Taking the First Step
While it may seem that we came to the decision to relocate to Canada in a whimsical and impulsive way we don’t want anyone thinking we have made this decision lightly. Anybody choosing to move to another country needs to be 100% sure that it is the right decision for them, especially when leaving family and close friends behind. Packing up an entire life kit and kaboodle can be a hard, stressful, and drawn-out experience! I have the grey hairs and ingrained frown lines that prove this theory!
Immigrating requires research, planning, preparation, patience, and determination. Having successfully relocated from the UK to NZ we had experience on our side and were going into this with our eyes wide open, my advice to anyone considering immigration to Canada or any other country for that matter would be do your homework.
The journey is long, but the goal is in each step.
In order to immigrate we had to be in the journey for the long haul and be unwaveringly focused (borderline obsessed in fact!) on our end destination. We hit stop signs, roadblocks, red traffic lights, dead ends, and bumps in the road a plenty. Anyone of these should have left us seriously questioning the precision and accuracy of the directions given by our Sat Nav, slamming on the breaks hard enough to give ourselves whiplash and doing a U-turn and going back the way we came leaving nothing but a trail of dust and confusion in our wake. But not us! Mamma didn’t raise no quitters!
The ease at which we could immigrate to Canada was dependent on but not limited to the following:
- Where in Canada we wished to move to.
- Our financial situation.
- Our age.
- The language we speak (Martin is bilingual, he speaks a variation of English and a language only canines can understand!).
- Our level of education, skills, and qualifications.
- The work we wanted to undertake in Canada.
All these factors came into play when establishing the most viable visa options to give us the greatest chance of success of our application being accepted.
As part of our consideration for immigrating to Canada we made ourselves very familiar with the Canadian Immigration Services website Immigration and citizenship – Canada.ca
Pretty much everything you need to know about visa options, the requirements, processes not to mention all the useful links to help you successfully integrate once you arrive can be found in this space. The bonus is that it is not the most confusing Government website we have come across and it did not require an IQ of 179 to interpret the information!
Pick a visa, any visa!
Okay so technically we couldn’t pick any visa! There are so many different entry options available for consideration when immigrating to Canada all of which we found on the following page of the website Immigrate to Canada – Canada.ca
One of the most popular is under the Express Entry as a skilled worker, a points based system dependent mostly on the criteria detailed in the bullet points above. These criteria are assessed to give you a score and then your score will be ranked in the Express Entry pool. To be invited you need to be above the minimum score required for your round of invitations, just think of a lottery in that the more tickets you buy the higher your chances of winning, Express Entry works the same, the higher your score the higher chance of being selected.
Express Entry is the option we initially considered and whilst we were above the minimum score required our points total could have been better, it was also our first experience of our age working against. Simply put the older you are the less points you get which was a shocker for us because we see ourselves as being 21-year-olds trapped in middle aged bodies but apparently Canada just sees us as being old AF!
We knew that realistically (and bearing in mind our impending old age!) we only had one shot at getting this right and being successful with our application. Having been sucked down so many black holes on Google searches about visas and getting so confused with all the information and opposing opinions we were left questioning which galaxy we ended up in.
We soon realised we were out of our depth and going to need help with regards to what visa would be the best to maximise our chances.
To use a Visa Specialist or not to use a Visa Specialist …. that is the question!
Whether to use a Canadian Visa Specialist or not was a personal choice for us and dependent on our financial situation, the level of confidence we had of the visa we wished to apply for and our understanding of the documentation and processes we needed to follow to submit a successful application.
Many people are successfully accepted into Canada having taken themselves through the application process, but I will issue a caveat here. Mistakes in the documentation, not submitting the correct information or not providing enough evidence where requested can all hinder, delay, and add unnecessary costs to an application. We wanted to give ourselves the best possible chance with our one shot without breaking the piggy bank so decided to engage a Canadian Visa Specialist to support us through the process.
But hold up! We need to slow our roll, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves here! First and foremost, we needed a Visa Specialist to categorically tell us whether we stood a chance of a successful application based on the points we had or if we were wasting our time.
This is where our search for the right Canadian Visa Specialist began, join us next week for the next instalment.