[A123]About Immigration To Canada

c) Provincial Nomination
This scheme is appropriate for persons that are interested in one province in particular to immigrate and achieve their personal and professional objectives. In this case, provinces play a more direct role in selecting immigrants that wish to settle in that province in particular.

The application has to be nominated by a province, and then a separate application has to be submitted to Citizenship and Immigration Canada to apply for Permanent Residence.

d) Family Class Immigration

This category applies for immigrants who already have the Permanent Residence status and live in Canada, who wish to sponsor close relatives or family members to become permanent residents. The main requirement is to commit to support the person they are sponsoring and their accompanying family members for a period of three to ten years.

In order to qualify under the Family Class scheme, the applicant must be related to the Canadian sponsor in one of the following ways:

- Sponsor's spouse; common-law or conjugal partner;
- Parent;
- Orphaned brother, sister, nephew, niece, or grandchild --under 19 and unmarried;

- A child under 19 who is either orphaned or placed with a child welfare authority for adoption and who the sponsor intends to adopt; the sponsor's dependent child;

- If the sponsor has no relative as listed above and no relatives who are Canadian citizens or Canadian permanent residents, one other relative.

For immigration purposes, a spouse should be married to the sponsor and the marriage should be legally valid.

If married in Canada, a Certificate of Marriage should be issued by the province or territory where the marriage took place. If the marriage was performed outside Canada, the marriage must be valid under the law of the country where it took place and under Canadian law. If the marriage is performed in an embassy or consulate, it must comply with the law of the country where it took place (not the country of nationality of the embassy or consulate).

e) International Adoption

A Canadian citizen or permanent resident is allowed to adopt a child from another country. The child must be sponsored, and the sponsorship process can start, either when the decision is made to adopt the child, or after the adoption process has been started.

There are two necessary processes to adopt a child from another country: the adoption process and the immigration sponsorship process.

f) Quebec Selected Immigration

Under Canadian law, Quebec can establish its own immigration requirements in order to select immigrants who will most likely adapt to Quebec. In order to immigrate to Canada as a Quebec Skilled Worker, an application must be submitted to the local government in Quebec to obtain a Certificate de selection du Qu?bec. After the application has been approved by Quebec, a separate application to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) for permanent residence has to be done. One of the advantages of this scheme is that Quebec Skilled Workers are not assessed on the six selection factors of the Federal Skilled Workers Program. The six selection factors will be explain in the following sections.

As mentioned previously, this guide focuses mainly in Skilled Worker Class Immigration, which is the most popular of most categories. In my opinion, it is also the most convenient way to immigrate to Canada. However, it is important to analyze the other alternatives in order to decide which option suits best for your personal needs.

Meet the Pass ? Mark

As mentioned previously, for immigration purposes, Skilled Workers are people who are able to become economically established in Canada. Basically, applicants must meet work experience requirements, prove that they have enough funds to settle and earn enough points to meet the Pass - Mark based on the six selection factors.

In the Skilled Worker Class, a skilled worker is someone who has at least one year of full time work experience within the past ten years in one of the occupations listed in Skill Level A or B of the National Occupational Classification (NOC). In order to be considered full time work experience, the relevant job has to be of 37.5 hours per week or more.

Work experience is only considered for this purpose if it is included in

Skill Type 0 or Skill Levels A and B of the NOC.
Assuming that these prerequisites are met, then in order to immigrate to Canada as a Skilled Worker, the applicant needs to earn enough points to meet the Pass Mark. Fortunately for applicants, the pass mark was recently modified. On September 18, 2003 Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced that the pass mark for applicants applying for Permanent Residence as Skilled Workers (expect to
Quebec) would change from 75 to 67 points.

The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada constantly amends the Pass Mark, and these changes reflect changes in the labor market in Canada and also in the economy and society.

The following tables show the points earned for different circumstances under each factor. As mentioned, the 6 factors are Education, Official Languages, Experience, Age, Arranged Employment in Canada and Adaptability. The total points to meet the pass mark are 67.

In order to asses your situation and decide whether you will qualify for the Permanent Residence visa under the Skilled Worker scheme, you have to add up the points that reflect your own situation in each factor. For instance, if you have completed a Master of Business Administration and 17 years of full time study, you will earn 25 points (which is the maximum in this factor) for Education. However, if you have only completed a three-year diploma and at least 15 years of full time study, you will only earn 22 points for Education. If the total sum of your points in all 6 factors is equal to or greater than 67, then you are eligible to apply for the Permanent Residence Visa under this particular scheme.

Now, it is time to evaluate your situation! Read the following tables carefully and add up your points! Good luck!