IELTS (or acceptable equivalent) is required for visa entry to Canada even if you originate from an English speaking country. Iirc, at least Australia and NZ are the same.

Having certain job classifications will get you more points in the express entry pool, if that’s the way you are going, it can make it easier, but already having a job/offer is worth a lot more points iirc.

That’s a very different calculation then! I can’t say I’d do it differently in your shoes. Godspeed.

If only she’d gone harder right.

Did David Duke endorse her?

What a missed opportunity.

If it’s well controlled you can pass the exam, but yeah, still adds difficulty.

You also have to take an English language exam, for migration to any English speaking country. In 2022 those were only offered in large cities, I looked at flying to Chicago for one, but the results are only good for like 2 years iirc.

And you have to get cleared by the local police of… Anywhere you’ve ever lived? (I can’t remember if there was a federal check that was also acceptable or not)

And that’s not everything, and for Canada that’s just to get in the pool for lottery.

So, do what you need to do for your family. But I’ll say this. I spent time looking into this last go round because I knew Biden was a temporary reprieve. I’m the parent of a trans kid, we did not leave the country for several reasons.

The entire western world is experiencing this dramatic rise in fascism. There’s no guarantee that you will actually avoid this long term.

Many countries (especially the UK) have draconian immigration rules, see above note about fascism.

We ultimately decided to move to a blue state, from a red one, primarily for safety reasons, and made it happen over a couple years. We are far happier in this situation and are now able to help extract other loved ones from similar situations.

Again, do what you need to do for yours and your family’s safety, but you’re in for a tough go of it regardless of what you choose.

ETA: I went as far as interviewing for some jobs in Canada after building my immigration profile and starting the job search in NZ.

“per my last email” = you’ve critically failed your reading comprehension check and I’m real tired of holding your hand on this, which is why I’ve cc’d your supervisor.

In response to that…

Try this on

We’re semi-rural (multi acre lots often with houses set almost at the back of lots), this was my first Halloween out here, I was following the kids with a car cause it was cold and snowy. But apparently the other parents in the neighborhood all hang out and set up a flatbed trailer with a fire pit, lawn chairs, and beer just being hauled around by a UTV. I need to learn how to make friends as an adult.

Mmmm Republicans giving us repression?

Don’t forget Louisiana… My wife’s favorite.

I’ve always had to drug test exactly once for my jobs. I feel that it’s probably different for retail workers.

Doesn’t even have to be actual booze. Apple cider vinegar + a drop of dawn dish soap works a treat.

Honestly it’s baffling. They wouldn’t have even had to actually do anything. They could have just let a Palestinian-American come up and say generic “we have to do better for the people of Gaza and the people of the world” type of shit and they would have even said that they endorsed Kamala. That’s it, and a shitload of people would have been at least able to lie to themselves and say “ok, she’ll do something different.” But they couldn’t even be asked to go through the motions this time.

It’s such fucking smooth brained reactionary shit, you don’t get to act like Republicans because Republicans will never vote for you, the ones that will are only ever going to do it to not vote for the current fascist, and their policy led to him.

I guess maybe the taste of David Frum’s approval is sweeter than winning an election.

The Pope?

Believe it or not, also Hamas.

Travel agent saved my ass about 10 years ago when my connecting flight was delayed in air while I was on it. Completely missed the final leg of my journey because of a storm. Middle of the night and she helped me switch everything over and rent a car to drive the rest of the way and even got me upgraded to a more fun one. This was when I was going to a job interview and flying in the night before.

Not only does this bullshit backfire spectacularly sometimes resulting in our current political climate. It also results in the “not frothing at the mouth” style of reactionaries to flee to the only other viable alternative, dragging the Overton window further right.

At best this asshole is a moron, accidentally damaging the people he thinks he’s trying to help. At worst this asshole is an asshole who’s fine with dragging the country further into a right-wing shit hole because his team wins now and he gets his treats no matter what.

Man, TomTom had some kickass ones. Vader was on mine for too long.

There’s always something at least a little off about anybody who earns a PhD.

I’ve met a lot of them, and some of them are good at hiding it, but it’s always something…

Might be. I remember them being marketed as “no return rentals”

I startled my dogs laughing at that last bit.

Last time I dealt with Matlab much was like fifteen years ago when I was helping some people using it for quick interpretation of data. We just kept finding bugs that caused calculation errors (which they fixed pretty quickly TBF) and it was so much slower than any other general programming language we tried. It could be way better now, I wouldn’t know, I haven’t had call to use it since… A circuit simulation class?