The Immigration Process to Canada Via Express Entry, From a South African

Photo credit to Kyle Glenn @kylejglenn

30 April 2019

This is a very basic guideline to the immigration process to Canada. Based on our personal experience, our friends’ experience following us to Canada, and general knowledge I picked up on social media groups. Personally, I do not believe an immigration agent is necessary as Canada makes it really easy to apply yourself. I hope this post assists you with your journey ahead!

Intro

Let’s start by confirming what we’re doing… Are we immigrating, emigrating or both?

Immigrating is when you enter a foreign country with intentions to settle there. Emigrating is when you leave a country. 

In 2018 we migrated from South Africa to Canada. Said differently, we immigrated to Canada and emigrated from South Africa. A way to remember this is i(in)mmigration and e(ex)migration.  

Firstly, well done for picking a direction. It took us many years of, ‘yes’, ‘maybe’, ‘no’, ‘not now’, ‘maybe next year’, ‘but my career’, ‘I need to finish my studies’, etc. It’s a big decision and you (and your cat/partner/family) need to be sure why you are doing this, so you have no regrets later.

You are possibly in the zone of, we are going somewhere, and weighing up all the countries.

-Australia and New Zealand were a no go for my husband (I think it is rugby/cricket related), they weren’t on our short list.

-London would be great if not for Brexit and all the uncertainies. Plenty of friends and family have moved over in the last 10 years.

-Dubai would be good due to tax benefits (not after March 2020 when the new tax rules kick in), but citizenship is impossible and living is expensive there (more than usual).

-Canada seemed a bit nippy for this Durban girl, but when you hear about their reputation for being friendly, how they open their doors for refugees, the free medical care, free schooling, citizenship within 3 years, well that was it for us.

You can compare the costs of living here.

After looking at Canada, we found a program with Canada Immigration and Citizenship (CIC) where you can obtain a 5-year permanent residence (PR) visa through a process called Express Entry (EE). The gist of it – with an assessed qualification, an English test and Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) points of 440 (being a reasonable number), you could obtain PR within 6 months.

Let me briefly explain how you can get to these 440 CRS points, with a spouse/common law partner:

-Education – A BCom 112 points, a professional degree or masters 126 points, doctorate 140 points.

-Partner’s Education – between 0 and 10 points.

-Language – between 0 and 32 points, this needs to be converted to Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) - check you score here.

-Partner’s Language – between 0 and 5 points.

-Age – If you are 17 years old or less 0 points, if you are 30 years old 95 points, 35 years old 70 points, 45 years or older 0 points.

-Work Experience – between 0 and 50 points.

-Skill Transferability – between 0 and 100 points.

-Siblings in Canada – 15 points.

-Provincial Nomination Program (PNP) – 600 points.

-Studied in Canada – between 15 and 30 points.

-Arranged Employment NOC 00 – 200 points.

-Arranged Employment NOC 0, A or B – 50 points.

-French – 30 points.

Steps on how to start can be found on the CIC site.

If your CRS points are less than 440, you may need to consider the PNP route, Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) route, or obtain a work permit. The PNP route, once nominated by the government, provides you with 600 additional CRS points, however this limits you to a certain province and may take longer than 6 months. Each province has their own PNP based on their own skills shortage. The work permit route is difficult to obtain as the employer needs to jump through a few tricky hoops, similar to the retrenchment hoops in South Africa.

Assuming you have done all your homework, have your points estimated on the CRS calculator, have gone through the eligibility test, this is where the process starts:

1-Check if you are pregnant (no jokes)

When you go for your medical in due course, you will need to undergo a chest x-ray.

If you’re negative, you are good to go – keep it that way until after your medical, or even easier when you land.

If you’re positive, you’ll need to put the Canada plans on hold until the little one is born.   

2-Register with CIC

Make sure you tick all their boxes and obtain your personal reference code with a QK number.

3-Moola aka Entrance Fee

You will need to show CIC you can afford to move to Canada – this money is and always will be your money. You’ll need some cash (not a RA, or future sale of your house, nor future sale of your shares) in a bank account and you shouldn’t touch it for at least 6 months, otherwise you’ll need to do some explaining. The quantum is on a sliding scale, depending how many of you there are.

You cannot loan the money. If someone gives you the money as a gift, you need a gift certificate confirming the donor doesn’t want their money back.

Make sure you (and your cat/partner/family) all have access to this money, as you will need to declare this later. 

We needed about $15 000.00=R150 000.00, which was the sale of one of our cars. We added a buffer amount of R20 000.00, in case the Rand got excited, as it did. 

This quantum went on our funds letter with an explanation of how we sold our car.

Out of interest, the time it took to sell my husband’s car, 3 months. My car, 6 months.

4-Education

You (and anyone going with you) will need to get your qualifications assessed.

World Education Services (WES) and International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS) are the top two recommended places to obtain your assessments. You can submit 5 qualifications per envelope with WES. Send in your matric certificate, it will give you an extra 2 points.

If you are an attorney, and the main applicant, IQAS is recommended. IQAS will provide you with a “professional degree” (126 CRS points) for your LLB, whereas WES classifies your LLB as a “bachelors degree” (112 CRS points). The more points you have the better.  

The wait for the results/assessment – IQAS 6 months, WES 2 months.
Cost Per Person (including postage) – IQAS $285, WES $400.

5-General English Test
You (and anyone going with you) will need to do an English test, conducted by a British company, International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

This is where you should spend most of your effort in the entire migration process, I shit you not. It is a reading, listening, writing, and speaking test. Use YouTube, books, Facebook groups, practice, practice, practice. Some people need to do the test more than once, to get the required points. The waiting period to do the test was 2 months in Johannesburg, 1 month in Pretoria. The test itself comprised 15 minutes for the speaking test (conducted on a separate day to the rest of the tests and at a different venue - you need to be flexible and will be called a week before with a date and time suitable to them), and 5 hours for the reading, listening and writing test which is conducted on a Saturday.

The wait for the results/assessment – 1 month.
Cost Per Person – R3200.00.

6-Complete your CIC profile
Using your QK number, you will need to set up your EE profile with your and your partner’s English and education assessment certificates. The next day you will receive a confirmation email, confirming that you have entered the pool. You will only be in the pool for a year, whereafter you can reapply.

Time it takes to set up profile – 2 hours. 

Cost – free.

CIC communicates with you via email, which you will generally receive when you wake up in the mornings. Every second Wednesday the CIC sends an invitation to apply (ITA) (i.e. selects you from the pool) to 2750 candidates (worldwide), with the highest points. Once you receive this ITA, you have 60 days to submit your documents to CIC.

My advice, start gathering the following documents as soon as possible:

-South African Police clearance certificate (PCC) which can take 6 months if you have bad luck.

-If you were resident in another country for more than 6 months, less than 10 years ago, you’ll need a PCC for each country. A UK PCC costs R1 603.64.

-Birth and marriage certificates (cash only, R75 for each copy/duplicate copy), took me 7 months with Home Affairs after complaining to the presidential line. 

-Reference letters/affidavits from all employers in the last 10 years (matching your NOC code/s 80%).

-Scan all your passports in colour.

-Draft a list of all the countries you ever visited setting out the dates.

-Draft a list of all the places you have lived from the age of 18.

-Proof of funds, you will need to provide at least 6 months bank statements for each bank account you hold, including mortgages, savings, entrance fee account.

-Funds letter, took me some time to format, convert currencies and taxes, for all applicants. I had the following headings: Introduction, with a tax table, and contents; Savings Accounts for each account including the entrance fee account; Retirement Annuities for each person; Assets and Liabilities, including immovable properties, unsold car/s, cheque accounts, credit cards, overdrafts and summarizing what we expect to receive in due course from the sale of assets; Annexure Summary.

7-ITA Received
This is the formal request for your documents that you have already gathered, to obtain your PR visa.

-Documents – submit them as you receive them, it can be bulky and tricky to get within the size limits.

-Digital Photographs – install a photo app on your phone/computer to assist you.

-Medicals – you will be called/emailed to complete a medical. We waited 2 weeks for our medical appointment. Medical Cost Per Person – R1 500.00 for the medical and urinalysis, R705.00 for the chest x-ray, R490.40 for the blood tests. Total R2 695.40. The wait for the results, usually 1 day.

-Application Fee of $1250.00 – you have an option to pay the application fee and RPRF fee ($490.00) together at this stage (which speeds things up), or you can pay the RPRF fee later. If you are declined, you can claim only the $490.00. 

Remember the date you finally submit the above as you can check the estimated date you will receive your Golden Email.  

Phases post submission, which you can see online on CIC:

Phase 1 – IP1 – Completeness check usually after your medical is complete. 

Phase 2 – R10 – Verifying Information, usually takes 1 to 3 months.

Phase 3 – MEP – Medicals passed.

Phase 4 – Eligibility confirmation, usually takes 1 to 2 months.

Phase 5 – IP2 – Background check in progress (PCC, travel, etc).

Phase 6 – Security check, usually takes 1 month.

Phase 7 – PPR – Passport request for visa.

Phase 8 – CoPR – Confirmation of permanent residence.

8-The Approval aka “PPR Email” aka “The Golden Email”

This is it! From date of submission, we waited 105 days for this Golden Email.

Received from “CPCO-FinalRequest” with a subject line “Ready for Visa”.

Within 30 days, you will need to pay the RPRF fee if not paid already, and send your passport to VFS Global for your PR visa to be inserted into your passport, with 2 colour photos with certain specifications.

9-Passports received with Canadian Visa

Once you receive your passport back (ours took 3 days), you are good to hop on that plane to Canada, well kind of, there is a lot to do still. The document you receive with your passports is called a CoPR, these are your “landing papers” you’ll need when you land, open a bank account, apply for a health card and SIN number. Your PR card will arrive in the post, one month after landing.
When you land, and provide immigration with your CoPR, you will need a residential address. We used a friends address as our Airbnb was only booked for 2 weeks. 

Remember, you need to activate your visa within one year of your medical. You need not move over immediately, but you do need to be present 3 years to the day, in order to get citizenship or renew your PR.

10-Pack Up

You will need to prepare a few lists to enter Canada, you have one chance to ship in your life (tax free). I had a “jewelry” list, “packed bags with me” list, and “boxes to be shipped” list. These need to be in a certain format with serial numbers, values, etc.

I hope this post helps you, and all the best with your big move!

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Special thanks to my editor DS.