Immigrate to Canada as a Permanent Resident; My experience, process to get yours and much more.

After guiding few of my friends through the whole procedure, I can now successfully guide anyone in my sleep on how to move to Canada as a Permanent Resident. Thought it was about time I use some of my day job skills as a UI developer to get the information out to everyone. Immigrating to Canada as a Permanent Resident has put my immigration problems to an end which seemed like a never ending journey in the US. I love USA, I built my career there, made some amazing friends who are like family now, but there is a threshold limit for how much a person can tolerate a life as a non-immigrant in the US. Most of the information provided here is per my experience of immigrating to Canada from the US, but has relevant general information for other countries too.

Seeing the rise in interest towards Canada especially from my fellow brothers and sisters in IT industry, cheers to your future step that I hope will only be what you dreamt of moving to a first world country!

Follow the sequence and you should have your Confirmation of Permanent Residence(COPR) within 6 months*

Let's begin!

Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score

Start by understanding your Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score and the factors that help you outnumber candidates.

• Age

  The younger you are when you apply, the better.

• Education

  The highest degree gets more points. There are additional points for your spouse education, make the most of it! Claim extra points for completing any education in Canada (obviously).

• Language skills

  Language skills include both English and French, but most of them prove their English language skills. You can give the much easier, no-hassle IELTS test that has four modules to prove your skills. Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking (Same order the actual test is given). Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) expects you to fulfill their basic language requirement so that your everyday life does not have a language barrier. The benchmark scores that get the highest points are Listening 8.5-9.0, Reading 8.0-9.0, Writing 7.5-9.0 and Speaking 7.5-9.0. A 0.5 band or 1.0 band can make a lot of difference in your language score and keep in mind that unlike University requirements the overall band score is not relevant here. I suggest spending ample time in knowing the pattern of the IELTS general training test, practice various mock tests on the IELTS website. The test itself is not cheap, costs $240 in the US plus the inconvenience of not having a test center closest to where you currently live. With a lot of demand to get a PR and move to Canada these days, the average time to get a slot depending on which state you are in, is 3-4 months in the US. Make your first shot count! There are additional points for spouse language skills, so plan to give the test together to claim those extra points. It should be a very good experience to see how your spouse got through their school days.

  Please note in the listening section, individual headsets are not provided in the US exam centers. The audio will either be played on a classic CD player or through class room speakers. Listening and speaking sections are similar for both General Training (test pattern given for immigration) and Academic (test pattern given for higher education).

• Work Experience

  Government of Canada follows a National Occupational Classification (NOC) system to classify occupations. Your experience outside of Canada must have been a paid, full-time (or an equal amount in part-time), and in only one occupation (NOC skill type 0, A or B). "Skilled work" in the NOC is: managerial jobs (NOC Skill Type 0); professional jobs (NOC Skill Type A); technical jobs and skilled trades/manual work (NOC Skill Type B). Find your NOC here. The experience is calculated for last 10 years and the points range from less than a year, 1 year, 2 years, 3 or more. So if you changed roles to different NOC's every year, you will get points for 1 year experience only. Find your closest NOC and select the best option. The officer reviewing your profile will try to closely match your responsibilities listed in your experience letters to the responsibilities listed under that particular NOC. More information on work experience. You can also claim points for any full-time experience you have obtained in Canada.

• Other factors

  Intra Company Transfer (ITC): Many of them were tempted to use ITC as an option to claim additional 50 points but sadly that is not valid job offer according the Government of Canada. Each job offer has to go through Labour Market Impact Assessment which in short is like the process to file a US Green Card. The company willing to offer you a job has to prove the Government of Canada that they failed to find and hire a candidate with similar skill set and experience within Canada, which as you might have rightly guessed, takes a very long time. Let us be thankful to the Government to tighten this path or Canadian IT market would have been in the control of body shops and fake consultancies.

  The ITC option can be arranged by your employer if they have an office in Canada and you can rightfully claim work experience points for less than a year, 1 year, 2 years and so on at the cost of losing the points for your age.

  Siblings in Canada: Additional points can be claimed for siblings in Canada who are citizens or Permanent Residents related to the applicant or spouse or common law partner(need to provide proof of living together). There are various other factor that take toll in this such as the age, relation through blood, other marriage, adoption, parent in common, step-sister/brother. I am not sure if a COPR probation period till that sibling gets the PR card can be used to claim points.

  Provincial Nomination certificate: Generally, it is more applicable for applicants who are already residing within a particular province, or who have completed their education in that province, or if their NOC matches to a high demand requirement in that province(provincial interest letter). There is a difference in provincial interest letter for your NOC and an actual nomination certificate, and you get to claim 600 points only for the latter. Please note there is a 3 year relocation probation, meaning you have to stay within the province nominating you for 3 years. Few skilled jobs which are in high demand can get a provincial nomination that have separate draws, so even if your score is around 400-430, be positive if your NOC is in demand in a particular province.

  Every quarter, few provinces announce "Targeted Notification of Interest" nominations for applicants above CRS score 400 under Human Capital Priorities Stream, that could be who either have a job offer in that province or French language skills of CLB 7 or above. Keep an eye for them if you fall below the cut-off.

Now, calculate your Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score to know where you rank in the Express Entry pool. Official CRS calculator.

Alright, moving on to my suggested sequence and actual procedure to get your Canadian Permanent Residence within 6 months*.

The whole process is designed by IRCC in such a way that there is absolutely no requirement for a consultant or a lawyer. You can find all the information on the official Government of Canada website or many other websites/blogs like mine and helpful strangers posting their inputs to confused applicants in various dedicated forums here. Unless you have unavoidable complicacies with personal factors involved and need the right answers, do not waste your money.