Today is a really interesting episode about immigration to Canada, and I talked to my colleague Patrick, who is a licensed professional in this space.

It's a really informative episode, and I know you're going to appreciate Patrick's very actionable tips Before we get to that, You might remember my friend Thomas.

I know I've referred some of you to him for I'll speaking practice.

If you've sent me an email asking for an aisle speaking professionals contact, I usually pass on his contact details because he's a very talented instructor and he teaches through Skype anyway.

A few days back on Facebook, Thomas asked me, What task to question type has been most commonly reported in 2018 and this is an important discussion toe have every once in a while because the Isles does indeed evolve, and it's good to keep up with any changes to the test, no matter how small.

However, it's interesting to note that what hasn't changed much our task to action words let me read to you the two, most recently reported questions at isles blawg dot com to give you an idea.

The first is some people think cars are a better way of transportation around the city, while others prefer cycling.

Discuss both views and give your opinion, and the second is nowadays, the most important task is the environmental protection of our planet for future generations.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

So these test to question types won't be new to you.

You can see the first is a very clear request for discussion.

And, of course you're gonna respond to this.

Using a discussion s a structure, and the second clearly requires an argument essay so you can see that the core question types, even in 2018 even the last two questions that were asked on the islands and reported child's blood dot com haven't changed much at all.

We've seen these kinds of questions for the past 10 years, so keep practicing your argument and discussion essay structures.

All right, let's get to the topic of today's episode.

So I had a very informative conversation with my colleague Patrick Leone of one a one migration dot com.

Patrick is a licensed immigration consultant in Canada, which means his practice is recognized by the I.

C.

C R C.

The immigration consultants of Canada Regulatory Council, which is quite a mouthful.

This is the regulating body for professional immigration consultation in Canada, because I get so many e mails from people asking for information about immigration to Canada.

I asked Patrick to give me a quick rundown of the process and what he would recommend candidates do.

In this episode.

I'm only gonna talk about the express entry application route.

So if any of your questions air not answered or if you are pursuing immigration to Canada in a way other than express entry, please direct your correspondents to Patrick.

His email is Patrick at 101 migration dot com, where you can find him on Facebook and Twitter, which are also under the name one on one migration.

So if you search 101 migration on either of those platforms, you will find him.

Patrick told me that the vast majority of people he works with that want to go to Canada.

See, to do this through achieving permanent residency or otherwise known as p r permanent residency status in Canada, and I'm just gonna define that really quickly just to make sure we're all on the same page.

Permanent residency is an immigration status that allows a person to live and work in Canada for an undefined period of time.

So this is of course, different from a foreigner being in Canada temporarily as a tourist or a student, or to fulfill some sort of temporary contract as a foreign expert.

So permanent residents to Canada are issued a P R card, which allows them to travel to an enter Canada.

An indefinite number of times PR holders must live in Canada for two years in a five year period.

And they get most social benefits that Canadian citizens receive, and that includes health care coverage and the freedom to live, work and or study anywhere in Canada.

Permanent residents, however, cannot vote in Canadian elections.

So, as Patrick pointed out, there are different ways to apply for permanent residency and the vast majority of the PR applications.

He sees our through the express entry method, which can be pursued, whether the applicant has lived in Canada or not, and it can even be pursued if the applicant has never been to Canada before, so this in part explains its popularity.

The express entry process is a points based system that awards thing applicant points for certain qualities.

For example, I'm going to describe a profile of the most common applicant Patrick sees, that has a likelihood of successful application for PR.

This person is 31 years old.

They are unmarried, they have no dependence.

They have a bachelor's degree.

They have three years of work experience outside of Canada, and they haven't Isles Band seven with specific scores of listening Band eight and then reading, writing and speaking at Band seven or higher.

So in this specific case, the applicants attributes produce a total of 443 points.

And to give you an idea of how competitive this score is, Patrick told me that there were 3500 successful PR applications in the most recent round of the express entry Canadian immigration process.

So these so these air results that came out in April 3500 people were issued an invitation for PR to Canada, now the lowest score among those 3500 people was 441 points.

Okay, so that the profile that I just described to you is 443 points.

So you can see that the profile I have described would have only just squeezed by had they applied for Canadian PR.

Okay, so it's This is the profile of somebody that's on the lower end of the scale of people that are invited to receive PR to Canada now, for example, if their pilots listening score were to be only seven.

So if you remember, I told you that their routes man score was seven.

And then they had an eight and listening and seven in reading, writing and speaking.

If the listing were also seven, then the total points would drop to 337.

Okay, so it was at 443 and it drops to 3 to 37.

And so, of course, this candidate's application for express entry would not be selected because the point scores too low so you can see that you're ill.

It's really is very important.

You must get that band seven with a listening band.

Eight.

You Can you can pretty much double your points for language by just having that band seven.

Now the way that the system works is your I'll score is converted to the Canadian language benchmark, which requires the listing score be slightly higher than the other skills Now.

Patrick told me that in his experience, it is much harder to have a successful PR application when you're I'll score is less than Band seven, and he almost never sees that.

So the point score is also sensitive to age, as you can imagine.

And as Patrick points out, 31 if you're 31 years old or below, that's the best age for application through express entry, because this gives you 110 points for age.

But when you know if you're 32 then onwards, these ages received incrementally.

Less points points can also be removed, depending on your marital status and your education.

And, of course, whether that education was attained in Canada or not.

Your points are also sensitive to your work experience, and this should like I'm saying be three years at least, and this is evidenced by a letter from your employer, which would indicate exactly how many years of relevant experience you have.

So in the event your express entry PR application is successful and you receive an invitation to apply, which is otherwise known by the initial ISM I TA invitation to apply idea.

You will be asked to submit your supporting documents in the next step of your application.

Now, although being selected to submit documents to receive the PR card is exciting, as you can imagine, because you you're kind of getting into the final stages of receiving permanent residency to Canada.

There are still at this point, a number of obstacles that you need to be aware of, and Patrick points out that these if you aren't familiar with these or are not anticipating these challenges, they could result in the four fitting of your entire application.

So the window to submit your documents is only 90 days, and there are a couple of things you need to have aligned during this period.

So, firstly, you need to be able to show evidence that you have at least the equivalent of 12,475 Canadian dollars, or the equivalent of that in savings in your bank account.

and this is evidenced by submitting your bank statements.

So this is where people start to get into problems because they may not have had this money in their accounts before the 90 day window started.

And if you dump a bunch of borrowed money into your account during the 90 days, this could be seen as suspicious.

So Patrick's recommendation is to have your financial picture in place before you even start the express entry process.

Okay, so that when you get your invitation to apply for PR or to submit your documents to receive your PR, rather, you have the history of this money being in your bank account.

Secondly, you need to submit a police clearance certificate and a medical report, and these documents can sometimes take months to receive from your home country.

So you need to be aware of this and to apply for them as early as possible.

Now, in the event your medical appointment date is positioned after the 90 day window, which does happen.

Sometimes.

Patrick informs me that you could submit evidence of this in place of the the medical results, and even if you're 90 day window passes, the your hospital will submit the medical documentation on your behalf, and that's fine by Canada, immigration and citizenship.

But you just have to let them know ahead of time that this is what's gonna happen, All right, so that brief segment should give you a few of the basics about express entry application for Canadian P R.

So if anything was left unanswered for you, or you have a more complicated situation and you want to get some personalized feedback on what to do, you can email him at Patrick at one or one migration dot com or go to his website at one of my migration dot com or contact him via Facebook or Twitter.

And that's again at 11 migration.

Thanks very much for listening, and I hope this episode was helpful.