Making the move from Canada to the States.

Get an immigration lawyer.

 

No need. I can tell him without charging him hundreds or even thousands of dollars that as it stands right now he has no chance.

 

All too true ... at my previous stop we had someone from Alberta apply for a spot on the copy desk and we would have loved to hire her, except for the months it would take jumping through all the hoops with immigration.

 

I have been seriously looking to try to emigrate to the US for a while. Green Card lottery does not apply to Canadians.

There are also only a certain number of employer sponsored green cards that get issued each year and they go pretty quick.

If you are not committed to emigrating and just want to work in the US you may be able to get a company to get you a NAFTA visa which is designed for people to work in the US for a year at a time.

The downside to this visa is it is hard to convert it if you intend to immigrate and if the USCBP officer at any border crossing thinks you are trying to permanently reside in the US he can deny you entry, NAFTA visa or not.

 

There should be a journalist trading agreement. I'd love to work for the Toronto Sun, Globe & Mail or National Post. Unfortunately, from what I hear, it's even harder to get a Canadian work visa than an American work visa, though I admittedly don't know the details.

 

I would look into trying to get work in another field that can help with your immigration situation, then try to string for a local paper to build up a body of work and clips on this side of the border.

Or, of course, you could just come in illegally like everyone else.

 

Well, you don't like hockey and you dont think Strange Brew is funny...maybe you can apply for sanctuary status?

 

Better yet, marry one. Then you won't have to work.

 

On my Canadian Rockies honeymoon, nearly 21 years ago, I had an impromptu coffee/interview with then then-ASE of the Edmonton Journal. He had seen my clips at a journalism conference in the US and told my ASE at the paper I was toiling at part-time how much he liked them. My ASE passed on the regards and told me if I was headed that way to call him.

So when I got to Edmonton, I did. And he called back to set up a coffee meeting. A half-hour turned into an hour-and-a-half and we almost missed our plane home. He was a finalist for an SE job at another paper and was interested in hiring me if he got that gig. The gist was that if they had an opening and wanted to hire me, they could make it happen. I was skeptical, but he said it could work.

Unfortunately, he never got the call -- and neither did I. Because I'd of moved there in a hurry.

 

That's the sad truth. Like so many things, it seems like if you try to play by the rules, you wind up in an endless bundle of red tape.

 

I once read an article by a network news correspondent about how had been an illegal appearing on nationwide television. He came over to go to college. A local television station saw him on the university station, picked him up, and off his career went. And nobody thought to ask if he has a green card.

 

Must be white.