As a Canadian I can testify that Canada certainly seems to be welcoming to all skilled professionals, but from personal experience, their system for issuing temporary/visitor visas stinks: they rejected my wife’s application to leave her son behind in the Philippines and visit me in Canada because she failed to “prove” that she would leave at the end of her visit. The thing is, it’s impossible to prove! A return flight is not considered evidence, I can’t buy a bond to promise she will leave, and leaving a child behind is considered evidence but, in my case, was insufficient. Notably, there is nothing on any government web site hinting at how hard it is to visit Canada, or how arbitrary and opaque the decisions are.
As a preliminary check, I filled out a questionnaire and verified that a 35-year-old person with good English skill (7.5/9 scores on IELTS), 2 years of college, 2 years experience in a skilled profession, married, one child, no job offer in Canada, but $30,000 CAD to bring to Canada, is eligible to apply for Express Entry if the wife scored likewise on the English test (oddly there is no provision for native English speakers). But this is just the very beginning; the Express Entry program doesn’t seem particularly “express” (or fast or cheap). You might be able to apply, but do you have enough “points” to actually immigrate? After a brief review I couldn’t figure out how the point system actually correlates to getting a “invitation to apply”. The most recent minimum number of points was 744 out of 1200, but I can’t find anyone saying whether (1) you’re guaranteed to get an “invitation to apply” if you pass the threshold, or (2) there is some kind of probabilistic formula for the “draw” system based on the points (as this page seems to imply). If you do get an “invitation to apply” I would guess you have some kind of temporary “right” to permanent residence if you immediately do the copious paperwork and pay the $1,325 application fee, but I don’t see anyone spelling out the probability of successful immigration conditional upon having an “invitation to apply”.
As a Canadian I can testify that Canada certainly seems to be welcoming to all skilled professionals, but from personal experience, their system for issuing temporary/visitor visas stinks: they rejected my wife’s application to leave her son behind in the Philippines and visit me in Canada because she failed to “prove” that she would leave at the end of her visit. The thing is, it’s impossible to prove! A return flight is not considered evidence, I can’t buy a bond to promise she will leave, and leaving a child behind is considered evidence but, in my case, was insufficient. Notably, there is nothing on any government web site hinting at how hard it is to visit Canada, or how arbitrary and opaque the decisions are.
As a preliminary check, I filled out a questionnaire and verified that a 35-year-old person with good English skill (7.5/9 scores on IELTS), 2 years of college, 2 years experience in a skilled profession, married, one child, no job offer in Canada, but $30,000 CAD to bring to Canada, is eligible to apply for Express Entry if the wife scored likewise on the English test (oddly there is no provision for native English speakers). But this is just the very beginning; the Express Entry program doesn’t seem particularly “express” (or fast or cheap). You might be able to apply, but do you have enough “points” to actually immigrate? After a brief review I couldn’t figure out how the point system actually correlates to getting a “invitation to apply”. The most recent minimum number of points was 744 out of 1200, but I can’t find anyone saying whether (1) you’re guaranteed to get an “invitation to apply” if you pass the threshold, or (2) there is some kind of probabilistic formula for the “draw” system based on the points (as this page seems to imply). If you do get an “invitation to apply” I would guess you have some kind of temporary “right” to permanent residence if you immediately do the copious paperwork and pay the $1,325 application fee, but I don’t see anyone spelling out the probability of successful immigration conditional upon having an “invitation to apply”.