My girlfriend is American. She came up to Canada to live with me because it made sense for us, as I was already in a stable home situation with a good career paying the bills. Unfortunately she got cabin fever within a month. Legally she wasn't allowed to work in Canada, and would have required a full years stay with me unemployed before she'd be eligible for permanent residency and a work visa. She never would've lasted past February. Would've gone crazy.
Fortunately for her, she was a recent university graduate from down in Washington State. This made her eligible for the Student Work Abroad Program (S.W.A.P.) After filling out the necessary paperwork and paying the necessary fees, she got herself an open 6 month work visa. It allowed her to work practically anywhere she wanted for a period of 6 months. She got a job first with an optometrist in Cochrane/Crowchild area, then another at the University of Calgary student's union. The studen't union loves her so much that they worked with her to keep her legally employed after the visa expired, and the paperwork for her formal temporary visa is in the works now.
But we got lucky, to be honest. If she wasn't a recent graduate, we likely would've broken up by now on account of she couldn't stay sane being idle here.
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