I won't kid you, getting the visa is one thing, finding a job once you're here is another. From what I can tell it is almost impossible to get a job from a distance - i.e. before you get your Landed Immigrant papers unless you are in a very specialised field.

Employers are loathe to even interview you unless you have permission to work here - they can apply for a work permit for you but it is a bit of a hassle and why do it when they can probably find a Canadian or Landed Immigrant to do the job - in which case the permit won't be granted anyway.

I can certainly recommend coming here on vacation to get a feel for the job market and to start networking and making contacts. However do not succumb to the temptation for work illegally, if you get caught you will have screwed up your chances of the visa altogether. I can't stress this enough - don't mess about with the rest of your life for the sake of a few weeks or months work.

Having said all of that - how do you find work?

• Network This is probably the best way to find work. Certainly it's the way we did and most of the new immigrants we know. Hang around on newsgroups that relate to your occupation, also national newsgroups, hobby groups. Anything at all that will get people to know you. If possible make a webpage with your resume and make sure you have the address in your signature file so that it goes out on every e-mail a posting you make. Contact professional associations and join.

• Newspapers Though the papers appear to be full of jobs I understand from people who know more about these things than I do that less than 10% of the jobs available are advertised this way. And to make matters even worse, sometimes they are advertising even though the job has actually already been filled but they do it to satisfy union or legal rules about job placement. Most newspapers have a set day a week that the job ads come out. In Manitoba it is Saturday.

• HRDC this is the government agency. to be honest we didn't find it to be a lot of use. The jobs on offer tend to be minimum wage but it's worth a visit, who knows, everything helps.

• Employment Agencies There are many in every city across Canada. Certainly in the IT industry they have enormous success in placing people and I know of two people personally who had several job offers within a week of registering with an agency. Both were computer programmers.

Taxes!!

Well folks, they're high. Not as high as some Scandinavian countries but certainly a lot higher than the US. About on a par with the UK I suppose, all told.

I can't give you examples of how much tax you will pay on any given salary because it varies according to where you live. One must pay federal income tax and (in most provinces) provincial income tax. The end of the tax years is the same as in the US - end of December - with tax due by April. Like the US you can claim all kinds of things, including (bless their little enlightened cotten socks) child care costs - something I could have done with all those years ago when my children were little and I was paying through the nose for child care back in the UK. Ah well.

I strongly recommend that you employ an accountant to do your taxes for you. It really is not at all expensive for the average family and worth it anyway. They know what they're doing, you don't. I got audited the first year we were here because the automated system could not understand why I didn't exist in January - we landed in February and had no income anywhere in the world in January. Computers don't like zeros.

Added to the joys of income tax is sales tax.

GST Goods and Services Tax....7% on just about everything except your granny"s armpits .....goes to the Federal Government.

PST is Provincial Sales Tax and is what helps to pay for all that free medicine and the multitude of other things that actually are pretty good - (Carolyn stands back and waits to be flamed to death from people who don"t think it is worth it :-) ) -

In Manitoba this is another 7%.... so!! if you buy something - a car/stereo/meal......anything ! expect to pay %14 on top of the price quoted. There all kinds of weird sales promotions that say "We pay the GST" which basically mean they are cutting prices by7% to get your business ...... believe me, I am pretty certain the government still gets its share.

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