Since February, I've had various responsibilities thrown at me with a steep learning curve thanks to a company re-organization that swept through my team like the plague. I've been tasked with a number of things I haven't had to deal with before, and I've had to ask for help from so many people on so many things. I'm not very good at initiating conversations with people I'm not familiar with (i.e., I'm shy), so this has been really challenging for me and there have been a number of times where I've had to be the responsible party.
But you're not here for all that, are you? You're here for the juicy immigration stuff. :P It has been a slow and arduous process, partly because of my hesitance and partly because some things just take a long time to acquire.
I guess first you should understand the way that Canadian immigration works. Canada has the typical spousal sponsorship and work visa routes, but it also has an economic immigration system called Express Entry, wherein you get points for your qualifications and skills and are invited to apply for permanent residence based on how well you score (Comprehensive Ranking System - CRS). There are a few programs under the umbrella of Express Entry, including the Federal Skilled Workers program, which also rates you on another scale based on your years of experience, language proficiency, education, and adaptability factors such as having family in Canada. If you want to immigrate through FSW, you must both score high enough on both the CRS and the FSW scales to qualify for an invitation.
In order to create your Express Entry profile, you must first have your educational credentials assessed for Canadian equivalency, which can take anywhere from 5 weeks to 5 months depending on which organization you use and the complexity of your own case. You must also take an English and/or French language exam that is approved by the Canadian government in order to show your fluency in your selected languages. Depending on how well you score on the language exams, you can be awarded bonus points in the CRS. At CLB 9+, you can get an extra 50 points if you also have a degree higher than a bachelor's degree. This makes a BIG difference.
In February I took my English exam (the CELPIP) in NYC. The scoring system works on a 12-point scale, which roughly corresponds to the Canadian Language Board's scoring system, where 1-3 are basically minimal language skills and 10+ is essentially native proficiency. I scored 10+ in everything except the writing section, where I scored an 8. I was really disappointed to see that 8 when the scores were released, but I also felt a little angry-- I'm literally a native speaker with awesome writing skills, but somehow I wasn't "fluent enough" in English? Blasphemy! So I paid the fee to have it re-evaluated and ended up getting a 10, as well as having the fee returned to me since my score changed, less a few dollars due to the exchange rate.
Around the same time I had also submitted my master's degree for evaluation to the University of Toronto. Their timelines estimated that it would be a 14 week turnaround, which doesn't sound that bad until you break it up and realize that that's about 3 1/2 months from the time that they acknowledge receipt of your transcripts. That's SO LONG. So, being the eager beaver I am, I ended up submitting my credentials to another evaluation service (WES) that promised a 5 week turnaround.
Well, lo and behold, University of Toronto turns it around before my evaluation from WES is due and ends up delivering before them. I'm flabbergasted, but delighted. Now I have two evaluations that say I have a Canadian equivalent master's degree.
The upside is that WES also evaluated my bachelor's degree, which I most likely won't need, but it's good to have it nonetheless.Having those things done, I created my profile for Express Entry towards the end of April. I had my SO look over it while I was visiting him during our last trip, because I'm terrified of making a mistake and accidentally misrepresenting something. I submitted it, I bit my fingernails, and I waited for the next draw... and then on May 9th, there it was: my invitation to apply (ITA). It felt so unreal. This was my ticket to start the immigration process.
An ITA basically opens up the ability to apply for permanent residence (PR) under whatever stream you've applied for-- in my case, FSW. However, once you make it to this stage, it's up to you to prove that you meet the qualifications that you claimed in your EE profile. This means getting bank letters to show proof of funds (about $12,500 CAD minimum for one person); a letter from your employer stating what you do, how long you've worked there, and how much you're paid; a police clearance certificate (PCC) to show any criminal history; and a medical exam that covers things like HIV status, an Xray for tuberculosis, and other general physical things to assess whether you'd place "excessive demand" on the Canadian healthcare system.
Most of these things are fairly benign; they can just take a long time to get. I asked my bank for a letter back in early May and did not receive it until about a month later. They told me it could take up to 14 business days to approve and send the letter, and I think they used up every one of the business days before it got to me.
Getting a letter from my employer (via HR) was not difficult, but only because I drafted the letter myself and just happened to know who to contact to get it done. I was nervous about mentioning that I was applying for Canadian PR, but the HR guy said he needed to know what it was for, so I said screw it and just casually mentioned it in my email to him. He said nothing else to me about it and mailed it to me a few days later. My manager knows that I'm probably going to be changing jobs (internally or externally) in the next year or so, so it doesn't really change much for me in the workplace. I've given up on getting my manager's support after his comment regarding not "chasing" my SO to Canada.
The hardest thing about the PCC was getting my fingerprints done, and I was afraid for a long time that they wouldn't accept my prints and I'd have to go to a professional to get them done. After some reading, though, I decided to risk it and do it myself. I bought some 65lb cardstock from Target and printed several copies the fingerprint form (FD-258) on them. I ordered an inkless fingerprinting pad from Amazon that seemed to be highly rated. Having both in hand, I devoted about half an hour one afternoon to creating 5 copies of my prints, following the FBI's best practices to fingerprinting guide as best I could. Then I mailed all 5 copies in an envelope with a cover letter explaining that I was only requesting one report and that I just wanted to make sure they got usable prints. I got an email stating that they'd received my prints a few days later, and then another email about 11 minutes later saying that my report was ready. What a turnaround!
I'm actually really lucky that I was able to do that-- the online PCC system was only implemented in February of this year; prior to that, it would take 3-4 months to get a PCC by mailing in an application. US Citizens had the option to use a the services of a facilitator, which would cut the time to 2-3 weeks, but they also charged a fee on top of the application fee. Being able to do it online has simplified the application process for a lot of people.
I purposely postponed my medical until June because the timing of this particular component affects the date by which I have to "land" in Canada after I receive confirmation of permanent residence (CoPR). CoPR is a document that serves as evidence that you've been approved for PR before you receive your PR card. "Landing" is the act of entering Canada and "activating" your permanent residence by having your CoPR signed and applying for your PR card. The date by which you must "land" in order to claim your PR is usually a year after the date of your medical exam, since your medicals must be valid at the date of your entry and expire a year after being performed. Because of this, it is usually advisable to do your medicals as late as possible before submitting your full application. However, I noticed that the form that I was given is dated for the day I made my appointment (May 21) rather than the date of my appointment (June 2), so I'm not sure which date will count as my "starting point."
I didn't anticipate the letter from my bank taking so long, so the medicals were supposed to be the last piece of the puzzle, but I don't mind too much that I had to wait because I wanted to wait at least a few days after my medical anyway to be sure that they don't call me back in for anything else.
My bank letter was sent home to my parents' house since I use that address as my permanent address, so I had to stop home for the weekend to get it before I could finish my application. I noticed that they only gave the last four digits of my bank account in the letter, and after doing some reading, I got really worried that it wasn't going to be acceptable. I think I asked on like 3 different platforms whether this would be accepted and got 2 different answers. Finally, though, I went straight to the source and tweeted IRCC directly on twitter, and they responded that it's not a problem at all as long as the account is in my name. PHEW. That in mind, I wrapped up my application and supplemented it with a bunch of extra docs like bank statements and paystubs, explained a bunch of stuff in a letter of explanation, and signed off on it yesterday evening. I paid my application fee and right of permanent residence fee ($1040 CAD together-- about $800 USD) and, finally, submitted the application.
So now we wait. There are some "stages" to the application that I'll explain at a later point. The first stage is passing the medicals, which seems to occur around 10 days after submitting, so we'll see what happens I guess. Some people have gotten through the application process in as few as 20 days; others take weeks or months before they see movement. I guess I'm just hoping that I get lucky and have a quick and simple application. Fingers crossed?
