I have an extended family of 12 people and I am wondering if it is better to apply all at once as a single family or to get some people first and then the others?
it depends on the qualifications of the applicants and the method under which you are inquiring about Canadian residency. If you come from a country in disrest, you may be able to apply as a refugee. The process is much faster, but you require proof that you and your family are being prosecuted outside of the law. (i.e. political, religiuos, race, etc.)
Now, if you are applying as a qualified or skilled worker, you need to have the "points" to qualify.
Bringing all your family at once is hard, specially given that you will need to proof your financial capacity to support them all for a period of one year, but of course, it depends on the qualifications of your extended family.
I hope this helps. I actually found the section on visas and permits in this site to be very useful, and of course, you can always visit the site of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
It is s tough question. It takes a long while to get the process going in either case. If you are applying as a refugee, it is definitely "faster" and you can do that from your home country if there is a Canadian consulate there. Now, that is a one-way trip. Becoming a refugee means that you may never return to your home country, so that is something to think about
If you want to apply for your entire family at once, it would mean that you have $120,000 in cash from day one as proof of funds to settle for the first year! It may be a bit heavy for some families, but if you have the resources go for it.
Is there a way to pay for the landing fee and the application with a credit card, paypal or something like that. getting a stupid check with a bank in Canadian Dollars costs about €40!
Nothing really new. There is a push to eliminate the $975 landing fee. From now until that materializes (if it materializes) it could take years, so for the moment I would not even care.
Eliminating the landing fee means that the government of Canada will stop receiving $2B per year (about 200,000 people become landed immigrant every year)!
well, they may increase the application fee instead. Who knows.
One of the attractiveness of immigrating to Canada is its health system. If they are eliminating it, it does not make much sense (too much cold for not having health care coverage)
I know a fair number of families who have come to Canada not because the health care, or the weather, or Kyoto, etc., but because they were facing prosecution in their home countries. People from the former Yugoslavia, many countries in Africa and now a growing number of people coming from South America.
They come to Canada searching peace and freedom. Canada offers both
oes anybody have an experinece with emigration from USA to Canada?
I was born in Slovakia and still am Slovakian citizen currently student in the college. I would like to emigrate to Canada without going home to Slovakia.
Would this be possible?
Does any of you guys had the same experience?
I was on a student visa in Canada when I applied to the permanent residence in Canada. I chose to apply in Buffalo, NY, which at the time was fine. Today I do not know if you need to send the application to the consulate in your home country or you can still do it from the closest consulate office to the place where you live (even in a temporary basis). If I were you I would call the consulate in the USA and the one in your country. If they both tell you that can apply from any of them, do the one in the USA. For sure it will be faster.
I remembered that the landing fee would be eliminated if the conservative government won the Canadian Federal elections. Are there any updates on that discussion?
Do you get a discount for the size of your family? We are eight planning to immigrate to Canada, but $8000 is a lot of money just in fees. Can you pay this fee in installments?
My family of 4 immigrated to Canada last september and spent thousand of dollars moving and paying the ROLF (Right of landing fees). Can I claim any of this in my 2005 tax return due in April?
I want to see how much of this is lip service and how much is real action. Come on, can you believe the Canadian Medical Association will allow foreign credentials to practice here???? No, they want it all for themselves and enjoy to hear that there are looooooooooong wait times. Same thing with other professions such as engineering, law, etc.
certainly the professional associations in Canada are not going to ease up their systems to open up opportunities for foreign credentials. I do not see that happening
in theory any province can do provincial nominations, however only alberta and quebec have systems in place to speed up the process of those willing to reside in these provinces. To my knowledge, your quest for provincial nomination has to be made to the ministry of immigration of the povince. You need to have a very good case why the province will support your case
keeping in mind that the Canadian Federal immigration program has wait times of up to more than 3 years, I wonder what is the time difference if you decide to apply using the provincial nomination for let's say, Alberta?
On wednesday 5th i got the shock of my life. I actually got the medical form. It consists of a new application that was for information purposes only( thats what they said), the actual medical form which was one page with my photo, and a list of doctors with other instructions.
I had to get..again..1) police certificate, 2) funds to show i have more than $10,000CN 3)new application form to fill out( for information only)
I had the meds done on friday. It was pretty simple and straight forward. No worries there. Whats suprising was i asked the doc how long does it take for the embassy to get back to me. he said his office forwards the lab tests by 4 days and by 3 weeks POS will contact me. I know this sounds too early so i asked again.." but ive heard it takes over 4 months" he says about 3 weeks. I donno..this sounds too good to be true. I'm sticking with my 3 months to get a reply.
Im still in shock..cus after EXACTLY 2 years to the date ie april 5th 2004 to april 5th 2006 i got my meds...it hasnt sunk in yet. Right now im waiting for the police cert i will have it in less than 3 weeks time.
if all goes well i guess i'll be up there by summer...who knows...i dont care i waited for 2 years...it finally came. Thank god!
First congrats on getting the med forms. That is basically a sign that if you are healhly, you will be granted the Canadian Landed Immigrant Status.
They are asking for all these new things because the system changed in that time. Sometime in late 2004, they introduced a new ID called the PR Card, that required other requisites (usually recent requisites). So, if you have not gotten in trouble since your application, you should not be worried...
There are two fees for the Canadian Application for permanent residency. One for the "procesing" of the application and another for the right of landing fee (which reminds me of the chatting acronym ROLF rolling on the floor laughing). Anyhow, I wonder if it is good to wait for the second later in the process or is it better to send both at once?
I suggest you send both at once. They will take time to write back to you asking for the fee..then you gotta post it etc etc.
To avoid delays i sent all at once. In the event that you dont get thru..they post the refund as a check back to you.
Hi All! I'm a born and raised Canadian. Just stumbled upon this site. I want to say I think it's awesome you guys want to live here. It IS the best place to go overall! (You gotta see how good the air is on the west coast). Anyways my Dad is Canadian and my mom is an immigrant from the philipines, our family has had it's ups and downs and I've seriously seen a lot of what canada has to offer. My family has been lower class on social assistance as well as upper class. So here are some hints I thought might help some of you get things right when you come.
First, BE CONFIDENT! Newcomers often don't realize how great life can be here until it's too late. As soon as you arrive get involved. It's going to be hard at first, but you DO NOT HAVE TO BE SECOND CLASS. The middle class and the upper class are more than happy to welcome you. Learn english well and take advantage of bursaries, loans, special programs to upgrade your skills or regionalize them to make money. A lot of newcomers think that they are different or alone so they work menial jobs because they want to stay outta the way of white people etc. Canadians want you to do your best, actually nothing pisses us off more than those that scape by on minimum wage or social assistance. You ARE SMART, you add perspective and in the end you are NO DIFFERENT.
2nd, Live where you REALLY want to live. Spread out and go where the grass is green. An all too common immigration error is people look to see where the most of their kind are residing, find a cheap property there and commit! ERR WRONG! Don't define yourself by your race, when you get here you're a Canadian. Unfortunately, you'll later realize that areas that are defined ethnically often tend to be the poor neighborhoods and the crime infested. I believe this has a lot to do with ethnic isolation. You have to get out there and be an active part of the WHOLE community not just an ethnic community. To Do: Check avg. salaries of neighborhood (available through rental papers often) check the schools around, look for crappy neighborhood giveaways like BARS on everyone's windows! Etc. This is Canada, you have a new standard here. You have the right to be SAFE and SUCCESSFULL. Hint* People don't know this but often properties in many of the UPPER class neighborhoods are actually very close or the same price as the poorer neighborhoods. SO PICK THE GOOD NEIGHBORHOODS! Don't worry if you don't see any other latinos/chinese/indians on the block, as soon as you move in they'll be one and you'll be welcomed.
3rdly, FAMILY FIRST! Remember it's not all about being able to make more money. It's about having the ability to spend time with your family and all of you enjoying it. Spend time with the kids, and help THEM TO INTIGRATE as well! Seriously, a lot of families make this mistake, the adults adjust to the new country and are ALWAYS working super hard, but they forget that their children need help adjusting too. Many really great and kind parents here have children that end up in gangs or isolated because they don't know how to create opportunities for themselves or get along with the other kids. The parents don't even know most of the time this is going on! Children have the benefit of being able to adapt quickly, they can master perfect english as well as all the customs etc. Encourage them to do this and keep an eye on them and make sure they are making the most of all the opportunities they will have here. This kinda leads to....
3rd, Canada has A LOT of opportunity for your children to develop and grow. But it's NOT EQUAL here and it's NOT A RED CARPET. You have to be careful and pick and choose. Education here is very often 2 tiered and you seriously have to take control of your child's development. There are always school rankings for every city. Check them out. THIS IS VERY important. Schools are very different for instance, in Vancouver where i'm from, which school your child attends in the public system is determined by boundries. One of the worst school's in Vancouver is right next to one of the top 5 schools. So which one you would attend is a matter of blocks. One has metal detectors on the doorways the other has about 85-90 percent university placement. What school your children attend will have a HUGE impact. Again, this is another reason for making sure you try to settle in the BEST neighborhood you can.
Well those are three things I thought would help as those are common pitfalls that seems to hold a lot of new families here back. Anyways, we need skilled people! Come over if you're a doctor, engineer, etc. or come willing to learn! Immigration in Canada rocks and I'm all for it! We're not the U.S. we don't want you to come and cook food or wash our cars, we want you to bring skills or bring your talents and learn skills when you get here.
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I landed yesterday at Toronto and my experience was different sad to say.
I gave the first officer my passport and visa and she said your here to land? Then showed me where to go.
I sat and waited for another officer to interview me.
This guy looked like a teenager and acted like one also. I was pleasant all the way,cus you cant be any other way.
He kept shouting " PACKUP!! PACKUP!!" during asking me questions about my CAN address and how much money i have etc.
He shouts again across the room " PACK IT UP MAN!!"
Im there sitting in my chair thinking what the F!@#...
Again i had my angel face on and always polite and i told him..i'll leave the country to visit the USA..he says oh NO you cant do that!! Then countinues writing..so i ask..er..what do i do?
He then says when i reach the USA i apply for a CAN visa.
Now lets see who can figure out why my interview was rushed down??
Give up?
I landed at 11.50pm and went to his office at MIDNIGHT..now thats when they change shifts..so my dear friend was shouting to his other buddies..PACK UP..LETS GO!!
In retrospect i felt hurt that i didnt get any "welcome to canada" or any welcome pack..oh well maybe he had a rough day,god bless him.
On the flip side it was 4c here today and i visited family. Im off to get my SIN number and do bank stuff soon as well as broadcast my resume, i already got a call for a job.
I know that this time will be tough away from home plus the winter blues but hey i know this place is cold and i expect that.
Glad to hear your experience was pleasant. I guess its how the officer feels on that day.
Good luck and yes Canada is a great place!
My time lines were:
may 5th 2004 Trinidadian embassy acknowledged my application form
April 5th 2006 Got a letter for medical forms and another to fill out just like the first application..it was just for "information" they said.
Oct 3rd got a letter saying my PR was approved..please submit passport with photo..3 weeks later im landed.
Total time=2.5 years
All the trini's out there in the May 2004 batch your turn is NOW and they are working on that group. Sorry to say none other will be processed until that batch is completed ( got that info from another website)
NB: Trinidad/POS is one of the FASTEST process centers..yeah compare 2.5 years with 5 and 4 years for other countries.
Hold tight your turn will be next.
Thanks to all of you in this forum..its the best! Thank you all
I felt joy for you, we are also Trinidadians waiting patiently, and you know how that could be frustrating, I thank you for sharing your experience with us Trini's, cause ya know dis country, we applied in January 2005,we got our file # January 2006, so I guess we will get our medical in January or Febuary 2007, and wait again for the PR card, its good though to understand the process from someone who has been there and done that, I wish you the best of luck and success in your life and always know that doh matter what your country is now it will always be home ok we all trying to get out but still it is home.
I am in the process of doing my paper work, and I want to buy a house before I get there but was told that I cannot buy a house because I am not a citizen, I will more or less get through early next year, but wanted to start dealing with the construction company as I am building, please help with my question, Can I buy a house since I am not a citizen?
Thank you
There are no laws that preclude you from buying real state in Canada as a foreigner / non canadian / non-landed immigrant.
What you may have a ton of problems with is with the financing from a Canadian financial institution. I seriously doubt that they will finance you, unless you are bringing loads of cash and you plan to deposit those in the bank...
