Scottishfamily said:
She is a personal secretary for the NHS as well.
Alberta has closed its family stream, and in any event second-cousins are too distant a relation. So other than at most adding a point or two to your total under another program, it's probably not going to help much.
You can try looking at the federal skilled worker category and the Quebec skilled worker category. Also, you should look at the various provincial nominee programs. You can just Google "immigration" and the name of the province, and go from there.
IT is in high demand. That's a definite plus.
Under the Quebec Skilled Worker program, your HND in computer science will likely give you 6 points. It won't be considered equivalent to a university degree, however, only a college degree. Others here can probably tell you about the federal skilled worker program.
You can use the following online tools to determine your likely eligibility under Quebec and federal skilled worker programs:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/ctc-vac/cometocanada.asp
http://www.form.services.micc.gouv.qc.ca/epi/index.jsp?languageCode=en
If you find you don't qualify as things stand, and you really want to come to Canada, you can increase your chances by getting a degree from a Canadian university or a job offer from a Canadian employer. Under Quebec's rules, having a Quebec degree gives you more points than a foreign one. I imagine that with credit for your HND, a Quebec university would probably only ask for an additional year or year and a half of study for a bachelor's. This would be less than elsewhere in the country because a Bachelor's degree only takes 3 years here in Quebec.
If you have other questions, you should probably post them in the "General Immigration" or "Skilled Worker" categories.
Edit: For Quebec, a good knowledge of French will give you many points. For the federal program, it will give you some.
An additional point: The maximum age of dependants will change on Jan. 1, 2014. It will decrease from 22 to 19. If you have kids over 19, you need to apply before that date to bring them with you.
