Pieter(45)

For twenty years I worked as a process engineer at chemical companies on the Chemelot site in Geleen. Good work, but salaries in the Dutch process industry stagnated while costs rose. Through an international recruitment agency specializing in oil and gas, I was connected with a Canadian company seeking engineers for oil sands projects in the Edmonton region.

My employer handled the LMIA application. In the oil and gas industry, the engineer shortage is so severe that LMIA applications are approved relatively quickly — in my case it took six weeks. With the positive LMIA I could apply for a work permit through IRCC. The entire process from first contact to landing in Edmonton took five months.

Edmonton is the gateway to the Canadian oil and gas industry. The city itself is surprisingly livable — the River Valley park system is the largest urban parkland in North America. Winters are brutal (minus 30 to minus 40 degrees is normal), but summers are long and warm. The salary compensated for everything: I earn nearly double what I made in Limburg, with lower taxes thanks to Alberta's lack of PST.

Working on oil sands projects is different from a European chemical plant. The scale is gigantic — some sites are larger than cities. I work a rotation schedule: two weeks on site in Fort McMurray, two weeks off in Edmonton. The fly-in fly-out life isn't for everyone, but it gives me alternating intense work and long free periods.

The adjustment was harder for my wife Claudia. She worked as a teacher in the Netherlands, but her diploma wasn't directly recognized in Alberta. She had to get an equivalency assessment through IQAS (International Qualifications Assessment Service) and complete additional courses at the University of Alberta. After a year she had her Alberta Teaching Certificate and now works at an elementary school in Sherwood Park.

After three years we have applied for PR status through the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program. We bought a large house with double garage in an Edmonton suburb for a price that would be unthinkable in Limburg. My RRSP (retirement savings plan) is growing well and we have started planning for Canadian citizenship. It was financially the best decision of our lives.