I’ve had a few people ask me how I moved to Canada; what steps I took, applications, etc. I wrote this up a little while ago and have decided to share it here. See below!
The first step for moving to Canada is to figure out which program you qualify for. The easiest program, and the one I applied through, is called Express Entry. Express Entry is an immigration program for skilled workers, i.e people who have employable skills. I’ve attached a link that explains the basics of the program and includes a questionnaire to see if you qualify.
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry.html
If you don’t qualify for Express Entry you’ll need to look into other options and the rest of this won’t be that helpful for you, but if you do qualify here’s what happens next.
Basically Express Entry is a system that rates you based on a number of demographics, such as your age, education, monetary assets and work experience. It’s called the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). There are a lot of different factors that determine what your rating is (your CRS score) but basically younger, smarter and richer is better (as always). Other things used to calculate your score is if you have a job offer (I did not) and what your language score is (I’ll get to that in a minute). You can calculate your approximate CRS score here.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/crs-tool.asp?_ga=2.181903268.263835035.1531609060-45862909.1491874968
Once you have a CRS score you are entered into the Express Entry pool. There are Express Entry “drawings” roughly every 2 months. A number is calculated using a super secret formula and then a certain number of people in the pool with a CRS score at or higher than that number is granted an ITA, an invitation to apply for permanent residency. So for example the number might be 415 and they grant 3,000 ITAs that drawing. So if your number is over 415 you have a pretty good chance of getting an ITA that round. Supposedly the numbers get higher throughout the year so its easier to get approved in January than in November but I’m not sure that’s really true.
You can remain in the Express Entry pool for up to 12 months. If you haven’t received an ITA by then you can re-apply for the pool. If/when you do receive an ITA you have 90 days to complete the permanent residency application. Once your application is submitted CIC (Canadian Immigration and Citizenship) has up to 6 months to process it. I’ll get more into timeline stuff later.
I entered the Express Entry pool with a score of 478. Some background about me, I’m 30, I’m single with no children, I have a masters degree, and 5 years work experience in my field. With my score I received an ITA within 20 days of entering the pool. The qualifying number for an ITA changes every drawing so there’s no real way to know how long you’ll be in the pool based on your score, but over a 450 is good. If you’re interested in the latest data you can find it here.
https://moving2canada.com/express-entry-draw/
If your CRS score is low one thing you can do to improve it is apply for what’s called a provincial nomination. Basically this is where you appeal directly to a province to say why they should want you to come live there and then they nominate you to come. I didn’t have to do this so I don’t really know how it works but I know it’s easier to get a provincial nomination in a more rural province like New Brunswick than one like British Columbia. If you get a provincial nomination you have to move to that province, you can’t just move wherever you want.
Once you have an ITA you submit your application. Then you wait. It can take up to 6 months for your application to get processed so that part kind of sucks. Once your application is processed if you’re going to be approved you’ll get an email where they request a copy of your passport and photographs for your permanent residency documents. I had issues with my photos but I’ll get into that in a bit. Once you get the request for your passport you have 30 days to submit it and then it takes up to 5 weeks for them to send you your papers. And that’s it! You’re a permanent resident of Canada! Your papers are only good for a couple months, so you have to enter the country relatively soon after you’re approved so you’ll want to be ready to go. My papers got approved in July and are good until December.
Ok, now into the nitty gritty.
To get a CRS score you need to have a language score. Canada has two national languages, French and English, so you need to document your fluency in at least one. I do not speak French so don’t worry about that, although if you do that will help your score. You need to take a language test to document your fluency in either English and/or French. I took the IELTS exam (International English Language Testing System). You can find a test center in your area at the link below.
https://www.ielts.org/en-us
You also need your education credentials assessed. I used the Comparative Education Service through the University of Toronto. I’ll be honest, it took fucking forever but what can you do. See the link below.
https://learn.utoronto.ca/international-professionals/comparative-education-service-ces
Now you have everything you need to get your CRS score and enter the Express Entry pool. At this point you’re going to want to start gathering the documents you’ll need once you get your ITA because you only have 90 days once you get your ITA to submit your application and some of the documents can potentially take longer than that to get.
You’ll need to get an FBI background check for your application. Go to the FBI website and they will have directions on how to do this. It can take up to 8 weeks for it to come back but mine came back much faster. You also need a medical exam. You have to get your medical exam performed by someone licensed by CIC to perform the exam. It’s not invasive or anything, just a basic physical. I had to get a chest x-ray because I work in a hospital but that was about the most invasive part. It’s not cheap though and the doctor I went to insisted on cash up front. Plus you might have to wait for an appointment so you want to schedule it as soon as you’re in the Express Entry pool.
Here’s where you can find an approved doctor for the medical exam.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=033&top=4
You will also need bank statements and letters from your financial institutions. Additionally you’ll need a letter from your current and past employers verifying your employment. You only need letters from employers who have employed you in your field. So for example I’m a social worker so I got a letter from my current job and the social work job I had before grad school but I didn’t need to get a letter from the restaurant I worked at back in college, so don’t worry about that. This does mean that you’ll need to tell your current employer that you’re applying to move to Canada. My boss was pretty cool with it but think about how that might impact things with your job.
Those are all the documents you need for your application. You submit all of that and then you wait. Now let’s talk about cost.
This isn’t a cheap process, every step costs money. I’ve broken down the costs below but one thing I didn’t keep track of was shipping. There were a lot of documents that needed to be shipped back and forth and sending things to Canada, especially overnight, costs some money.
Education assessment: $288
FBI background check: $80
Application fee: $830 (this is broken into two payments but both must be made simultaneously when you submit your application. I believe that one of the two payments is refundable if your application isn’t approved)
So yeah, not cheap. Now here’s my timeline.
5/22: apply for IELTS exam
6/2: apply for education credentials assessment
10/18: receive education credential assessment
10/21: apply for Express Entry, get CRS score
7/6: application approved
You might notice some things with that timeline. For one it took a really long time to get the education credentials assessment. I don’t really think there’s a way around that but you want to stay on top of that. Periodically call the school and make sure they’re working on it. You’ll also notice that the time between when I got my passport request and when my application was approved wasn’t actually 5 weeks. That’s because I had issues with my photographs and I had to resubmit them twice. You have to send in two photos that are basically, but not quite, passport photos. They have to be taken by a private commercial photographer, so not the post office or FedEx but someone with a studio, and they have to be specific dimensions that are slightly different from passport photo dimensions. So be careful with that step.
Another thing I should mention is that I didn’t have a job offer when I started this process and I still don’t have a job lined up. That’s because I’m a social worker and you have to be licensed to practice social work in Canada, just like here, and you can’t transfer your license until you’re approved for permanent residency. But that’s not the case for a lot of jobs so one thing you can do is start applying for jobs and explain that you’re looking to relocate. If you have a job offer it will significantly help your CRS score, but again I didn’t have an offer and I still got through.
All in all it took a bit over a year and cost about $1,800. But I’d say it’s worth it. There are plenty of frustrating steps and at the end of the whole thing my documents wound up being held by customs (FedEx hear from me a lot for those 48 hrs) but it’s totally doable. And you don’t need to hire a surrogate or attorney or anything like that, there are services out there like that but you really don’t need to do that, just follow the steps. One thing I will say is that Canadians are very nice so every time I had an issue people were very helpful. The other thing I’ll say is that CIC will not give you updates on where they are at with processing your application. They also aren’t great about telling you what the next step is going to be, so like I didn’t know about the whole sending in a copy of my passport and photographs thing until I got the email. So communicative they are not, but when they are communicating with you they are friendly and helpful.
Here’s a message board that was helpful. Folks swap information and provide updates on how long things are taking and stuff so it’s a good place to go if you have questions or you’re getting antsy. Technically it’s the website for a law firm that will assist with the application process but again, that’s not really necessary. You don’t have to sign up for their services to use the message boards.
https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/?action=activate;u=667277;code=eaf670542f
This is another good site. They have information about the Express Entry process but also about moving to Canada in general.
https://moving2canada.com/
If you decide to go through with it let me know and best of luck to you!
