Can a international student apply for PR

[littleangel00a]

Is it possible to apply for PR when you take an undergraduate program or a diploma course.
Please clarify for both diploma course as well as UG program.
Also when should we apply for that...I mean after how many months after arriving in Canada.
Are there any provinces which do not accept the PR application from an international student.

 

[Leon]

You need to go to the CIC website at http://www.cic.gc.ca/ and look through the different immigration classes to see if you qualify.

In most cases, students need to graduate before they are eligible to apply and usually they need a job offer as well. Sometimes they need to have worked a certain number of hours too.

If you take at least a 2 year course, you can apply for a 3 yr. post-grad work permit after you graduate. This is an open work permit so you can work for any employer. This would give you the best chance of being able to qualify under some immigration class. If you do not qualify to apply under a PNP, you would at the very least be able to work for 1 year in a skilled occupation and then apply under CEC.

 

[littleangel00a]

Like as what I understood 8 months program then 8 months work permit and 2yrs or more duration program then 3 yrs work permit.
So after finishing the program for how long can one stay there while they have applied for the PR and if they do not have a work.
Also what is PNP? And also please clarify-you would at the very least be able to work for 1 year in a skilled occupation and then apply under CEC.

 

[Leon]

Like as what I understood 8 months program then 8 months work permit and 2yrs or more duration program then 3 yrs work permit.
So after finishing the program for how long can one stay there while they have applied for the PR and if they do not have a work.
Also what is PNP? And also please clarify-you would at the very least be able to work for 1 year in a skilled occupation and then apply under CEC.

PNP = Provincial nominee program. CEC = Canadian experience class.

The process of finding a skilled job after you graduate, finding an employer who will help you apply for PR and the whole process of getting it can easily take 12-18 months.

The longer your post-grad permit is, the more time you have in order to qualify under some immigration program and apply for it.

A PNP tends to require a job offer and sometimes having worked for a certain amount of time in the province. If your employer withdraws your job offer during the processing time, you could lose your application.

CEC is the safe bet because it only requires you to work in a skilled occupation for 1 year. After that, you may apply and your processing will continue no matter where you end up going in the meantime and whether you have a job offer or not.

 

[littleangel00a]

Thank you Leon for your quick response.
What does a skilled occupation mean? Like if you are an engineer should have worked as an engineer?

 

[Leon]

Thank you Leon for your quick response.
What does a skilled occupation mean? Like if you are an engineer should have worked as an engineer?

No, a skilled occupation is defined by a NOC Matrix. You can see it here: http://www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/noc/english/noc/2011/OccupationIndex.aspx

It lists all occupations and assigns each of them a 4 digit code. The way you see if an occupations is skilled is like this:

if the code starts with 0, for example 0621, it is skill type 0 and a management occupation,
if the code does not start with 0 but the 2nd digit is 0 or 1, for example 4031 or 5111, it is an skill level A occupation
if the code does not start with 0 but the 2nd digit is 2 or 3, for example 5241 or 7312, it is an skill level B occupation

All of the above are good for CEC and generally for any immigration job offer.

if the code does not start with 0 but the 2nd digit is 4,5,6 or 7, it is a skill level C or D occupation, considered low skilled or semi-skilled and generally not good for immigration. Some PNP's do allow C and D level job offers for students though.

 

[littleangel00a]

Thanks for kind clarifications.

One more query. What is unit hours in the undergraduate program? How many one can enroll for each year or semester? Kindly inform.

 

[Leon]

Please ask your university about that.

 

[dsun]

Re: Can an international student apply for PR

Hello,

I am an International Student at YorkU and have been in Canada for 3.5 years. I am fully bilingual in English and French. I am currently enrolled in a French studies BA programme and also work part-time for a Bank. During the summer I usually work FT hours. I have been working for Scotiabank for 2 years now.
Am I eligible to apply for my PR before I graduate?

Thanks for your help