What is Permanent Residency

1. Get social benefits equal to Canadian citizens
2. Government paid health care
3. Live, work or study anywhere in Canada
4. Freedom to launch your own startup or business
5. Freedom to remote work for companies anywhere
6. Worry free entry and exit to and from Canada
7. Visa free holiday travel to few countries like Costa Rica, Bahamas, etc
8. Can apply for Canadian Citizenship (After 3⁄5 years)
9. You cannot vote or run for political office
10. Get super-visa’s for parents and grandparents (Stay upto 2 years)
11. Sponsor partners, parents and grandparents for PR

High level view of PR process

1. Collect Docs: NOC Code, Language Score, Education Assessment
2. Check Eligibility: Using the “Come to Canada” web site.
3. Create an Express Entry Profile Online
4. If You Qualify for Express Entry then wait for invitation to apply
5. On receiving invitation complete the application
6. Submit Police Clearance and Medical Test Results.
7. You will receive your Confirmation of Permanent Residence

Our road to getting Canadian PR

Getting Permanent Residency in Canada is a straight forward and transparent process. We had applied under the Federal Skilled Workers program and got our PR in less than 6 months from the date we posted our application. We felt the process was simple and well defined on their website www.cic.gc.ca. Additionally CIC officials are highly responsive and can be reached via email or phone for any queries and concerns.

Note, we are not immigration lawyers or consultants and each persons situation is different and with varying levels of complexity. Exercise your own judgement when choosing to either go it on your own or have an immigration professional do your paperwork.

Preparing to Apply

Being a Software Engineers looking to move to Canada I was lucky. My skills were needed and listed on the NOC - National Occupational Classification list. That means I qualified to apply under the Federal Skilled Workers program for Permanent Residency in Canada. Before I filled out your application under the Express Entry program I needed to have the following three things ready in hand.

Figure out the NOC code most closely related to my skill and work experience. I had to carefully read the skill description and example titles to make sure it closely matched my work experience.

I has to take a language test to prove my proficiency in English. So be quick to book your English proficiency test with IELTS. You need the language score to get started with your application.

Obtain ECA - [Educational Credential Assessment Report](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/become-candidate/eligibility/education-assessed.html). Since I was educated Outside Canada, I needed to have my educational credentials assessed against Canadian standards. I used WES - (World Education Services)[https://www.wes.org/ca/eca/] to get our ECA report, they take about 20 days once you have posted them your degree.

To be continued ...

What are the steps to follow in getting an ECA

The Application

Once I determined my NOC, obtained my language score and ECA report, I was all set to apply.

Step 1 - Check eligibility

I used the online tool Come to Canada to see if I meet the criteria to apply for Express Entry. It takes about 15 minutes. It needs your language test results, NOC and Education Credential Assessment (ECA) report. At the end, I was provided with a reference number.

Step 2 - Build your Express Entry profile

Since the result was positive from the Come to Canada tool, I could now create my express entry profile. I then filled out my profile with the following information.

1. Identity
2. Contact information
3. Education Detail
4. Work experience
5. Language
6. Family immigrating (dependants)

You also need:

1. Your passport, travel document or other national identity document
2. Your NOC job title and code
3. Your language test results
4. Your Educational Credential Assessment
5. Copy of written job offer from an employer in Canada (if you have one)
6. Reference code from Come to Canada (Example: JM1234567890)
7. Express Entry Candidate Pool

To be continued...