How I went about it

Just in case you're wondering how I went about it....

I used an immigration lawyer to help out. I'm torn about how useful this actually was - they did help immensely with advice and re-writing the paperwork, but I do wonder if I'd have managed by myself. On the one hand, they knew what they were doing; on the other, every piece of paperwork ended up being submitted via them, which meant that it was posted to Canada and then to its final destination, quite often in the UK - I suspect that if I'd done it direct, I could have shaved a month or so off the overall length of time.

I applied under the Quebec Skilled Workers programme. I studied French while I was at University, but let it drop afterwards, because I wasn't using it. Getting in on that program means that you don't have to have a job ready for you; on the other hand, you are expected to live and work in Quebec.

You need to be able to speak French to a reasonably good level, too - I've been taking night school classes for the last eighteen months, as well as getting one on one tuition every week. So I have a nice certificate proving that I can speak French; though I shall be quite interested to see how I manage to cope with the Quebec dialect.