Я попросила одного знакомого из Виктории прочитать эту ветку и написать своё мнение. Вот что он ответил, попросив отметить, что он не занимается эмиграцией и много лет уже очень далёк от этих вопросов:
OK, read it... please keep in mind that it has been too long since I knew much about immigration, things change... so my point of view might not be up to date. But for what it's worth:
1. Sponsorship by the future husband is her most reliable way, although not very quick; the rest is nit faster and with less odds of success
2. Social workers in Victoria are like rice in China. Whoever you meet is a social worker (well, I am exaggerating a bit but still)
3. Studying for that is popular, many do that. Main problem is to find job after that. There is nothing guaranteed in this. "A lot of pensioners so you won't be left without a job" is widespread misinformation. There are a lot of people wanting those jobs too.
There are jobs aside of "serving old folks," this is not the only thing in Victoria... but there are a lot of competitors for any of those jobs as well, Victoria as you well know is not exactly an industrial center.
4. Her dream to find a job as an editor of something russian language based is unrealistic. There is nothing of this kind here, and there are about 100 russian speaking that will jump on any chance to do that before her.
5. I know a successful editor who made a business out of it. But it's entirely english-language thing, and she turned into book designer rather than text editor, practically leaving her russian aside. However her skills in turning text into actual book came very handy.
To sum it up, it's possible to make inroads in different ways, but none of them is as fast and easy as to do it without husband support for a few years...
Unless he can do it (and sounds like he can't), she might have to try and get some dirty job to support herself while studying