Canada Journey A-Z

BEGINNERS LIST

1) Determine your eligibility by doing this CIC http://www.cic.gc.ca/ctc-vac/ee-start.asp

2) Get your language test(s) done. You must get at least CLB 7 in each of the four sections for the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW), Provincial Nomination Program (PNP) or Canadian Experience Class (CEC) streams. But getting CLB 10 gives you maximum points for language.

How does CLB match back to the language tests? That info is here –> http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/language/charts.asp

3) Get your qualifications assessed by doing an Education Credential Assessment. Details here –> http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/assessment.asp

4) Determine the code that best applies to you on the National Occupation Classification (NOC) list http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/noc.asp

The occupation must be NOC 0, A, or B for FSW or CEC.

5) When you have those in hand you create your express entry profile. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/profile.asp and register for the Job Bank http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/home-eng.do?lang=eng

You’ll be given points based on your age, education, number of years work experience, and language skills. The points system is detailed here –> http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/express-entry/grid-crs.asp

You’ll be in a pool with thousands of other applicants http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/pool.asp

Of course, the more points you have the better. The max is 1200, with 600 of those points coming from your ability to snag a PNP or a job offer with a very hard to get Labour Market Impact Assessment http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/employers/lmo-basics.asp

– [ ] For CEC applicants, the max is 600 but someone who has no work experience in Canada who is only eligible for FSW can only get up to 520 points.
– [ ]
The anatomy of an standard application is as follows:

1. Enter the EE pool.

2. Receive the ITA.

3. File application and supporting documents.

4. AoR – Automatically acknowledged, usually on the same day as submission.

5. The first step is to check for completeness. This usually triggers the application review “IN PROGRESS.” This is done at the Centralized Intake Office (CIO).

6. Next stage is the R10 review. This is the first stringent check of the application against the EE profile you created. The Regulation 10 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations imposes a strict liability on the applicants to account for all documents uploaded, satisfy what was stated in the EE profile, and ensure that there are no gaps. If you do not provide the documents or they are filed incorrectly, your application can be rejected due to the strict liability on the applicant under this regulation. However, a lot depends on the agent reviewing the file. Under the R 10 review your IELTS, ECA are checked against the websites to ascertain that there is no misrepresentation. (R10 review is done within the 1-3 months of filing the application). If an applicants age has changed from EE profile to ITA, then the same is recorded and his score is affected. This is also done at the CIO level. Most of the applications are rejected here.

7. At the R10 review if you have any documents missing, the application is rejected, or more time is given to file the document if there is a Letter of Explanation (LoE). It largely depends on the agent reviewing it. Some are brutal and will reject the application even for a minor error.

8. Usually by this stage the medicals are also passed. Recently some applicants received request to re-access their medicals when the file reached the Local Visa Office (LVO). I have a theory for this, but in most cases, once the medicals are passed, they are good until the final review stage. The applicants who received a re-assesment for the medicals could be because of two reasons:

a. The doctor or the facility which examined them had a complaint against it, or the CIC found something fishy about how things were being conducted there; or
b. The medicals did not disclose the required parameters, or the applicant had an underlying medical issue, which the CIC wanted to get re-assessed.

8. Now the next stage is to determine eligibility, i.e. whether the application meets the program prerequisites under which it is filed. For FSW, your experience, letters of reference, education, etc are in order. For the PNP, FSW and your nomination is present, for CEC, your Canadian experience is on file. And, so on so forth for the other categories. The objective here is to review whether you meet the program threshold and what you claim is correct. If there is any suspicion, or things don’t sound good, the agent can send you application for further review. Which includes an interview, extra doc request etc. If the applicant meets the requirements, and his score is over the cut off for the ITA she received, his eligibility is passed. If there are issues, they will be addressed. This usually happens at the LVO. This stage happens when the application is usually 4-5 months into the process. At this stage, if the eligibility is met, the chances of refusal considerably go down, unless there is a criminal history. However, if your score goes down due to CIC not acknowledging your experience, NOC and reference letters not matching, or a change in age, the application is rejected.

9. As soon as the eligibility is met, next comes the security and criminality (or background check). Usually the criminality is met through the Police Clearance Certificates (PCC) uploaded with the application. If the applicant has been to a country which is suspicious, or your travel history does show frequent visits to a country without any explanation, the same are recorded and evaluated. If things look good, your criminality is passed. A lot of applicants receive a request for Schedule A at this stage to ensure no gap time is present and the history is clear.

10. The last and the final stage is the security. This is a serious & time-consuming stage, involving many agencies, including Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), International Police (INTERPOL), Criminal Database Checking & touch-base with Local Police. Many things are considered here. Number of countries visited, Applicant coming from ‘certain’ countries, past law enforcement or military record, Prolonged stay in a country w/out sufficient docs to prove cause, frequent traveling to certain nations, your *Name (?), Inter-Religion/Nationality Marriages etc. If everything is simple & straight, the file soon gets into the ‘final review’ stage. If there are any ‘red flags’, the case goes into a ‘spin’. Then the file might go to the local Police/intelligence agencies; the outcome/timeframe of which is beyond the control of CIC. And thereby the timeframe can be anything [sometimes beyond 1yr]. But, usually this stage should be over within 1-2 months. However, a point to be noted is that the applicant can also be called for an Interview [at this stage], due to this reason. For some people the security has a quick turn around. But in the last two weeks a lot of applicants are stuck at this stage.

11. At the final review, when the security results come in, the PPR is issued.

For Evaluation of Degrees – ECA for immigration is what you need

PLEASE READ

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/documents/education-assessed.html

The main idea is to get the right body to correctly evaluate your degree to give a Canadian Educational Equivalence.

Apart from Doctors (MCC Pharmacist (PEBC).

Any of the other Bodies Accepted by CIC

WES, ICES,IQAS, ICAS, CEC can evaluate all other degrees however wisdom is profitable to direct

NB: Only WES evaluates Professional Certifications like ACCA, CIPM, ATS AAT…

ICAN itself is not equivalent to Any Canadian Educational degree for now so don’t bother

That being said experience has helped to build knowledge base that not all these bodies evaluate degrees the same way.

Also considering speed and required documentations these are the recommendations.

Lawyers – use IQAS ( they would clearly state your LLB is equivalent to a professional degree which is same as Masters)

Nurses – RN and RPN, RM, and other post basic degree – use IQAS or ICAS to get 2 or more Certificates) IQAS faster

According to CIC you only need to evaluate your highest degree

PhD and MSC and Bsc – Only PHd

If you have BSC and MSC – only MSC

This rule does not apply if PGD is your highest qualification.

If you have Bsc and PGD evaluate both to get 2 or More Certificates.

ND and HND or NCE and HND – evaluate both

For all other degree you can use either of the ICES, WES, ICAS, IQAS or CEC…

If you are evaluating only foreign degrees – WES is your go to body.

Once a Nigerian degree is involved WAEC is a must (WAEC processes is pretty simple so nothing to worry about ensure to send a new scratch card)

ICES is fastest for now 4-6 – they don’t need WAEC, your school can send transcript to them by official email and they don’t reverify with your school like WES.

Also ICES does not provide soft copy so it is advisable to use an address in US, Canada or UK then get it scanned to you.
NiPOST is trying but ….. Or better Still use courier delivery that you can track.

ICES evaluates each degree at $200 CAD unlike WES nonetheless I recommend them even if you have 2 degrees to evaluate (cheaper on the long run I tell you)

What else further read

ICES – https://icesonline.bcit.ca/ices/register/register

WES – https://www.wes.org/ca/

IQAS – https://www.alberta.ca/iqas-immigration.aspx

ICAS – https://www.icascanada.ca/home.aspx

CES – http://www.learn.utoronto.ca/ces

MCC – https://mcc.ca/and http://mcc.ca/repository/educational-credential-assessment/

PEBC –https://www.pebc.ca/and https://www.pebc.ca/index.php/ci_id/3374/la_id/1.htm

MUST READS –

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=681&top=29