Permanent Residence

The Express Entry system is the program through which the highest numbers of newcomers will qualify to live in Canada each year.  It is the first program to consider for anyone who has not already established a connection to Canada – either through work, studies or a family member living here. It’s also far more complicated than it seems, and only those who are invited to apply based on their CRS score will benefit from this program.  With that in mind, we have created an entire page that deals exclusively with immigration to Canada via Express Entry.

You may qualify to apply for Canadian Permanent Residence under the Family Class if you have a relative who is a Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident. That relative can be any of the following:

• Your spouse, common law or conjugal partner
• Your parent, if you are less than 22 years of age
• Your sibling, if you are less than 18 years of age and orphaned
• Your child, if they have sufficient income to support you
• Your grandchild, if they have sufficient income to support you

Note that there is no option to sponsor a sibling to immigrate to Canada except in the following scenarios:

• the sibling is less than 22 years old and can be an accompanying dependent on a parental sponsorship; or
• the sibling is less than 18 years old and an orphan.
• the Canadian relative meets the requirement of the loneliest person category.

Although a sibling can’t usually be a sponsor, having a sibling in Canada does increase your points if you are applying under Express Entry.

We have a separate page on Family Sponsorship to discuss all of the different options available to reunite loved ones in Canada.

I JUST WANT MY FAMILY HERE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. CAN YOU TELL ME THE BEST WAY?

Canada is an enormous country composed of regions that are very different from each other. Because of this, each Province in Canada operates their own immigration programs in order to select immigrants who will be most successful in the local region. There are dozens of PNP programs, and we have prepared an overview of each one so that you can determine if your best option to live in Canada might be via immigrating as a Provincial Nominee.

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You may be qualified to apply for Permanent Residence in Canada under the self-employed class if you meet the following basic criteria:

You have been self-employed, or participated at a world class level, in cultural activities or athletics for at least 2 of the past 5 years, and

You have the experience, intention and ability to become self-employed in Canada in your specific area of expertise

If you meet all of these initial criteria, then your personal situation is assessed further based upon your age, education, language skills, experience and ability to adapt to life in Canada.

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The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot Program is an option to apply for Permanent Residence if you have a job offer in a select number of communities across Canada.  There are three tests that you need to meet in order to participate in this program – have a job offer in a participating community, meet the federal criteria and meet the community criteria.

1. The Federal Criteria

  Work Experience

• you have a minimum 1 year of work experience within the past 3 years; it need not be continuous 
• your work experience can be inside or outside of Canada, but it must have been paid and cannot be from self-employment
• you do not need to show work experience if you completed post-secondary studies in the past 18 months and:

               - you obtained a Master’s or PhD degree after full-time study while living in the participating community, or 

               - you completed of a program of full-time study at least 2 years in duration while living in the participating community for at least 16 of the last                               24 months of study

  Job Offer

• your job offer must be permanent, full-time, non-seasonal and directly related to your previous work experience within the past 3 years
• there is no requirement for an LMIA to be associated with the job offer

  Language Requirements

• you have achieved the following minimum scores on a language test:

               - for NOC 0 and A job offers: CLB or NCLC 6

               - for NOC B job offers: CLB or NCLC 5

               - for NOC C and D job offers: CLB or NCLC 4

  Education Requirements

• you have attained the equivalent of a Canadian High School Diploma

  Funds

• if you are not already working in Canada when you apply, you will need to demonstrate settlement funds according to the number of family members that you have

  Intention To Live In The Community

• you must intend to live in the community that is sponsoring your immigration

2. The Community Criteria

Each of the communities participating in the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot program has developed a unique set of qualifying criteria based on the labor needs of their community. Check the website for current participating communities but recent ones have included: North Bay, Sudbury, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, Brandon, Altona/Rhineland, Moose Jaw, Claresholm, Trail, Castlegar, Rossland and Nelson.

Once you have met the eligibility criteria and you have a letter of recommendation from a participating community, you can then make an application for Permanent Residence to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.  Note that you do not have to be living in Canada in order to apply for this program, however, many of the community programs give priority to foreign nationals who are already living and working in their community.

If you have experience in caring for children, or caring for adults who need support in their home (disabled and elderly) you may be eligible to apply for Permanent Residence under this category.

There are some basic criteria that you need to meet in order to be eligible for this program:

• You have a full-time job offer from a Canadian employer as a caregiver (no LMIA required).
• You can demonstrate that you are qualified for the job, either because you have past work experience or related education.
• You have taken a language test and achieved a minimum score of CLB 5 for English or NLCL 5 for French.
• You have completed the equivalent to a 1 year Canadian post-secondary educational credential.

This is a two-stage application process whereby, if you meet the eligibility criteria, you will apply for Permanent Residence and a work permit at the same time.  Once your application has been determined to be eligible under this category, a 3 year work permit will be issued so that you can gain the 24 months Canadian work experience needed before your Permanent Residence will be finalized.

While you are working in Canada, your spouse or common-law partner is eligible to apply for an open work permit, and your children can accompany you.  You are no longer required to live in the home of your employer in Canada.  Once you can prove that you have worked as a caregiver for 24 months inside Canada, you will provide an update to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and your Permanent Residence is intended to be finalized relatively quickly.

More Reading:

The New Caregiver Program — the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

ARE YOU QUALIFIED TO CARE FOR PEOPLE? COME TO CANADA NOW!

If you have worked in Canada in one of the following industries, in an eligible occupation, you may be eligible to apply for Permanent Residence under the Agri-Food Pilot program.

The eligible industries are:

• Meat product manufacturing
• Greenhouse, nursery and floriculture production, including mushroom production
• Animal production, excluding aquaculture

The eligible occupations are:

• NOC 6331 Retail butchers
• NOC 9462 Industrial butchersAnimal production, excluding aquaculture
• NOC 8252 Farm supervisors and specialized livestock workers
• NOC 9617 Food processing labourers
• NOC 8431 General farm workers
• NOC 8611 Harvesting labourers

There are annual limits on the number of applications that will be accepted for each occupation, with the quotas resetting on January 1 of each year.

To be eligible to apply under this category, you must also meet the following criteria:

1. Canadian Work Experience

a minimum of 1 year full time, non-seasonal work in the past 3 years

in one or more of the eligible occupations

while holding an LMIA based work permit

2. Canadian Job Offer:

must be for work that is full-time, non-seasonal, permanent and in one of the eligible occupations

the wage rate must meet certain conditions

3. Language Requirements

your score on an English or French test must be a CLB or NCLC level 4 of higher

4. Educational requirements:

you must have at least the equivalent of a Canadian high school diploma

5. Funds:

you need to demonstrate settlement funds if you are not working in Canada at the time of your application

Canada’s Atlantic Provinces – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland & Labrador, and Prince Edward Island – are the smallest provinces and are located on the far east coast of the country. This entire region has suffered from a severe shortage of workers in recent years. To address this issue, Canada’s immigration department has created a special set of immigration programs to attract newcomers specifically to these regions.

This is an employer-driven program. You must receive a job offer from a designated employer in Atlantic Canada to participate in the program. Besides, you must be either:

• a recent graduate of a recognized post-secondary institution in Atlantic Canada, or
• a skilled worker
• Meet the below requirements

Work Experience requirement:

• In the last 5 years, you must have worked at least 1,560 hours (1 year if you were working 30 hours per week)
• Count both full-time and part-time jobs, as long as they are paid
• Count work experience while studying, as long as the work hours don’t exceed what was authorized
• Count both outside Canada and inside Canada (must have been legally authorized to work in Canada)
• Do not count self-employed experience
• Can be in NOC 0, A, B and C

NOTE: International graduate do not need to meet this work experience requirement if:

• you have a degree, diploma, certificate or trade or apprenticeship certification that took at least 2 years of studies
• you graduated from a recognized post-secondary institution in 1 of the 4 Atlantic provinces
• you were a full-time during the entire period you were studying
• you lived in 1 of the 4 Atlantic provinces for at least 16 months during the last 2 years before you graduated

Educational requirement:

• Job offer at NOC 0 or A: Canadian one-year post-secondary education credential or higher, or equivalent outside Canada
• Job offer at NOC B or C: Canadian high-school diploma or equivalent outside Canada

Language requirement:

• CLB 5 for NOC 0, A and B
• CLB 4 for NOC C

Settlement Funds requirement:

• The amount required depends on the size of your family.
• If you are already working with a valid work permit, you don’t need to show proof of funds

Necessary steps for all AIP programs:

1. Find an employer who is eligible for the program and wants to hire you; check the provincial websites for job opportunities
2. Employer applies to the Province for permission to hire
3. Foreign national applies for Permanent Residence, and may also apply for a work permit to start living in Canada more quickly.

You may be qualified to immigrate to Canada with a start-up visa if you plan to start a business in Canada and you have convinced one of the designated investor groups to support your business concept. There are only a handful of these types of visas issued every year. The individuals who are most likely to be successful applying to immigrate under this category have a high net worth and a significant amount of business experience. The business ideas that are successful under this category must be innovative and designed to compete in the global marketplace.

If you don’t qualify for any of the established programs to immigrate, and you are facing significant hardship if you cannot live in Canada, you may qualify for H&C consideration. This category is for exceptional situations only, and most individuals who qualify for this type of application are already living in Canada (without status) or have some kind of significant family connection to Canada, like a parent, sibling, spouse or child. This program is not designed to enable masses of individuals from overseas to escape the difficulties of living in their country of origin.

You might be considered a refugee if:

• You are outside of your country of origin and can’t return because you’re at risk of being killed or persecuted and there is no protection available to you; or
• You are outside of your country of origin and can’t return because it’s not safe to do so either because of war or massive human rights violations.

There are different processes to follow in order to apply as a refugee if you are outside of Canada or if you are inside Canada. Some options require that you have a group who is willing to sponsor you, and other options allow you to qualify on your own.

Claiming refugee status should be an option of last resort for anyone, as you typically require very difficult personal circumstances in order to gain approval and if you are refused, your chances of obtaining any other immigration status to live in Canada are incredibly slim.

Our firm does not work in the area of Refugee Law, but if you are in need of this sort of representation, feel free to contact us. We would be pleased to provide you with a referral to trusted counsel.