The Cana­dian Par­lia­ment In Ottawa

Wel­come to my new series, “How to immi­grate to Canada“!

I recently received quite a lot of emails, ask­ing me ques­tions about the immi­gra­tion process. So I decided to explain the whole process in 10 posts, which will be pub­lished every Saturday.

I also encour­age you to ask any ques­tion you may have. I’m not an immi­gra­tion con­sul­tant, but from expe­ri­ence, I may be able to point you to the right direction!

In the series, we will see the dif­fer­ent options you have to come to Canada, as well as your rights and duties as a Per­ma­nent Res­i­dent, what hap­pens after you arrive etc.

Here are the answers to the ten most com­mon immi­gra­tion questions.

I hate liv­ing in my coun­try, I’m des­per­ate to come to Canada

I often receive emails that basi­cally explain that. This is a tough one: as much as I can sym­pa­thize with some­one liv­ing in a coun­try at war, or with a lot of eco­nomic prob­lems, there is no per­fect answer.

Canada does wel­come refugees. How­ever, the sit­u­a­tion has to be pretty severe in your home coun­try: the appli­cant must “have been, and con­tinue to be, seri­ously and per­son­ally affected by civil war or armed con­flict, or have suf­fered mas­sive vio­la­tions of human rights“. This is not always easy to prove…

If you don’t fit in the refugee cat­e­gory, you may apply in one of the many immi­gra­tion cat­e­gories.

I don’t have enough point to immi­grate through the skilled worker category

In order to immi­grate in the skilled worker cat­e­gory, you must meet the min­i­mum pass mark. You can use the free eli­gi­bil­ity tools to see if your appli­ca­tion would be eli­gi­ble to be processed. For those who plan to set­tle in Que­bec, take the test here, for those who plan to set­tle any­where else, it’s this test.

If you don’t pass the test, it’s not the end of the world! Don’t send your appli­ca­tion, because it won’t be processed. Instead, take some time to see if you can improve your chances of being selected.

The selec­tions fac­tors (edu­ca­tion, lan­guage abil­i­ties, expe­ri­ence, age, arranged employ­ment and adapt­abil­ity) can usu­ally be improved. Focus on tak­ing some French or Eng­lish classes, improve your work expe­ri­ence or take a trip to Canada. These can help you get more points! And don’t worry too much about find­ing a job in Canada before immi­grat­ing. This is every immi­grants’ dream but it is noto­ri­ously dif­fi­cult and CIC knows it… this is prob­a­bly why you only get a max­i­mum of ten points for it!

Am I too old to immigrate?

This is a touchy ques­tion. To immi­grate in the skilled worker cat­e­gory, you get the most points between 21 and 49 years old. This is because Canada needs immi­grants who will work, pay taxes, have chil­dren… and won’t retire too early. Stud­ies prob­a­bly showed as well that younger immi­grants are more adapt­able overall.

Cyn­i­cal? Not really. Immi­gra­tion meets a need after all.

If you are over 50, it’s not the end of the world. Some peo­ple man­aged to obtain the per­ma­nent res­i­dence, albeit with a lot of moti­va­tion and a strong plan. It is your job to show that you want to live in Canada, and that you are aware of the prob­lems you may face.

What’s the best way to immi­grate in Canada fast?

In short, in you are in a hurry to leave your coun­try for what­ever rea­son, don’t apply for per­ma­nent res­i­dence. No mat­ter how loud you com­plain, pro­cess­ing your appli­ca­tion will take a while: 6 to 12 months if you are lucky, much longer if you are not. This is just the way it is!

Take a sec­ond and think of it: Canada must eval­u­ate whether you fit in the cat­e­gory you applied in, check your back­ground, your med­ical results etc. in order to grant you the right to live in Canada. This is quite a responsibility!

There are some basic advices to make you your appli­ca­tion gets processed as fast as it can, and to avoid any delays. But that is the best you can do!

On a side note, stay clear of any orga­ni­za­tion that promises a faster process. Nobody has this power.

Is it faster if I immi­grate to Quebec?

This is a strong myth among the fran­coph­o­nes. Because Que­bec is French, a lot of appli­cants think it can be much faster to go through the Que­bec process (which is a slightly dif­fer­ent one).

How­ever, be aware that immi­grat­ing through Que­bec adds an addi­tional step: the CSQ (Cer­ti­fi­cat de Sélec­tion du Québec). Besides, wait­ing times are also long for Que­bec now… so no, it’s not really faster.

Make your life eas­ier. If you plan to set­tle in Que­bec, apply through Que­bec. If you plan to set­tle any­where in Canada, don’t bother apply­ing through Que­bec and go through the reg­u­lar process.

If I marry a Cana­dian cit­i­zen, will I be Cana­dian automatically?

The stronger myth ever…! In short: no, absolutely not. This is a com­mon immi­gra­tion myth.

First of all, to be eli­gi­ble to become a Cana­dian cit­i­zen, you must have been a per­ma­nent res­i­dent first. There are some excep­tions, like if you are adopted — but I don’t think this is the most com­mon case!

Sec­ond, to be mar­ried to a Cana­dian cit­i­zen does not give you the right to come to Canada, much less live, work or study there. You may how­ever be eli­gi­ble to be spon­sored by your spouse (the spon­sor­ship cat­e­gory).

I was told to come for an inter­view, what it is about?

It is fairly com­mon to be required to meet with a Cit­i­zen­ship and Immi­gra­tion Canada Officer.

Dur­ing the inter­view, the offi­cer will typ­i­cally check your cre­den­tials, test your lan­guage abil­i­ties and eval­u­ate your chances to estab­lish your­self suc­cess­fully in Canada. This may be a chance for you to present a strong immi­gra­tion project, as the offi­cer may pos­sess wide dis­cre­tionary author­ity to accept you even if you lack a few points to qualify.

If you applied in the fam­ily class (i.e. you are spon­sored by a spouse), the offi­cer will focus on eval­u­at­ing whether the union is gen­uine or is a mar­riage or con­ve­nience. Ques­tions will be asked about your rela­tion­ship with your spouse: where did you meet, how did the rela­tion­ship develop etc.

In any case, make sure you pre­pare your inter­view because this could be your chance to be accepted!

How do I apply for citizenship?

To apply for cit­i­zen­ship, you must first be a per­ma­nent res­i­dent. You are eli­gi­ble after three years of per­ma­nent res­i­dence, and 1095 days of phys­i­cal pres­ence in Canada.

Apply­ing for cit­i­zen­ship is rel­a­tively easy com­pared to apply­ing for per­ma­nent res­i­dence. How­ever, it involved a lit­tle bit of paper­work, a test and a some­times long pro­cess­ing time!

My appli­ca­tion was refused, what do I do now?

If your appli­ca­tion is refused, you will be given a rea­son, such as not enough points because of lack of work expe­ri­ence, work expe­ri­ence not on the Cana­dian National Occu­pa­tional Clas­si­fi­ca­tion, lack of lan­guage skills etc. Basi­cally, they give you some­thing to work on, in most cases.

Being refused for secu­rity rea­son or because of a health prob­lem is a much more com­plex prob­lem, for which you may need spe­cific help.

In the spouse cat­e­gory, the main rea­son for which appli­cants are refused is if the immi­gra­tion offi­cer believes the rela­tion­ship is not genuine.

If you believe the deci­sion was unfair, in most case, you can appeal the deci­sion at the Immi­gra­tion Appeal Divi­sion. Oth­er­wise, you may improve your chance of being selected (such as get­ting more work expe­ri­ence) and re-apply for per­ma­nent residence.

Will my life be bet­ter in Canada?

Don’t we all hope!

Expe­ri­ences vary greatly. Some immi­grants embrace their new life, some have more trou­ble adapt­ing. Even though every­body can have the occa­sional frus­trat­ing expe­ri­ence, gen­er­ally speak­ing, prospec­tive immi­grants should do a lot of research before they apply for per­ma­nent res­i­dence to avoid disappointment.

Typ­i­cal com­plaints involve not being able to work in the applicant’s field of choice (med­i­cine, account­ing, law are tricky because your expe­ri­ence in your home coun­try may not be rec­og­nized), dif­fi­culty find­ing a job, prob­lems adapt­ing… A lot of these prob­lems could be avoided by doing researches before­hand. So, be curi­ous before decid­ing to come to Canada!

Related posts:

1. Use­ful Links For Immi­gra­tion (10÷10)
2. The Two Immi­gra­tion Myths (1÷10)
3. Immi­gra­tion: The Spon­sor­ship Cat­e­gory (3÷10)
4. Immi­gra­tion: The Skilled Worker Cat­e­gory (2÷10)
5. How Long Does The Immi­gra­tion Process Take? (6÷10)