3 months a year, they don't see even a glimmer of sun from late November to late February. It's more than a lot of people can handle.