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 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

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

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

A lot of us have spent our lives masking and suppressing other issues because we were told that all of these issues were due to some kind of inherent badness. “you’re so full of capability, if only you weren’t so fucking lazy” - on repeat, for years, from everyone you love and trust.

It fucks you up. And when you realize that if literally anyone in your life had taken a step back and helped you get the actual tools you needed (often medication, and occupational therapy) you get so sad and angry at all the waste and internalized self-hatred.

I wasn’t diagnosed until after I’d flamed out my first couple semesters at college. First time I took medication after being diagnosed I cried. It’s taken more than a decade of therapy to undo most of the damage.

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.

But but my freeze peach!!1!21!

I live with some ducks. They’re pretty great. They give me eggs now, and poop. So. Much. Poop.

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?

In all reality it’s fine for what it does, just like every other language. It’s another tool in the box that’s most useful for a certain set of problems.

Matlab shouldn’t, in my opinion, be used to construct a GUI, or generally be used for any sort of production code. Perfectly fine as a research tool though.

But I digress, my overall point is a meaningless semantic joke. The only people who will get bent out of shape about splitting hairs between “scripting” and “programming” are all people who belong in this community.

TigerDirect eventually acquired the rights for the Circuit City name, years after the stores closed. They were great for awhile, it was just weird that they tried to revive the brand.

I bought my first PC parts at CompUSA, which… I don’t think I’ve seen for a very long time lol. Definitely used TigerDirect when I was in college though.

Oh it shouldn’t, seeing as how it’s a scripting language and not actually for programming lol

Unregulated capitalism destroys everything it touches, including itself.

Oh that was wild too, those color changing DVDs.