Our Journey to Another Land: Bringing Funds to Canada

As our flight date is nearing, we are now busy with the preparations for our departure. One of this is preparing our funds that we will be bringing to Canada. Of course, it will be a lot easier if you will be bringing in cash in CAD but due to security concerns, we looked at other ways to bring in our Funds during our landing.

Of course the fun part of this journey is doing research; this time, on how we can bring in money to Canada. As per settlement.org’s site (http://settlement.org/ontario/immigration-citizenship/landing-and-leaving/landing-in-canada/how-do-i-bring-money-into-canada-proof-of-funds/) , you can bring in money in the following forms:

• Cash
• Securities in bearer form (for example, stocks, bonds, debentures, treasury bills)
• Negotiable instruments in bearer form (for example, bank drafts, cheques, travellers’ cheques, money orders)
• Transfer of funds between your bank and a Canadian bank

Cash is the easiest to carry so we are bringing in funds partly cash, and partly bank draft. Why did we opt for this option? First, we can’t be bringing a minimum of $18,617 (Which is the required proof of fund for a family of 3, and take note that any amount exceeding $10,000 should be declared)in the form of cash; this will definitely be dangerous, so we decided to bring at least $4000 cash for our immediate needs because drafts will take 2-3 weeks clearing, then the rest of the amount needed as a draft.

We also explored other options such as opening an account in Canada and eventually wire transferring our funds there before landing; however, this is only available to HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank’s priority clients. Another option is to get a statement of account (preferably at a date near your departure date) from the bank where your funds are currently stored and show it to the immigration officer in Canada, this is not a fool proof solution and it’s too risky so we didn’t proceed with this one.

Once we have decided to use bank draft and cash, we look at how we can maximize the funds that we have. Since I’m working in Singapore, most of the funds that we have are in SGD. Doing a little bit of forex (not an expert) computation, we have the following options:

• Convert SGD to PHP then buy the draft in USD from the Philippines
• Buy USD Draft
• Buy SGD Draft
• Buy CAD Draft

The best choice is to buy a CAD Draft in Singapore. We did some computations, if we are to convert SGD to PHP then buy USD draft (the only draft available for my bank in the Philippines), we will be losing at least PHP 15,000. Buying USD and SGD drafts, then depositing it to a bank in Canada will also result to lesser CAD overall so we also ditched these options.

Now that we know that what we need is a CAD draft purchased in Singapore, I need to ensure that banks like TD, RBC, Scotia Bank (some of the major banks in Canada) accepts draft coming from banks in Singapore so I messaged each bank one by one through Facebook /Twitter (yes, they answer questions through Facebook/Twitter) and fortunately they do and informed me about the fees and the clearing time it takes which is something we have expected.

I started looking for banks in Singapore that offers Canadian dollar drafts. Surprisingly, only Standard Chartered is offering this service. I went ahead and opened an account with them, then purchased the draft putting my name as the recipient. I will deposit this draft to my chosen bank once I’m in Canada.

In a few days, we will be flying back to the Philippines to spend time with our families and secure the remaining documents before flying to Canada mid-April. I’m getting nervous now, but excited at the same time.

God bless everyone. Until the next post.

Our Journey to Another Land: Booking a Temporary Home and The Thought of Living in a Basement Apartment

While we are waiting for our flight date, we started looking for a temporary home. Having close to zero relatives in Canada made this activity a little bit harder since we basically have to do it on our own. Our main concern in looking for a house is proximity to the airport since we will be arriving in Canada at 9.30PM and will be finished with the immigration process by around 12mn. Aside from the location, we also considered the proximity to the government offices, public transportation system and proximity to supermarkets.

Searching google will give you a lot of results such as units advertised on www.kijiji.ca, roomarama.com and www.airbnb.com. It will be hard to reserve and pay the down payment for the listings in kijiji if you are not in Canada. Room rates as well as the booking fee in roomarama.com are too expensive  so we opted to use AirBNB because of their affordable prices, more choices and the security they provide to both the renter and the host in terms of payment and cancellation.

I’ve been living in Singapore for almost a year now and quite frankly, room rates here are also very expensive. I rent a common room including utilities for SGD 900 which roughly amounts to Php 29,000 a month and looking at the rates in AirBNB (even in kijiji) it’s almost the same for a room.

We started searching for rooms at CAD 900. Although it yielded great results, a room seems not enough for a family of three. So we upped the search from CAD 1200 to 1500 and filtered the search as entire apartment. The result was overwhelming, although quite a few passed our standards. The hardest part is to choose. Renting an entire apartment at CAD 1500 is actually tough unless it’s a basement apartment, so yeah, we’ll be renting a basement apartment for 28 days.

We started trimming down the list into three. We communicated to the three hosts through the AirBNB messaging facility, inquiring about the location and bringing up our criteria in the discussion. Note that you can also bargain for discounts through a special offer, but only if the host agrees (There are other ways to get discounts in AirBNB, try searching the web). Two of the hosts actually gave us a discount but we ended up with the host which we feel can help us (though he didn’t give us a discount) with our first month in Canada. He was also an immigrant in Canada and promised to help us based on his experience. The apartment is quite neat. It has its own entrance, bathroom, queen-sized bed, living room and kitchen. It basically has all that we need to live comfortably for 28 days.

Then there’s this thought of living in someone else’s basement far away from home where you used to have your own car and condominium. The thought of throwing everything away for a chance of a better life in the future, even if you have to start again from zero. I know this feeling will either get worse or better depending on our economic condition after a few days or months. I will be going there without a job, with only a handful amount of cash that will last for six months may be less depending on our needs. I haven’t been thinking about these thoughts up until now. Going back to the reason (My child/children’s future) why we are doing this in the first place somehow gives me the excitement and the reason to push through.

As per our future host, “This (Canada) is a good country for hard working people” and that’s another motivation to make this life changing journey a success story.

Our Journey to Another Land: Booking Our Flight

And so our journey continues. We just purchased our plane tickets from Manila to Toronto from Philippine Airlines after 14 tries! Imagine filling-out the forms for 5 to 10 minutes, but when you try paying through credit/debit card, site will tell you that there’s an error. I did it 14 times; you can imagine how long it took me to book this flight.

We haven’t experienced being in any long haul flights so I really have no idea what it feels like to be inside a plane for 18 hours straight, so again, we have to research to find the best experience at the best (cheapest) price possible.

There are a lot of considerations when choosing your airline; first the duration of the flight (we have our baby with us so this is on top of our list), leg room, the number of stops (transfers), rebooking fee and of course the total price. Since we will be coming from Manila, we limited our search to some of the most prominent airlines within Asia. We narrowed it down to Philippine Airlines, Korean Airlines, ANA, Cathay Pacific and EVA air based on reviews and recommendations by friends. These carriers have almost the same cost ranging from USD1800 to USD2600 and baggage conditions on the day of our flight, so we’re just left with the duration of the flight, leg room and number of stops.

Duration of the flight and the number of stopovers can be viewed from each of the carriers’ online booking platform. Duration of flight ranges from 19 to 22 hours and number of stops from 1 to 3 stops. The Philippine Airlines flight will have a one hour technical stopover in Vancouver. The other airlines have a stopover in their home airports before proceeding directly to Toronto except for ANA which have a stopover in Los Angeles.

For estimating the leg room we used http://www.seatguru.com/ to check the details of the seat pitch and seat width as well as the best seats per plane and carrier based on reviews. In estimating the legroom, we used the seat pitch which is the distance from any point on one seat to the exact same point on the seat in front or behind it. So the rule is the higher the seat pitch, the better. Note though that this doesn’t represent the leg room at all but this could be a basis.

There are other considerations such as stopover/layover time, miles accumulation (most of the airlines have this offering for free, so it will be good to have an account for miles) and food. These factors were not our main concerns so we skipped looking through them.

We ended up with Philippine Airlines although Korean Airlines based on reviews is a really good candidate. We chose PAL because it has the shortest travel time, least number of stopovers and a not so bad seat pitch. We also purchase Choice seats for more legroom since our infant will be sitting on our laps and insurance. Total cost is USD2028 for a one-way ticket.

Below is the comparison table that we created so we can compare the airlines easier.

Flights Comparison

With this, all that’s left is to pack our things; secure documents that will be needed in Canada (birth certificates, TOR, diploma, wedding certificates) attend PDOS and land. Do let me know if you have questions and I’ll try to answer it.

Until next post.

Our Journey to Another Land: Timeline and ECAS

I would like to share our timeline. Hope this helps:

December 2014
December 15 – Applied and submitted requirements Education Credential Assessment (ECA)
December 30 – Result Available Online ECA

January 2015
January 10 – IELTS Exam (Primary applicant)
January 23 – IELTS Result
January 23 – Created MyCIC profile with 451 points

February 2015
February 28 –IELTS Exam (Spouse)

March 2015
March 13 – IELTS Result (Spouse)
March 13 – Updated MyCIC profile adding spouse IELTS result, 471 points
March 28 – Invitation to Apply (ITA)

April 2015
April 17 – Medical
April 24 – Submitted Requirements (online)
April 24 – Acknowledgement of Receipt (AOR) from CIC
April 25 – Medical Review in Progress

June 2015
June 12 – Medical Passed
June 19 – Re-test of blood for medical (primary applicant)

July 2015
July 9 – Right to Permanent Resident Fee (RPRF) payment request
July 9 – CIC Requested for my updated address in Singapore
July 17 – Initial Passport Request (PPR) from Ottawa
July 17 – Request to change Visa Office (VO)
July 18 – PPR from Manila and Singapore visa office

August 2015
August 7 – Submitted Passport through VFS Manila (wife and daughter)
August 11 – Submitted Passport through VFS Singapore (Primary applicant)
August 21 – Wife and daughter got their passport with visa
August 31 – I got my passport with visa

??? 2016
?????? – Landed in Canada

Once you have submitted your application (after ITA) you can check your application status either through MyCIC and E-Client Application Status (ECAS) through this site (https://services3.cic.gc.ca/ecas/authenticate.do?app=ecas). Note that you can only access this once you have your application number (available only after you have created your MyCIC profile) and will only be activated if you already have an ITA and have submitted your requirements (assumption based on what I’ve read in the forums).

Feel free to ask questions in the comment section, I’ll try my best to answer your inquiries.

Till next post!

Our Journey to Another Land – Passport Request

If all goes well and the visa officer handling your application has no further questions or requests, they will issue a passport request. This is the second to the last process in acquiring an immigrant status (PR), the last being able to land in Canada and securing a PR card.

By default, passport requests come from the Ottawa visa office (VO). The letter that you will receive, in both your personal mail and MyCIC mail will instruct you to send your passport/s (including your dependents) to Canada. This is not the case for applicants outside Canada. They initially send a template mail, which may not be applicable to all applicants. You should email CPC-CTD-Ottawa@cic.gc.ca that you are requesting to change the visa office that will issue your visa. For instance, if you live in the Philippines, you should request the Ottawa office to change the visa issuer to the Manila visa office. I work in Singapore and my dependents live in the Philippines, so my request was for me to have the visa issued here in Singapore and my dependents in Manila. They responded within the day. You’ll know that your visa office has changed when you get another Passport Request Letter from the visa office that you requested to be transferred to.

Now that you have the letter, you only have 30 days to submit your passport. If you’re VO is from Singapore and Manila, you cannot submit the passport directly to the visa office, you need to pass it through the VFS (http://www.vfsglobal.ca/Canada/Philippines/, http://www.vfsglobal.ca/Canada/Singapore/). They are the only accredited passport transport service by the Canadian embassy.

Since I was in Manila during the first week of August, I was the one who submitted my wife and daughter’s passports in VFS Manila. Note that each VFS offices have a specific time on when you can submit and collect the passports (you can check it on their website). We have to learn it the hard way when we came in at 3:01 PM and the cutoff was 3:00 PM. Well, we were not allowed to enter so I need to come back the next day.

Be sure to bring the following:

• At least two copies of the Passport Request Letter
• The passports that you will be submitting; and
• The photos that conform to the standards suggested in the Passport Request Letter (bring the letter to a reputable photography studio for the instructions on photo size).

I suggest not bringing any other stuff (including phones) as these are not allowed inside the center. You may rent a temporary bin though for PHP 100. Staffs were very polite and helpful. You can opt to have your passports delivered for a fee of course, or you can collect them. We chose to have it delivered. Total cost was PHP 1730 for my wife’s and daughter’s passports, including the delivery charge.

As soon as I was in Singapore, I passed my passport in VFS Singapore. They are not so strict here as bags and mobile phones were allowed inside the center. Manila and Singapore centers have almost the same process except that there is no option to have your passports delivered (not so sure about this since the staff that I talked to didn’t offer me this service). The cost here in Singapore is SGD 33.20.

After two weeks, my wife and daughter got their passports already, mine was available for pick-up after three weeks. You will receive your passport with visa as well as the Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) document that you will need to present to an immigration officer in a Canadian port where you will be landing.

So, after 220 days (plus ECA and IELTS review and result), we have acquired our visa. We have been really lucky to be able to have acquired a visa in less than a year. Previously, it will take year. Take this as a testament that Express Entry works. It may be a new system, but the Canadian government is working hard to continuously improve it. You can’t discount the help given by the forums, blogs and online guides since these are true stories, stories and experiences that are unique to each applicant, but if you’ll search hard enough and invest time in researching, you’ll have a greater understanding of the process.

What’s left for us is to plan our moving date, buy plane tickets and pack our things. All of which will entail lots of work.

I’ll keep everyone posted.

Our Journey to Another Land: FSW Express Entry (2015) Application Expenses

For those of you wondering how much it costs to migrate to Canada through FSW Express Entry (2015) program from the Philippines (a bit from Singapore), see breakdown below:

FSW Express Entry 2015 Expenses

Yes, it’s not so cheap but we’re hoping that this investment is worth it for our family’s future. Hope you’ll find this helpful in your own journey. Do let me know if you have questions (use the comments section), I’ll try to answer everything to the best of my ability.

Our Journey to Another Land: Post-ITA Document Checklist

Post-ITA means you have already been drawn from the express entry pool and that your points meet the cutoff for the latest draw. You should have received an ITA email asking you whether to accept the ITA and proceed with the application or Reject the ITA and rejoin the pool. Of course you have to accept the ITA to move forward.

Once you have accepted the ITA your MyCIC account will have an entry under “View my Submitted applications or profiles” with application type Permanent Residency. You will be uploading all soft copies of the documents to prove that what you have entered in your profile is true and non-contestable. These documents include, but are not limited to; Police clearance (NBI clearance in the Philippines), Passport, Upfront medical receipt form, Diploma, TOR and ECA report, IELTS report, Bank certificates, Certificates of employment and letter of explanation (optional). These documents need to be scanned and uploaded in your online application form.

How to secure the documents:

Police clearance is needed if you have stayed in a country for more than six months. In the Philippines, the equivalent document is an NBI clearance, which can now be scheduled online, check this (http://www.nbiclearance.com/how-to-apply-nbi-clearance-online/). Don’t get your hopes too high though as you still need to spend at least two hours even if you have an appointment. Your spouse will also need to secure this document.

For a hassle free application, be sure that your passports have at least two years left before the expiry or much better; have it renewed even before receiving an ITA. You need to scan the page where your bio is as well as all the pages with stamps and visas.

Upfront medical exam (eMedical) is required for express entry applicants. CIC has identified accredited clinics/doctors per country. Check this link (http://www.cic.gc.ca/pp-md/pp-list.aspx). In the Philippines, there are more than ten accredited clinics located across the country. In Manila, there are two; IOM Manila Health Center St. Luke’s Medical Center (Manila/Taguig). We chose IOM since they have an appointment system which can save you time compared to the St. Luke’s walk-in system. You need to call (+(63 2) 883-9333/ +(63 2) 511-8770) IOM to book your medical exam schedule. Overall process took around 3 hours (if you’ll arrive before 7am to get your queue number). Be sure to bring all previous medical reports, including certificate of health clearance from your doctors; IOM doesn’t accept a hand written clearance (which most doctors provide) so ensure that you have a type written one. If you have children, you will also need to secure the same certificate, including all vaccines that were given to them. After you have completed all the tests, you will be receiving an upfront medical form that should be scanned and uploaded to your MyCIC profile. The medical report should be out after 30 business days (at most). You can follow-up from time to time by calling the numbers above. One quick note, they tend to maximize the 30 business day limit so be prepared. CIC will not proceed with the processing of your application unless medical reports have been submitted and has a positive result.

Diploma, Transcript of Records, ECA Report and IELTS report should be readily available as these documents are needed even before ITA is given. ECA and IELTS reports are not mandatory, but there have been instances when these documents are requested after the application has been submitted. Remember that for the application to be processed as fast as possible, you need to limit the number of document requests from the visa officer and the only solution is to include all documents during submission. Include ECA and IELTS reports in the Education documents.

Bank certificates can be secured from your respective banks. Be sure to have or exceed the required proof of funds (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/funds.asp) in cash (you can have the equivalent amount in your country’s currency). You can attach certificate of investments as additional documents but note that stocks, mutual funds and the likes are not valid proof of funds as these funds are not liquid. Your bank statement should have the total amount, average daily balance for 6 months as well as the statement of account for the last 6 months. Other details such as bank branch name and telephone number should also be included in the bank certificates.

Certificate of employment follows a specific format, although not explicitly stated by CIC. I decided to follow the Australian Computer Society (ACS) format since it has the best format so far (http://acs.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/7570/Skilled-Employment-Reference-Example.pdf). Though most of the companies have their own format, be sure to have the following:

• Start and Finish Dates of Employment – these should be specific dates in a DD/MM/YY format
• Description of Duties Performed – Required to determine the relevance of the experience to the nominated occupation
• Hours worked – Full time or Part time
• Country where Employment was undertaken
• Company Letterhead and signed by the author

In my case, this is the hardest document to acquire as I have been to different companies which has their own formats and process complexities. If you have a spouse, be sure to secure the same documents for them.

Letter of explanation is an optional document, but can be very helpful in explaining different and unique situations pertaining to your applications. You may use this to your advantage.

Now that you have all the required documents you are now good to submit your application. There is an application fee (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/fees/fees.asp) that you need to pay through credit card before you can submit your application. You can also pay the Right of Permanent Resident Fee (RPRF) during submission, but you can always pay it on a later date. In our case we paid it at a later date which caused delay in the processing of our application decision for about a week.

My next post regarding passport request might be the last post for the year in this series until we have successfully landed and have finished all the formalities in migrating to Canada

Stay tuned.

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.