US family seeking to immigrate to Canada

[mmh83]

My husband and I live in Texas with our four minor children, and are extremely interested in moving permanently to Canada and pursuing citizenship. He would be the primary applicant and I think he would qualify as a skilled worker, but I would like to see what the best route would be for us to take, so I'm hoping someone here may have good advice or recommendations for us.

Our situation/qualifications is/are as follows: He has a BA in Management Information Systems, currently a Business Analyst for a major US company, Project Management experience w/ CAPM and ITIL certifications, and over a decade of experience in advanced technical support in hospital and legal settings. He has approximately $20,000 USD in savings. Neither of us have any criminal history. I only have an AS but am the head of my department at a public school. Our oldest child is 13 and our youngest is 9. I also speak basic French (he does not).

The path to Canadian citizenship that we've been discussing is for him to apply for jobs in Canada, find one there, and for him to move. This would be without us, initially, until he can get a house or apartment there; once I arrived with the children, I would of course also find employment. Once established with permanent jobs, we're thinking we could apply for residency, and after a few years we could be eligible to apply to become citizens. However, although I've done quite a bit of reading on it, I want to make sure my understanding of Canadian immigration law is correct in that this would be a viable path to citizenship, and also determine whether this is the best/easiest/fastest way to start the process.

Can anyone give me guidance in this? It would be most appreciated.

 

[scylla]

My husband and I live in Texas with our four minor children, and are extremely interested in moving permanently to Canada and pursuing citizenship. He would be the primary applicant and I think he would qualify as a skilled worker, but I would like to see what the best route would be for us to take, so I'm hoping someone here may have good advice or recommendations for us.

Our situation/qualifications is/are as follows: He has a BA in Management Information Systems, currently a Business Analyst for a major US company, Project Management experience w/ CAPM and ITIL certifications, and over a decade of experience in advanced technical support in hospital and legal settings. He has approximately $20,000 USD in savings. Neither of us have any criminal history. I only have an AS but am the head of my department at a public school. Our oldest child is 13 and our youngest is 9. I also speak basic French (he does not).

The path to Canadian citizenship that we've been discussing is for him to apply for jobs in Canada, find one there, and for him to move. This would be without us, initially, until he can get a house or apartment there; once I arrived with the children, I would of course also find employment. Once established with permanent jobs, we're thinking we could apply for residency, and after a few years we could be eligible to apply to become citizens. However, although I've done quite a bit of reading on it, I want to make sure my understanding of Canadian immigration law is correct in that this would be a viable path to citizenship, and also determine whether this is the best/easiest/fastest way to start the process.

Can anyone give me guidance in this? It would be most appreciated.

You cannot apply for citizenship directly. You must apply and become permanent residents first. Once you have been PRs for several years, you can then qualify for citizenship.

Finding a job in Canada may give you a path to PR. However to understand what it takes to apply for PR, you'll need to dedicate time to researching Canada's immigration programs to understand what's required. Recommend you start by researching the Express Entry program. Detailed info below:

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada.html

 

[scylla]

Also recommend you read through the replies you received when you posted this question several months ago. Answers haven't changed.

https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/american-family-of-6-wants-to-move-to-canada-permanently.534108/

If you are serious about moving, you REALLY need to dedicate time to actually researching Canada's immigration programs.

 

[mmh83]

Thank you for that information, Scylla.

(Off topic, I meant to add our ages: I'm 35, he's 36. I know age is a factor in applying for citizenship.)

 

[mmh83]

Yes, I did read back through the old responses, and I have put a lot of time into researching their immigration programs. I just wanted to see if anyone else would have any new input. I can research all day, but sometimes there's nothing quite like getting feedback from an actual human being who knows what they're talking about. I had to put the immigration idea on hold for several months due to general busyness with life, and am only now getting time to put my focus and energy back in that direction, so I'm kind of refreshing myself on these processes. Thanks for bearing with me.

 

[scylla]

Yes, I did read back through the old responses, and I have put a lot of time into researching their immigration programs. I just wanted to see if anyone else would have any new input. I can research all day, but sometimes there's nothing quite like getting feedback from an actual human being who knows what they're talking about. I had to put the immigration idea on hold for several months due to general busyness with life, and am only now getting time to put my focus and energy back in that direction, so I'm kind of refreshing myself on these processes. Thanks for bearing with me.

Again, best option is to start by researching the Express Entry program and calculating how many points you have. Right now you need to have 440+ points to be selected under this program. You'll get more points the more education you have, the higher your language test scores and the more work experience you have. You start losing substantial points the older you get. Recommend you build up at least another $5K in savings. In the event you have to show proof of settlement funds to qualify for PR, what you have now isn't sufficient for a family of 6.

If you find you aren't able to dedicate time to research - best option is then to hire an immigration lawyer to assist you.

Good luck.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thank you for that information, Scylla.

(Off topic, I meant to add our ages: I'm 35, he's 36. I know age is a factor in applying for citizenship.)

You will be applying for permanent residency, not citizenship. Age is not a factor in applying for citizenship.

 

[mmh83]

I did calculate EE points and found we'd have 457.

We are definitely working to bolster savings, and should have at least another 5k within the next couple of months.

I haven't had time to do much research since the winter holidays, primarily because of work. We live in an area which was heavily affected by Hurricane Harvey (although we personally were spared) and the students at the school in which I work were disproportionately affected in comparison to most surrounding areas, which has resulted in a lot of additional work for faculty to help get things back to normal for our students. It's now summer break, most of our kids are finally not living in hotels anymore, and I have time to focus back on this again.

Thank you again for the feedback and well-wishes.

 

[scylla]

I did calculate EE points and found we'd have 457.

We are definitely working to bolster savings, and should have at least another 5k within the next couple of months.

Make sure you are not adding 50/200 points to your score for having a job offer (arranged employment). There are very specific requirements that must be met to count these points. Even if one of you is able to secure a job in Canada, this won't necessarily give you the arranged employment points.