Um, is it a new information that it's cold in Canada in the winter?

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Um, is it a new information that it's cold in Canada in the winter?

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Folks know it's cold. They just don't know it's cold. Until you've experienced the distinctive squeak of snow underfoot at -30 for a week without a break, you just don't get it's cold. Just don't appreciate it. It's one thing to read it in a book, it's another to have your nose hairs freeze while scraping your windshield.

The -20 value seemed to be a new information for the guy.

Anyway, I know something about cold. Okay, I was only in Finland for a winter, which is only -20...-15. The best thing is -20, snowing, and wind blowing into your face. I actually screamed.

Well, in Finland the wind is always blowing into your face, no matter what direction you are walking in.

The -20 value seemed to be a new information for the guy.

Anyway, I know something about cold. Okay, I was only in Finland for a winter, which is only -20...-15. The best thing is -20, snowing, and wind blowing into your face. I actually screamed.

Well, in Finland the wind is always blowing into your face, no matter what direction you are walking in.

I think people hear that it's cold and think "Oh it's like my fridge is cold." Very few people probably expect, "Oh my fridge is for keeping things warm in winter," type cold.

edit: freezer is probably more accurate than fridge.

Getting back to the topic, I don’t have experience in moving to Canada, but in my experience moving to other places in the world it depends heavily on from where you come, which means you are likely going to have to make do with general advice unless someone has specifically moved to Canada specifically from Brazil.

In general you need to be there to actually get a job. Don’t bother applying from abroad unless you have a stacked résumé and possibly inside contacts.

That simplifies the general strategy greatly: Save your money, get a tourist visa, and spend the whole time applying for jobs.

Start with small companies because they will:

#1: Be more likely to hire you.

#2: Be more timely in their responses to you. It’s great if you get a reply from Ubisoft Montreal, but not if your plane just left back home.

Some countries can convert tourist visas into working visas while others require what is called a “visa run” in which you are required to leave the country and re-enter.

The negative side to joining a small company is that they will not pay for your tickets, so you need to have a sizable amount of money saved:

#1: Enough for initial 2-way plane tickets +

#2: Food/rent/utilities for the duration of your stay (for whatever reason there is no information on lengths of tourist visas to Canada online, but it will likely be 3 months) +

#3: Spending money for that duration +

#4: Minimum of 3 week’s hotel money in Canada +

#5: Minimum of 1 week’s hotel money in the United States of America +

#6: Secondary 2-way plane tickets +

#7: No less than $5,000 padding.

#2 and #4 are separate because you will want to stay in an apartment when possible, but you will need to travel across Canada and stay in hotels too if you want to maximize your chances.

Use http://www.gamedevmap.com/ to prepare a list of studios, big and small, and use that to plan a route across the country.

You must always be immediately accessible and have a phone number they can call to reach you, and you must be prepared to turn around and head back across the country at any moment should you get an interview.

Larger studios take more time to reply, so if you want to apply just-in-case then make sure you do so as soon as possible after landing.

But again it is extremely unlikely you would get past HR filters with no local address on your résumé. Again, smaller companies should be your focus as they are also often less formal. In getting my first job, I simply called them and set up an interview. Of course a résumé was necessary but I just brought that into the interview. This situation will never happen in a major studio, so while it may be nice to hope for a lucky break, you are most likely only wasting your very limited time by applying at one.

L. Spiro

I was thinking that theres probably no beggars in canada, not because the good economical status, but because they die due cold.. o.o

Made me consider that, when I try immigrate to another country, it have to be a place that if I run out of money I will also not die due cold.

My goal was actually to start a discussion, and I'm very happy to come back here and see it! I knew L. Spiro would have something to say, have read some posts from you over the years about moving around :P Thanks for the advice.

About the cold, I have never been there, but my dad used to live in the US and had me some horror stories about the cold, hahaha. My city's temperature varies between 5~30 º C, so I dont really know about that kind of cold, but also not a fan of 25+ C temperatures.

I never really knew if I should go there and try out applying for jobs or if I should look for them before and then going there, and most people dont really have a good answer about that, so that's one of the things I always wonder about.

Funny that your learning french and don't like the cold. The east side of the country is where most of the french is spoken, and winter is usually very cold over there. The west coast rarely drops to 0 C and there is almost no french at all. If you want to develop games in Canada, you have the two biggest options. Montreal or Vancouver. Also there are a lot of game companies in south central Ontario but they are scattered all over.

Montreal is cold and french, Vancouver has moderate temperatures and is mostly English. Both would be friendly places for immigrants.

I've met many people from all over the world and the only complaint that people from other countries have is the ridiculous amount of commercials on T.V. Expect about 25% ads. Canadians are shopping addicts.

Also there are tons of charities, hostels, soup kitchens and 'day labour' offices so if you flop out on finding work you can slum it for a while without worrying about how you'll survive.

Wow, -20 sounds a lot cold. +20 in Celsius is already considered cold where I live in Brazil... maybe I should stay here!

You will get used to it. I come from a pretty warm geographical area, and went to Alaska in winter. It was like inside a freezer. After a few months, it's all part of life.

I emigrated to Canada almost 10 years ago. Lived for about 4 years in Montreal, and now almost 6 in Edmonton. Honestly, as an immigrant I'd stay away from Quebec / Montreal. When I moved to Edmonton, I found the people to be nicer (friendlier) then Montreal, many more job opportunities (not necessarily gaming related though) and higher paying jobs.

If you can afford it, I'd say go to Vancouver. Its still reasonably warm (doesn't dip much bellow 0), mostly English speaking, so you wouldn't have to worry about your French, though it still helps, and there are lots of game dev companies there.

Don't come here as a visitor, and try to apply for a job. I'm pretty sure that's illegal, and nobody will hire you without proper documents...

There are a few proper ways to get here. The quicker way would be to get a work visa, and come here with that. You will need an employer to sponsor you. I'm not sure if you can convert that into a permanent residency though, you may be required to return to Brazil after a few years.

Another way to get here is to apply for immigration. This is what I did, its a fairly lengthy process, I think it took about 3 years until I was able to come to Canada, but then you're a permanent resident, you can stay here as much as you want. After a few years, you can also apply for citizenship, and then you become a permanent Canadian citizen.

I've also heard of people who came here on student visas, as international students, and got their degree. Once they finished their degrees, they were given permanent residency. I don't know much about this, but I do know that schooling for international students is VERY expensive.