CANADA

The entire journey in Canada can be divided into three parts: the first and second year, the third and fourth year, and the fifth and sixth year.

If you are not making mistakes, do not have unnecessary constraints, and follow the right plan, you should get your PR in Canada within four years and your citizenship within six years. The journey can take longer depending on individual circumstances, but the ideal plan is to stay close to these timelines.

1. First and Second Year: Complete Your Study

The first and second year are mainly for completing your study.

If you are married, one person studies while the other spouse has a spouse open work permit and earns in Canada for the family.

The first two years are the most struggling years, especially the initial three, four or five months after landing in Canada. You need to settle yourself properly, complete your assignments, attend your lectures and complete your study without creating unnecessary problems.

If you are mature enough, getting assignments done, attending classes and passing exams should not be a major problem.

The target during these first two years is simple: complete your study.

Usually, the study is around 16 to 18 months. You should complete your study without failing exams, without unnecessary breaks and without requiring a study permit extension because of pending subjects.

2. Don't Create Unnecessary Problems During Your Study

You don’t need to do anything extraordinary.

You need to stay average and normal, complete your study with around 60% marks, give around 20 to 30 hours per week to your study, complete assignments and attend classes.

Usually, classes are around 12 to 15 hours.

Some students take unnecessary breaks, fail exams, copy and paste assignments or create academic integrity issues. Ultimately, they fail their exams and have to repeat courses.

Once you repeat a course, you need to spend extra time on your study and may have to pay an additional $2,000 to $3,000.

That means waste of money, waste of time and waste of energy.

3. Complete Your Study and Apply for Your PG Work Permit

If you complete your study in around 16 months without creating unnecessary issues, you can move towards your PG work permit.

For a 16-month study period, the journey discussed is around three years of PG work permit, giving you approximately five years in Canada when combined with the study period and the processing period.

During this period, your target should be to complete your study normally and move towards your PG work permit without unnecessary complications.

4. Complete Your English Test Before the End of Your Study

English test preparation should not be left until the last moment.

If you have studied from a college and completed a UG diploma or PG diploma, the requirement discussed is CLB 5.

If you have completed a master’s degree or bachelor’s degree or studied from a university, the requirement discussed is CLB 7.

Getting CLB 7 has become difficult for many students, so the English test should be completed during the last semester rather than waiting until the end of the study permit.

Students have been struggling to complete CLB 7 even after completing their studies. If the English test isn’t completed in time, the PG work permit application can become difficult.

The English test should therefore be completed before the PGWP application wherever possible.

5. Apply for PGWP and Spouse Extension Together

If you are married, the PG work permit application and spouse open work permit extension application can be submitted together.

If both applications are approved without any issue, the entire family can continue their journey in Canada with the required status.

Once the PG work permit is obtained, you have around three years to work towards your PR.

6. Start Planning for PR During Your Study

Your PR planning shouldn’t begin after you complete one year of Canadian work experience.

You should start planning from the beginning.

There are certain things you can do during your study that can help with your PR later.

One important option discussed is working in special categories.

Right now, healthcare and education are identified as two special categories.

Two popular jobs mentioned are nursing assistant and early childhood assistant.

Even while studying, you can take assistant jobs such as nursing assistant or early childhood assistant and start working part-time.

The experience during study can make you eligible under special category draws for PR.

This experience doesn’t give you points because the experience isn’t counted, but it can make you eligible under special category roles.

7. Why Healthcare and Education Jobs Can Help

If you are able to get a job in healthcare or education, take it.

The experience can help with PR eligibility and can also help you later when applying for a full-time job after receiving your PG work permit.

If you already have part-time experience in the same category for one year or more, it can help you obtain a full-time job in the same category.

That full-time job can then help you further with your PR pathway.

8. Your First Two Years Are the Foundation

The first two years are therefore not simply about getting through college or university.

You need to complete your study properly, obtain your PG work permit, complete your English test on time and start planning for the PR pathway.

If you are working part-time, earn enough for your survival in Canada and complete your study on time without failing, you have done a good job during the initial period.

The objective is to avoid mistakes and remain focused on the next stage of your journey.

9. Don't Put Constraints on Your PR Plan

After completing your study, you need to focus on getting your PR.

Two major constraints can create problems: job constraints and location constraints.

Some people don’t want to work in healthcare, education or another field because it isn’t their preferred profession.

Others don’t want to move from their current location even when another location provides a better PR pathway.

If you are unwilling to take the required job and unwilling to move to the required location, your PR pathway can become difficult.

You need to be ready to make changes according to the PR pathway available to you.

10. The Right Job and the Right Location Matter

Consider someone working as a security guard in Toronto.

After completing one year of security guard experience, they may ask how they can get PR.

The problem is that the one year of experience may not be counted for the intended PR pathway, and the location may also not be appropriate for the required PR pathway.

One year of the PG work permit has already been used, leaving only two years, while the experience gained may not help.

This is why PR planning should begin when you apply for your study permit or PG work permit rather than after one year of work has already been completed.

11. Location Can Become a Major Part of Your PR Plan

Sometimes you may need to move to a different location for your PR.

You may need to move to a particular community, obtain a specific job and complete the required experience there.

For example, you may need to move to Sudbury and take an eligible job with a designated employer.

The job may be different from what you originally planned, but if that job provides the required PR pathway, it can become the appropriate option.

The pathway needs to be reviewed continuously because job opportunities, employers and available PR pathways can change.

12. Moving Inside Canada Is Not Always Easy

Moving from one Canadian location to another can be expensive and difficult.

The discussion gives an example of someone who moved from near Toronto to Edmonton but didn’t like the job and returned within one week.

Even when moving is difficult, you may still have to make that decision for your PR.

If you remain in locations such as Brampton, Mississauga, Scarborough or Toronto when those locations don’t provide the PR pathway you need, you may eventually face problems.

You may need to move to northern Ontario or an RCIP community and decide which type of job you need to take there.

13. Don't Wait Until the End of Your PG Work Permit

If you delay your PR planning until only a small amount of PG work permit time remains, the situation becomes much more difficult.

You may need to move to an RCIP community and work there for one year.

You may need to move to Nova Scotia and find an AIP-designated employer.

You may need to obtain one year of experience for another provincial pathway.

All of these decisions require time.

If you wait until the last six or eight months of your PG work permit, there may not be enough time to complete the required experience.

If you eventually need to study again, it can cost around $25,000 to $35,000, and the discussion states that studying again in Canada would not make you eligible for another PG work permit.

14. Third and Fourth Year: Focus on Your PR

Once you complete your study, the third and fourth years are mainly for getting your PR.

Suppose your study is completed in 16 months. After that, you should aim to obtain around 12 months of appropriate Canadian work experience.

Even if you obtain 12 months of experience over 16 or 20 months, within around three years you should aim to complete at least one year of appropriate work experience in the right job and the right location.

If you do that and don’t make mistakes, within three years you should become eligible for PR.

The next year should be for getting the approval of your PR.

Ideally, if you are not making mistakes, you should get your PR within four years.

15. Have Multiple PR Options

If you are on the right plan, you should have multiple options and backups.

You may have a healthcare job in an RCIP community and become eligible under RCIP.

You may have an Ontario PNP or another provincial PNP option.

You may also have special category options under Express Entry.

If you have multiple options available, you don’t need to depend on only one pathway.

If one pathway doesn’t work, another pathway may become available.

The important thing is to have the right job and be in the right location rather than restricting yourself to one specific profession or one specific city.

16. Four Years of Sacrifice for PR

If you are ready to sacrifice four years for your PR, that is going to happen.

You need to forget your choices for this period.

You may have to study even if you are not ready to study.

You may already have a master’s degree or even a PhD degree, but you may still have to study another program that helps you land in Canada and eventually get your PR.

You may have to do a job in a rural area where most people are not willing to settle.

If you are ready to do those things for four years, ultimately you can get your PR.

This is a sacrifice of four years, but whatever you are doing is going to be worth it when you eventually get your PR.

17. Why People Struggle With Their PR

The people who struggle the most are usually the ones who have two issues: job constraints and location constraints.

There are also people who don’t even complete their studies properly.

Some people don’t complete one year of study even though they have a three-year study permit in Canada.

Others complete their study but spend three years working only as an Uber driver.

If you spend three years doing Uber and don’t have proper Canadian work experience, you are going to be weaker in competition compared with someone who is working in a proper full-time job.

That job may or may not be in a priority sector, but the person has regular full-time employment in a location that can help with PR.

If you are doing a random job for your entire stay, eventually you may start saying that Canada is very difficult for PR and people are not getting PR.

But you need to look at what you actually did during those years.

18. People Are Getting PR in Canada

People are getting PR in Canada.

Each year, more than 3.5 lakh people are getting PR.

People who are inside Canada are the majority of the people who are getting PR.

You should have Canadian credentials and Canadian experience of at least one year, along with Canadian education or another Canadian credential.

If there are 10 lakh eligible people inside Canada and 3.5 lakh of them are getting PR, that is a significant number.

Someone is there inside Canada who is beating you in the selection process.

Those people are getting the appropriate job they need to do, not necessarily the job they want to do.

They are living in the locations where they need to be for their PR, and ultimately they are getting their PR.

19. Don't Compare Your Situation With 2022 or 2023

Earlier, in 2022 and 2023, people were getting LMIAs to get closed work permits and extend their stay in Canada.

Now getting an LMIA is not really easy.

You should not compare what happened with your friend, relative, brother or sister in 2022 with what is going to happen in 2026 or 2027.

Now you are not going to get an LMIA quite easily to extend your stay, and you will also be required to pay for it.

You therefore need to plan according to the circumstances when you are actually applying rather than relying on what worked for someone else several years earlier.

20. Don't Wait Until the End of Your PG Work Permit

You should not reach the end of your PG work permit without having your PR pathway ready.

If that happens, you may eventually have to leave Canada or take another study program.

Sometimes husband and wife swap their roles. The husband studied earlier and then the wife studies so that the family can extend their stay in Canada.

But no matter who studies, you have to pay for the study.

The average tuition fee for two years is around $35,000.

That is a waste of your money if the situation could have been avoided through proper planning.

21. Fifth and Sixth Year: Settle Yourself After PR

The fifth and sixth year are for settling yourself after getting your PR.

Once you get your PR, you don’t have to worry about whether you have a job or whether you have to move from one location to another for PR.

You can choose the job you want to do.

You can choose the location where you want to live.

You can choose whether you want to live in Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria or anywhere else.

You can also decide whether you want to work in healthcare, education, IT, business or another field.

Your choices become much broader after you have your PR.

22. Why Victoria Can Be a Good Place After PR

The discussion gives Victoria as an example of a location where someone may want to settle after getting PR.

Victoria has a different environment compared with Vancouver or Toronto.

It is a city where people can choose to settle after obtaining PR rather than selecting a location only because it provides a PR pathway.

Once you have your PR, you have more freedom to make that decision.

You don’t need to stay in the location where you worked only because that location helped you obtain PR.

23. You Can Choose Your Profession After PR

Before PR, your focus should be on getting the right job for your pathway.

After PR, the situation changes.

If you were working in healthcare only because it helped you get PR, you can later decide whether you want to continue in healthcare.

You can move into education, IT, business or another profession.

Similarly, if you were living in a rural or smaller community because it helped you become eligible for PR, you can later move to another city.

The choices you couldn’t make before PR become available after PR.

24. PR First, Then Citizenship

After obtaining PR, the next stage is citizenship.

The fifth and sixth years are focused on settling yourself, maintaining your status and completing the required period before citizenship.

The overall six-year plan is therefore divided into approximately four years for reaching PR and the following two years for moving towards citizenship.

25. Citizenship Gives You More Options

After citizenship, you can travel with a Canadian passport and have access to more options.

The discussion also refers to the possibility of going to the USA after becoming a Canadian citizen.

The main point is that citizenship becomes another stage after completing the PR journey.

26. Don't Derail Your Plan

The entire six-year plan can be affected if you keep changing your decisions.

If you are not ready to move, not ready to change your job, not ready to work in a priority sector and not ready to make sacrifices, you may struggle to complete the PR pathway.

You need to be decisive.

If you decide that you want to get your PR, you need to follow the pathway that can take you there.

After getting PR, you can make your own choices about your profession and location.

27. The Six-Year Journey

The first two years are for study.

The third and fourth years are for PR.

The fifth and sixth years are for settlement and citizenship.

During the first two years, complete your study properly, complete your English test and start planning for PR.

During the third and fourth years, focus on obtaining the right Canadian work experience, choosing the right job and moving to the right location if required.

After obtaining PR, the fifth and sixth years provide more freedom to decide where you want to live and what you want to do.

If you don’t make mistakes and don’t create unnecessary constraints, this is the six-year settlement plan discussed for Canada.

28. Final Planning

The PR pathway should be reviewed continuously.

You shouldn’t decide your job and location once and then follow the same plan for the next three years without checking whether the pathway is still available.

If your pathway changes, your job may need to change.

If the required location changes, you may need to move.

If a different provincial or federal pathway becomes available, you should consider it.

The purpose is to reach PR within the planned period and then use the fifth and sixth years to settle yourself and move towards citizenship.

Conclusion

The first and second year should be used to complete your study properly and prepare yourself for the PG work permit.

The third and fourth year should be focused on PR, including the right job, the right location and the appropriate pathway.

The fifth and sixth year should be used for settling yourself after PR and moving towards citizenship.

The biggest problems arise when people create unnecessary constraints around their job and location or delay PR planning until the end of their PG work permit.

If you are ready to make the required sacrifices, complete your study, take the appropriate job, move to the appropriate location and continuously review your PR pathway, you can work towards completing the journey from study to PR and then citizenship.