Professional emigration - Part 1 - The problem of chicken and eggs and how to deal with it, as well as dispelling myths

Hello, Habrayuzer.



With this post I would like to start a cycle (if time permits and it will be interesting for the audience) about professional emigration, especially without reference to the employer.



It is no secret that many people in Russia, due to various well-known circumstances, wish to move to another country. Programmers, scientists, to a lesser extent, doctors, it is easier than others.



The scenario until 2008 was usually the same - you reached a good level in the profession and knowledge of the English language, posted a CV on monster.com and after several phone interviews and invitations for an in-person interview. Then, dancing with a visa, moving and working in a new place.

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However, even in the pre-crisis times, this was not all smooth, and now - even more so. The reason is simple - people in democratic countries require governments to restrict access to the labor market for foreign workers, so an employer can hire either a limited number of foreigners, or strain heavily and / or spend money or wait to apply for a foreigner. For these efforts, he will pay the employee a salary below the market, and the employee will have to be superloyal to his slave ... employer until he gets a residence permit - a work visa is usually tied to the employer. It’s also impossible to get a work visa without an invitation to work. Without work there is no visa, without a visa there is no work - chicken & egg problem.



However, there is a solution for this problem - you need to move to countries that have an independent professional emigration program. The essence of the program is that an invitation from the employer is not required, but it is necessary to convince the official that you will be able to engage in highly skilled labor for the benefit of the local economy, and not to take work from the moderately qualified local population. This is done by recruiting the necessary points, the rules are everywhere and often change.



Countries with such a program are the UK , Canada , Australia , New Zealand . Denmark , Isle of Man and Hong Kong are less well known. Austria and (separately) the European Union are going to launch a similar program. Unfortunately, programmers can no longer get to the UK or Canada with these programs. However, with the improvement of the economic climate we can expect the re-opening of doors.

Edit : Thanks to Cancel for the amendment , you can still make it to Canada through a regional program.



There are a lot of myths about emigration, from which I would like to save you, I'll start with the simplest ones:

• It is enough to buy property in a new country and a residence permit - in your pocket . I did not see anything like this, if anyone knows examples and can refer to the primary sources - write.
• The main thing is to find a job, and everything else will follow . Work is important, but it should be clearly understood that your goal is the citizenship of your chosen country (we will leave aside seliger-patriotic songs). Now you are a valuable specialist, and now look at those who are now over 50, who can solder TV from scratch from radio components or write by heart in machine codes, only nobody needs their knowledge and if they offered them abroad, now would go home. But if you have a passport, then you will not have to return to your homeland under old age and get used to its realities again. It is necessary to clearly understand what leads to citizenship, and what does not. For example, the Tier2 ICT British Work Visa does not entitle you to a residence permit or switch to another category, no matter how much you work on it, Tier2 does so far, but the law can be changed at any time, including for those who already had arrived. And your new employer is unlikely to focus on this. Therefore, before touching the suitcase, you must have a clear plan for obtaining a residence permit and then citizenship. How many years and under what conditions will you have to wait for one or another status? In addition, you need to find out what decisions were made by the immigration authorities of the country of your dreams and how this affected the already arrived.
• Enough to come on any visa, and there, on the spot, we shall understand . The most dangerous mistake is that you risk spending years of life in hard work (the aborigines make it easy), then leave with nothing.
• Go to the countries of the "second tier" easier . Unfortunately not. Usually the labor market is less, the attitude towards foreigners is, let's say, more alert, the language is special (if it didn’t work with the H1B “slave visa” in the USA, you can go to Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the UK, the language is almost the same, but Where will you go after learning Czech, Danish or even German or French?) and usually wait longer for citizenship.
• My friend successfully became a% CountryName% citizen five years ago, I will go to him, I will still do it . Immigration law is changing all the time, almost always for the worse, you cannot enter the same river.
• I will find a good immigration lawyer and I will succeed . A lawyer is not interested in the result, but in payment. You, and no one else, should know about immigration law. Immigrant forums will probably help you more, although each answer is worth checking back.
• To go abroad, you need to be a Nobel laureate . No, you just need to explore the many sources of information, develop a plan and act.
• Now I am not ready because (add your own reason), and in five years I will go. The faster you get there, the better. There is a global tendency to close the doors for immigrants, and the older you are, the harder it is to adapt and learn the language.

Now the most interesting, in my opinion, links:

• An old, but very comprehensive review of immigration laws of different countries
• A very useful comparison of countries , it all began with this wonderful post. Please add your entries here.
• List of forums by country

Please, if you know more countries with independent immigration programs or interesting links - write.



About the author - I moved from Russia to the UK three years ago, I work for a company whose name is familiar to most on Habré.



PS Dear administrators of Habr, well, finally make the IT immigration hub. See how many posts about this topic, but there is no hub.