Immigrating to Canada as an Accountant
The winters may be colder than you’re used to, but Canada remains one of the greatest countries in the world to live and work. The largest country in the America’s and second largest in the world offers citizens free health care and high wages. Not to mention, the country is full of some of the most hospitable and friendly people you’ll find anywhere. In fact, the quality of life, the job market, and the safety of Canada all constantly rank the country among the best in the world.
Image sourced from http://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/canada
Yeah, it may not be the cheapest place to live, but land yourself a job as a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) with an average salary of $141,000, and you won’t have to worry about cost of living.
Image sourced from https://www.cpacanada.ca/en/connecting-and-news/cpa-magazine/articles/2014/january/yes-well-show-you-the-money
Depending on the business sector and location you work in, it’s not uncommon for Canadian CPA’s to make well over $200,000 per year. That, in itself, is reason to look at relocating to Canada. So, what’s involved in coming to work in Canada, as an accountant?
For most international accountants, the transition is a fairly straightforward process with three basic steps:
1.) Obtain a Canadian accounting certification
2.) Garner a job offer from a Canadian employer
3.) Apply for a work permit/visa
Let’s dig a little deeper into this process and what’s involved in each of these steps.
Internationally Certified Accountants Qualify for Canadian CPA Designation
Depending on your professional experience, education, and location, there are a number of different ways to move your accounting career to Canada. Some countries — and associated accounting institutions — make the transition easier than others, and obviously you’ll need to have a solid command of English and/or French if you’re looking to work in Canada.
Image sourced from http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/language/
There are many accounting bodies outside of Canada that have recognition agreements with Canadian accounting organisations. Basically, through a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) or Reciprocal Membership Agreement (RMA), certified and chartered accountants in various countries are recognised as qualified to Canadian standards. If you fall into one of these categories, you might have rights to Canadian certification.
Image sourced from https://www.cpacanada.ca/-/media/site/operational/ic-international-and-chapters/docs/00735-ic-faqs-for-international-trained-accountants.pdf?la=en
For example, if you’re a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia, you can obtain designation as a Canadian Chartered Accountant through the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA). Similar exchanges exist with accounting bodies in Ireland, England, New Zealand, China, and many other countries, making for a simple and streamlined transition to work in Canada.
Alternatively, if you are not an accountant with a MRA or RMA accounting body, don’t worry. There’s still a path to qualifying as an accountant and working in Canada. If you’ve been working as an accountant, but you don’t have an arranged recognition agreement, you will need to submit your request for certification in Canada to the CPA body in the province where you intend to live and work. They will evaluate your skills, experience, and education and help you proceed.
Note that you cannot operate as an accountant in Canada under the certification or designation of your home country. You will need to acquire the Canadian equivalent of your accounting designation [Chartered Accountant (CA), Certified General Accountant (CGA), or Certified Management Accountant (CMA)]. Once you have one of these designations, you can work in Canada and transition to the CPA designation.
Accounting Professionals in Demand in Canada
Before you can apply for a work permit in Canada, you’ll need to secure an offer of employment from a Canadian employer. Fortunately, there are accounting jobs aplenty in Canada at the moment, and finding a job there is much like finding an accounting job anywhere; there are countless online resources that make the search quite simple.
In addition to the broad and traditional job search sites like Indeed and CareerBuilder, there are tons of helpful sites devoted specifically to accounting jobs in Canada. AccountingJobs.ca usually has several pages of recent job postings, and CPAsource.com is chock full of job-hunting resources.
If you have the time to go on the offensive with your job hunt, CPA Canada has a massive list of accounting firms that are certified CA training offices. This is a great resource, and you can email each of these offices to inquire about job openings. (If you’re really savvy, you can import their email addresses into an email manager like MailChimp to streamline the process.
Work Permit Application Process
If you’ve made it this far — you have a Canadian accounting designation and a job offer — the rest of the immigration process is fairly simple. You’ll be applying for an “Employer-specific Work Permit” rather than an “Open Work Permit”.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/apply-who-permit.asp
If you’re applying online — which you should, because it’s easier — you’ll need to submit information from your employer that recognizes your job offer. You will also need to submit information that proves that you are qualified for the position.
In certain circumstances, depending on where you are applying from, you may need to prove your English language competency and/or acquire a visa to gain entry to Canada. Once you have all of these requirements organized, with your application package, you pay a small fee and simply wait for the results of your application.
Continuing to Work in Canada — Permanent Residency
Once you’ve established yourself living and working in Canada, you can pursue making it a permanent status. If you meet the general requirements, you can apply for your Permanent Residency (PR) status, which allows you to remain in the country, indefinitely, and glean most of the benefits of actual citizenship. From there, you can apply for citizenship, if you so choose.
While the process is fairly involved, the rewards are well worth the work. If you’re already an experienced and certified accountant, Canada has made the relocation process pretty easy, and there’s so much to be gained from a move to Canada.