Coming to Canada

[EuroAviator]

Hello all

I'm currenty serving as First Officer on the Airbus A320 in Europe with a pretty good airline however have always been interested in moving to Canada. I'm British and I don't have Canadian citizenship nor a Canadian license. I have 4000hrsTT with 3600hrs on the A320.

I know this is a long shot but would a Canadian airline be able to sponsor my work visa if I were to apply and be successful? Have any other Europeans moved to Canada and joined an airline? If so what have been your experiences? What about transfering your JAA license?

All feedback will be appreciated.

Kind Regards,

[fish4life]

Similar topic here: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=72127

on a side note is all your time FO time? if so that may be a hurdle to cross coming to Canada

[EuroAviator]

Unfortunatley it is all FO time. Is getting in as direct entry captain easier? What are the chances that Air Canada will be able to sponsor me for a work visa?

[fish4life]

I would think pretty much zero chance there is tons of guys here with 5000+ hours most of that MPIC trying to get on to Air Canada and WestJet

[fingersmac]

Unfortunatley it is all FO time. Is getting in as direct entry captain easier? What are the chances that Air Canada will be able to sponsor me for a work visa?

No, they will not sponsor you. Why would they have to or need to? There are several thousand applicants on file who meet the basic qualifications which include Canadian citizenship or landed immigrant status.

If you truly want to work for a Canadian airline, then your best bet is to figure out how to gain landed immigrant status/permanent resident. Once you're a landed immigrant/permanent resident and have converted your license, you can apply to Air Canada or whomever else and join the thousands waiting for an interview.

[wirez]

Will any European airline sponsor me to work for them?

[Pilot1500]

For a canadian pilot to make it to a major airline in canada is a very big accomplishment. We don't have the luxury like you guys have in europe to go from 200 hrs to an FO on a 320. I'm sure you are qualified to fly here but the airlines/government will not sponsor/grant you a work visa when there are thousands of canadian pilots looking for that job with ac or westjet.

[LegoMan]

Dream Fail

[TA/RA]

Euro Aviator Let me ask you this:

Hi Im Canadian, I $%*@ like a stallion and have always wanted to go british. Would you sponsor me to come to England and crawl into bed with your wife? Or perhaps you could invite "fingersmac"
(the filter from my brain to my fingers isnt working this morning)

TARA

[LegoMan]

Euro Aviator Let me ask you this:

Hi Im Canadian, I $%*@ like a stallion and have always wanted to go british. Would you sponsor me to come to England and crawl into bed with your wife? Or perhaps you could invite "fingersmac"
(the filter from my brain to my fingers isnt working this morning)

TARA

Douche response...

[wallypilot]

Euro Aviator Let me ask you this:

Hi Im Canadian, I $%*@ like a stallion and have always wanted to go british. Would you sponsor me to come to England and crawl into bed with your wife? Or perhaps you could invite "fingersmac"
(the filter from my brain to my fingers isnt working this morning)

TARA

Total idiot response.

Euroaviator, compared to Europe, Canada has very little choice in the way of airline employment. If you got employed at Air Canada or West Jet, you'd start at a relatively low pay, and take ages to regain whatever salary you are making now. You have probably invested heavily in your JAA license and European life, so unless you have a desire to move to Canada permanently for very good reasons outside of just a desire to fly here, I wouldn't encourage the move here. Travel here on your time off if it's just the experience of Canada that you want.

Your employability is much more mobile in Europe, there are many more options, and with time like that, when the economy turns around, I would expect you'll be looking at a command upgrade in the not too distant future, no?

If you are employed by a "pretty good airline", then I'd thank your lucky stars, because tonnes of guys out there are flying for ryan air, or whatever other crappy lo-cost just looking to get to a place where they are reasonably happy.

I'm not protectionist, or anything....just telling it like it is. There's a reason there are so many foreign pilots working in Europe. That's where the jobs are and the good money. Canada has relatively few jobs, and other than a few exceptions, very poor pay.

[TA/RA]

GUILTY AS CHARGED!

That was a total douche response I take responsibly. IT was just my sick twisted warped sense of humor first thing in the morning. I apologize EuroAviator , I didnt mean it as a personal attack although Im sure that is how it reads. I feel like the now.

[Med Pilot]

Hey,

For all of you that think that Europeis easy pickings to find a flying job, forget it! There are many who do their training and get the CPL and end up with nothing. Although Gen Av is small in Europe, there are some good opportunities. Personnaly I think it's rediculous that airlines take low time pilots over experienced pilots with time. This is quite common. Ryanair, Esy Jet and many other carriers higher the majority of their pilots right out of school. In Europe, it's more who you know than what you know. I'm aware the same exists in Canada. I've done my license conversion, only because I was guaranteed a job, otherwise I would be back in Canada because that's home.

If you go the instructor route in Europe, be prepared for your students to beat you to your dream position, especially if they have the connections. Then you get stuck at the bottom. I definitely prefer the Canadian system because at least after you get your single time you will be in a better position to get the multi job then the new grad. And when you get your MPIC on a pistont, you will have a better chance than those below you in experience. In Europe, time means nothing.

So no need to slug anyone making an enquiry because the grass is always greener on the otherside and I'm speaking as both a Canadian and a European.

Cheers!

[UKPilot]

Grab the right to live and work in Canada - that's your first step. Unfortunately there are a ton of very experienced and very competent Canadian pilots out there so the airlines really can pick and choose from the guys who tick all the easy boxes (easy boxes in the airlines view) - right to live and work in Canada, Canadian ATPL etc. Then you just gotta bug the crap out of them (tastefully of course).

It is a very tough industry to break into no matter how much time you have. I'm in a similar situation as you with all airbus time, albeit with have half your time but my advantage is that I have my Canadian passport and the ratings to work there and I still can't manage to get a phone call. Not trying to deter you by any means, you just really have to push hard for it (like anything really). You will unfortunately find a lot of resistance from some people on this board, but it's absolutely not a dream fail as mentioned above because it can be done. I mean it's my only long term goal in aviation, so I refuse to accept that it can't be done (which is backed up my fact).

Good luck with this all dude.

[Scuba_Steve]

I've heard enough accents on the radio from call signs like WestJet, Air Canada and Jazz to know that it can and has been done. But it'll take more than trying to get an airline to sponsor you. Come, convert your license and fly a King Air for a few years and visit all the cool towns with the word 'Fort' in them.

Cheers