Having information on whatever the subject is important to avoid making mistakes. But when it comes to immigration, having a lot of information without having a legal basis becomes a problem. Even more problematic is that the Department of Immigration website makes all the processes seem very easy and people who trust themselves make mistakes that can result in a rejection of the application they were trying to process.
Where the confusion is most noticeable is with the Express Entry. The first confusion is that many think that Express Entry is an immigration category and it is not. Express Entry is a processing system through which the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship controls the number of immigrants that he is going to invite to start a residency process and under what category or immigration program he is going to come.
The programs that must be processed through Express Entry are Skilled Workers, Skilled Labor Workers and Canadian Experienced Workers (at least one year of legal work in occupations that fall under the codes of the, A or B of the National Occupational Dictionary).
The way the processing system works is that the person interested in applying must take their official language exams of the country (English and / or French) and must also evaluate their educational credentials. Once you have these two results, you can put the profile in the Express Entry. The system gives scores to the person for different factors and every two or three weeks the Minister of Immigration announces the score necessary to be invited to apply and in which of the three categories the person is being invited to apply.
It is important to note that the score is not prescribed in the regulations, but rather that everyone does not know the score at the time the minister announces it. It is the least transparent system with which Immigration works. The way we evaluate cases is by educated guessing, that is, a record is kept of the numbers announced in the past and analyzed to determine the trend. Once the interested party receives the invitation to start the process, then they must make the formal request according to the program for which they were invited and at that time it must be shown that all the legal requirements are met to be accepted as a permanent resident .
Within the score that is added there is a score for age, for studies, work experience, knowledge of the official languages of the country; study experience in Canada; work experience in Canada; additional points that the couple can give to the main applicant; points combining different factors and additional score for having a sibling in Canada; for having studied in Canada; for having a job offer; for having advanced knowledge of both official languages of the country and for having been nominated or selected by one of the provinces under the provincial nominations program. For this last factor the additional score is 600 points.
One of the most notable confusions that occurs when the option of permanent residence is discussed is precisely with the provincial nominations. People are often confused between the various immigration programs that exist through the federal government, provincial governments, and regional programs. Provincial nominations are excellent because, as we have seen, being selected by a province gives 600 additional points in the Express Entry, but we must also remember that these programs have limited places and when those places are filled, you have to wait for them to reopen. the programs. It should also be noted that the most requested provinces are Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec, and therefore are the most difficult to receive a nomination.
The general rule in our work is that unless a provincial nomination is necessary because the person has lost 100 or 110 points due to age or otherwise has a very low score in the Express Entry, it is preferable to do the procedure under the Federal programs that allow a person to live anywhere in Canada (except Quebec, since they have their own immigration program).
If a person reaches the score that is being advertised or higher, they can easily apply through the federal program and freely choose where they want to live in Canada. If the score is low and cannot be raised in any other way, then the option of a provincial nomination is recommended.
For example, a 27-year-old single woman, with a master’s degree, perfect English and advanced French and 4 years of qualified work experience would obtain 543 points in the Express Entry, enough to be invited to start a permanent residency procedure under the program federal. This young woman can choose where she wants to live without any problem and does not need to increase her score. A provincial nomination would not be unnecessary and it is better to avoid it since it is a much more complicated process and more costs. This young woman does not need to come to study and work in Canada either, she can start the process immediately from her country.
In another example, if we take a woman with exactly the same characteristics as the previous young woman, but who is 45 years old, this person loses 110 points for her age since in the processing system this woman would lose 6 points per year until she is forty and then you lose 11 points per year until you lose them all. In this case, it would not reach a sufficient score to be invited to initiate a residency procedure, so it would be advisable and I would say it is absolutely necessary that the procedure be processed through a provincial nomination or through a regional program.
In both cases it is necessary to make an evaluation prior to making any kind of decision. Even in the case of the second example, there would be other options, such as coming as an international student or with a work permit. An evaluation and a drill should always be done in the future so that you can plan what to do to improve the score.
There are times when someone calls and tells me that they want to come to study as an international student to be able to raise the score and then start their residency process, and when doing the evaluation it turns out that they have enough score and do not need to raise it by coming to study. So I tell him to save the money he would spend to study and use it later to put the deposit to buy a house.
You always have to make an assessment before acting. There are times when there are pleasant surprises.