Our Journey to Another Land: IELTS, Education Credential Assessment (ECA) and your MyCIC Profile

In my previous post, I talked about the usual process in immigrating to Canada and ITA. To be able to create a MyCIC profile, you need two important documents; your IELTS general training result (Test Report Form Number) and an ECA Number. You should also be listing down your start and end dates for each company that you have worked for. If you can, secure a Certificate of Employment (CoE) from each.

In the Philippines, there are two organizations that conduct IELTS general training exam, IDP (http://www.idp.com/philippines/studyabroad) and the British Council (http://www.britishcouncil.ph/exam/ielts/dates-fees-locations). We (My wife and I) took our tests from IDP because it’s cheaper by a few hundreds. You may opt to go to a review center, which will cost you a lot. Of course you can always review on your own. I recommend the Cambridge IELTS series (7 to 10). IELTS is really not that hard, you just need to practice, practice and practice. I did not go to a review center because I’m a “cheap person” and since I’m not that good in English, I studied for 2 months (bugging my wife and friends from time to time to interview me as a practice for the speaking exam). IELTS is expensive and it will be a waste to take it more than once (so retaking is not an optiton), and yes, you can retake it if you are not satisfied with your score. Note though that if you will be retaking IELTS, you will be retaking all the disciplines (Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking) which may or may not preserve your previous score if it’s already good. Results are usually out in 13 days.

Education Credential Assessment (ECA) verifies that your education outside Canada is valid and at par with the education in Canada. There are a couple of designated organizations that can do this for you. The most popular are WES (http://www.wes.org/ca/fswp/) and CES (http://learn.utoronto.ca/international-professionals/comparative-education-service-ces). We chose WES since their processing timeline is much faster than CES. Requirements are English diploma and transcript of records. If you are from the University of the Philippines, which issues diploma in Filipino by default, you need to have it translated to English. UP can do it for Php50 per copy. TOR from UP is English by default, so you’re good. After securing your English diploma and TOR, you can now create a profile in WES. Pay the fee, then print the form that will be signed by the university registrar, you will then bring this to the registrar for signing. Note that you will be the one to send the diploma, while the university is the one to send the transcript of records together with the form from WES. UP can give you options, whether they will be the one to send the sealed envelope containing the form and TOR, or you. We chose the latter and we ensured that the sender is the registrar by putting in the UP registrar’s office’s address. We used DHL to send it to Canada and the results are out (online) after two weeks. I received the hard copy after 1 month since the online result has been posted.

Now you have the two critical requirements to create an online profile. You can now determine your eligibility by going to this site (http://www.cic.gc.ca/ctc-vac/getting-started.asp). After this process, you will receive an email with your Personal Reference Code. This will be used to speedup the creation of your application in MyCIC.

To create a MyCIC profile, go to MyCIC (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/e-services/mycic.asp) website and register for a GC Key. You will be needing this to log-in to your MyCIC profile. Once you are able to access your MyCIC you can now create your application. Under “Apply for” section, click Visitor visa, study and/or work permit button. You can also determine your eligibility here, but since you already have your personal reference code, you can enter it into the field provided. Once you have entered the code, most of the forms will now be populated. Complete the forms. After completion, if you are eligible, you will receive an email regarding instructions in creating a job bank profile and linking it to your MyCIC profile. After the linking, the system will determine your points based on your age, work experience, language availability and education. You’re all set, all you have to do now is to wait for your profile to be drawn. You can check these links http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/express-entry/rounds.asp, http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/express-entry/past-rounds.asp to check the cutoff for each draws.

For more information, you can check this forum http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/express-entry-expression-of-interest-b54.0/. So far this is the best forum where you can get almost real-time conversations about the express entry.

We created our profile and applied last January 28 with 451 points. For the pass two draws, we felt that we need to increase our points so I asked my wife to also take the IELTS. With her result, we got 471 points and on the 6th draw last March 27 (March 28 our time), we got our ITA.

I will be detailing the next processes post ITA in the next entry. Stay tuned.

Our Journey to Another Land: Invitation to Apply (ITA) and the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS)

So yeah, we’ve decided to migrate under the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program. Remember when I told you that we were choosing between New Zealand and Canada, our decision wasn’t that clear until we got our ITA, the much coveted Invitation to Apply. ITA is given when you meet certain criteria such as points. This means that you have what they are looking for and they want you to try and apply for immigration in their country. By the way, we got ITAs from both NZ and Canada. Please take note that getting an ITA does not mean getting an approval for migration.

NZ and Canada uses points in determining who they will invite to apply. These points are mainly based on you and your spouse’s(if applicable) age, education, work experience, your job and most of all your language ability. The higher your points are, the higher the chance that you will get invited. For the first few draws, points cutoff in Canada has been very high and until March 2015, it hasn’t gone down to 700 (we have 471 points) which prompted us to consider NZ. Since both have the same requirements, we also applied and paid Php15000++ (Canada’s initial application is free) as application fee (Expression of Interest) in NZ. We actually got an ITA the week before we got our ITA from Canada (when for the second time, scores went below 600). This is a not so wise decision since we shelled out money for nothing since we will not be pursuing the application from NZ since Canada has always been our priority.

Last January 1, 2015, Canada launched the express entry system. It is based on the NZ and Australia’s immigration system. Previously, it will take the immigration office years to decide on your application, but with the new system, they promise to make a decision on your application in less than 6 months after submission. True to their promise, we got ours in three months.

The whole Canada immigration process can be summarized as:
1. Create an online profile. Fill-out the forms and based on your answers, the system will determine your points.
2. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) conducts at least two draws per month. If you meet the minimum entry criteria (points) you will be given an Invitation to Apply.
3. The ITA will include a checklist of the requirements needed by CIC. Everything is submitted online. Documents include proof of all the details that you have declared in your profile and other documents such as birth and marriage certificates, medical examination results, police clearance and proof of funds to name a few.
4. After submission, wait for a decision; it could be an approval or a rejection. CIC may also require additional documents along the way.
5. If the CIC’s decision is positive, you will receive a passport request where in you need to submit your passport to the nearest visa office for visa printing.
6. After the issuance of visa, you need to land in Canada to finalize the immigration process before your visa expires (usually 1 year after your medical exam).

Going back to getting an ITA, you need to determine your points first before deciding to apply and create an online profile. In Canada, they call it Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/express-entry/grid-crs.asp. There are a couple of good CRS calculators online. You can check this link http://www.canadavisa.com/comprehensive-ranking-score-calculator.html for your point calculation. As a friendly advice, do proceed only if you think you can get at least 450 points so that you need not waste money in securing the needed exam and documents, at least for this year. Note though that there are several ways to boost your score such as having your spouse take IELTS and Education Credential Assessment, securing a job offer from a Canadian employer or having a provincial nomination. For you to create a profile, you will be needing two things; IELTS general training exam result and Education Credential Assessment (ECA) from a recognized institution.

Also, it’s worth noting what NOC code does your job falls into as this will be asked a couple of times in creating your MyCIC profile. Remember that you are applying for skilled worker so it just makes sense that you are skilled enough in your job. You can check your NOC code here (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/noc.asp).

In the next entry I’ll be detailing the two major requirements (IELTS and ECA) for creating an online profile. Stay tuned.

Our Journey to Another Land: Once Upon a Time in EDSA

Late last year, while driving in an endless traffic along EDSA, I realized how the Philippines is not really conducive for building a family mainly due to traffic, of course, along with pollution, poor government benefits and services and political shenanigans. Then, I thought of migration. It took me a while to convince my wife to move to another country but for the sake of our kid and future kids, she agreed that we “need” to migrate.

We were choosing between New Zealand and Canada. Both have almost the same requirements and benefits but due to Canada’s Express Entry Program, processing time became the deal-breaker. We opted for Canada and started our preparation of requirements as soon as we had enough idea and details.
Migrating needs serious thinking and dedication in terms of time and effort to research. You can hire consultants but they are just there to create a checklist for you, schedule your meetings and ask large amount of money in return when everything today can be researched online.

First thing you should do when you’ve decided on migrating is to research what country is the best for you. Make a shortlist of the possible countries that you would like to live in. Things that you should take into consideration are the government benefits and services, labor market, tax rates, school system and weather (if it’s one of your preferences though this is the least of our concern). You might also want to consider the country’s proximity to your home country because most probably you’ll fly back home from time to time.

Second, you should research about the immigration process of each country – visa fee, requirements and timeline. This way, you can compare it against your budget, target dates and other objectives. Each country has their website pertaining to the immigration process. The internet is always there at your disposal so if you want to save money while learning the ins and outs of migration, then DO IT YOURSELF.

Lastly, network with other people whom you think has the expertise and experience of the process and/or living in that particular country that you are targeting. It will save you a lot of time and will ease up your decision-making.
You could hire immigration consultants if you want but if you want to save money; you can research, research and research. At the end of the day, there’s nothing much that these consultants can do if ever the visa officer decided to reject your application.

Our Canadian PR visas have been approved and we are currently in the visa printing phase. On the next entry, I’ll be detailing the process for the Express Entry Program, at least on how we did it.
Stay tuned.

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EDSA aka Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue is the most busy stretch of highway in Manila, Philippines. It’s hell there during rush hour.