Should I immigrate to Canada?

www.quora.com /Should-I-immigrate-to-Canada-3

I was in same situation as you when I got my canada PR I had 7+ years of experience in IT. My wife also had
same experience.

I moved to canada in 2016 after winding up everything in India. Left my decent paying job in Pune. My wife went
6 months before i went as she had parents in Canada. I continued my job in India and she was trying to find a
job. She found a job in 3 months.

From my personal experience I would say initial 68 months would be really tough if you don't have any relatives
to support. Trying to find a job and getting all things necessary for settling like driving license, bank accounts,
health cards, finding place to stay etc.

There are lot of jobs in software development in almost any technology. You just have to be little flexible. I would
suggest either of the you should do contracting as that pays a lot of money and you can account some expenses
and save on taxes. Also one can take advantage of other partners benefits from permanent job.

The biggest problem people who come here is to come with lot of expectations and no preparation at all. One
should have a concrete plan of settlement before landing with atleast 1000 cad per month per person for 68
months . Be in touch with Recruiter in the specific area where you will be moving. Network with people and
recruiter community on linkedin and find about career opportunities in your specific skillset. Don't be stuck with
specific role or teechnology , you have to be flexible with any kind of job.

To give you perspective , I had virtual phone number of canada before even landing here. I updated my LinkedIn
with number and changed my location on linkedin, soon I started getting calls from Recruiters and HR. I gave
few skype interviews and they were ready for next round of discussion but they didn't wanted to wait for too long
till I land there. I was constantly in touch with recruiters and had arranged few interviews when I landed there. I
had 6 months contract job in 3 days after landing here.

I got myself Incorporated in 30 minutes and opened a small business account and started working as IT
consultant and in 1 year I had 2 clients and consultee them in their IT business. We got our own house in 3
months after I landed here. Compared to india my salary is like 10 times what I used to earn in India. Ofcourse
expenses are also a lot but then you save a lot too.

Coming to universal healthcare and education, it is good but it has wait times if you need to see a specialist, but
thats with any country which has social benifits. Education is free till high school and is rated at par with most
developed countries. Overall its good if you prepare yourself well before landing here.

Edit :1 Many people have asked my email address, added me on FB and Linked In to know more about
immigration to Canada. I cannot individually address all your concerns or questions as that is not my profession.
Applying for immigration to Canada under express entry program is very simple and very well documented on cic
website www.cic.gc.ca.

I can rundown the overall process but you can always go to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada |
Immigration, Rfugis et Citoyennet Canada and find out more about the process.

1. Find out of if you are eligible to apply under express entry program as skilled worker.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/imm...
2. You should find out in which skilled category you fall based on your education or work experience. You
should have minimum 1yr of experience in your specified category to be eligible to apply under express
entry. To find your your category code use below link. For express entry skill type 0, A&B are applicable.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/imm...

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3. To apply under express entry program you should have language skills which you can prove by giving IELTS
or CELPIP exam for english or TEF for french. You should have minimum CLB 7 for english or NCLC 7 for french
as your first official language, or CLB 5 or NCLC 5 as second official language.

Note : Both English and french are not mandatory, but English is mandatory, you wont score additional points for
french if you dont give french Exam. Starting june 6 if you have french score of above NCLC 5 then you get
additional 30 points in your CRS score.

4. You should also get your education assessed to prove that your education is equivalent to education in
Canada, you can get it done from WES(www.wes.org). It takes around 12 months to get education assessed.
http://www.wes.org/ca/fswp/requi...

5. You would also need to arrange letter of references from all your employers stating your duties and
responsibilities, dates of employment and number of hours per week(Note it should state you were employed full
time and not part time). This letter should be on letter head of the organization signed by your supervisor or HR .

6. Once you have IELTS test results, Education assessment certificate, you need to calculate your score using
below link. Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) tool - Skilled immigrants (Express Entry).

7. Create your express entry profile by filling in all your details about personal, education, work experience,
language test results, travel history, sibilings or relatives in canada etc. Please fill in all your details carefully as
online application will assign you a score based on details your enter. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/e-s...

8. Every bi-weekly there is a draw conducted by CIC and high ranking candidates are invited to apply for
immigration. Please note that you will get an invite only if you Express entry profile is created and active and your
score is high enough to get an invite( typically 420+ out of 1200).

Take a look at history of invitation based on CRS score from past 2 years. Express Entry results: Previous rounds
of invitations

you can also look at number of candidates under each CRS score ranges, this will give you some idea if at all you
can expect an invite. Express Entry rounds of invitations

9. Once you get an invite , you have 90 days to submit full application with forms filled in and documents
scanned and uploaded. Determine your eligibility - Federal skilled workers

10. You should proof of funds which depends on number of applicants in an application. Proof of funds - Skilled
immigrants (Express Entry). These funds can be in form of bank balance, investments or savings in form of ppf or
epf which can be liquidated before you immigrate . Assets like car, house and land are not considered. Typically 6
months of statement is required to be submitted , so if you are taking money from parents or friends make sure
you take a gift authorization from them .

11. You need to arrange Police clearance certificate from your home country & all the countries where you have
stayed for more than 6 months.

12. You also need to undergo medical clearance before you immigrate, generally this can be done once you are
requested to undergo medical exam.

13 Once your application is processed(at least 80% of applications are processed in 6 months after applying),
you will be asked to send your passport to local embassy to stamp a temporary visa so that you can land in
Canada. You will also recieve CoPR(Confirmation of Permanent residence) which is valid for 1 year from the
date of your medical exam. You need to land and claim your PR before its validity.

Below are some of the things that you have to do after landing into Canada as Permanent resident

1. When you land, you will be asked to go to special counter for first time immigrants and they will ask you
general questions.

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 2. Next you will go for security, here they might ask you to show proof of funds , if you dont have sufficient
funds as per your family size, you might be asked to go back and your PR will be cancelled. Funds can be
in form of cash or travellers cheque or Balance Statement from Canadian/US bank. If you are carrying
more than 10k CAD in cash or travellers cheques you have to report it at the security else you will be put in
jail.
3. Get a list of things that you are carrying at the time of landing and also things that you will bring later into
the country. Specially get all your jwellery and expensive items attested so that you dont need to pay any
duties when you bring them when you enter Canada.
4. You need to apply for SIN number after you land, you can get it from Service Canada office in your area.
Its just a number and not a card.
5. You can open a bank account once you have a SIN number, and get a credit card to staring building your
credit history.
6. You are not covered by health insurance till 90 days after you land, you need to get a private insurance
upto 90 days , in this time you should apply for your health card which you will get in 68 weeks time, but
the coverage starts only after 90 days. Health card gives you privilege to get health checkups and visit to
physician or specialist free of charge, you dont need to pay anything to Dr. or clinic, not even for medical
test.
7. Apply for G1 license, which is an online exam to test your knowledge about driving in province where you
are going to drive. Once you have G1 license then you can drive a car with any experienced driver and
schedule your drive test G2 which is almost full driving privilege . Once you have G2 then you can drive
anywhere alone . Dont forget to get driving experience extract from RTO in india and no claim certificate
from your car insurance provider to get insurance discount here.
8. If you are going to Toronto or GTA , then you would need presto card or TTC depending on where you are
going to stay and commute to. This helps to use public transit. You can find more info on Tap On. Ride
Easy. or ttc website .
9. Other than IT engineers, finding job in other fields is not easy and can take upto 6 months to find a right
job. You need to get Canadian certification for profession in finance, account , insurance etc.
10. Recruiter who ask you to meet personally before representing you to client is very normal, and this is to
see your communication skills and overall qualification for the job.

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