APPLICATION FOR PERMANENT RESIDENCE IN CANADA

If you are not applying through a Provincial program, then you are likely going to apply through the express entry system of the federal government. There are two steps that need to be done to assess if you will be given permanent residency in Canada through the Express Entry system.

First, you must qualify in any one of three federal programs – the Federal Skilled Worker program, the Canadian Experience Program or the Federal Skilled Trades Program. Each program has its own requirements.

Second, if you do qualify in one of those programs then you may register to get into the “pool” of candidates who are waiting to apply. You will then be ranked by a point system against the other candidates in the pool. The people who are ranked the highest will be allowed to submit an application. However, those who are not ranked high enough may never be allowed to submit an application even though they were allowed to register as candidates. Using this system, the government selects the most qualified candidates as permanent residence to Canada and you have no advantage of applying earlier than other candidates.

The main factors in the Express Entry ranking system are:

• people with a Provincial government approval or an approved job offer in Canada
• age
• language skills – assessed using a language test – The general version (not the academic version) of the IELTS is the most common english test used
• education (The Canadian equivalency of your education is assessed at a Canadian agency).
• work experience in Canada

As you can see, getting permanent residency in Canada and citizenship is complicated. There are different options, many requirements for each option and different processing times. We start by assessing you and your family to see which option will fit your needs. You may want the fastest option or the option that you have the best chance of success for.

Sometimes you need to improve your education (perhaps by getting a Study Permit in Canada) or you need to improve your language skills. Sometimes you need to get an approved Canadian job or a Canadian trade certificate to qualify. Maybe you realistically do not have any good options and you need to be told the honest truth rather than being given false hopes.

So you see that you need to start by seeing if you are going down the right path for making a Canadian permanent resident application. So we start by giving our clients a thorough consultation with a Canadian immigration lawyer with 25 years of experience.

Typical consultations cost CAD$450 for up to an hour (depending on the issues to be discussed) for assistance in obtaining permanent residency in Canada. Legal fees to help you through the process from beginning to end start at C$3,500 (depending on the type of case and the complexity) and may be paid in monthly instalments of $500.