It is also worth mentioning that Canada, as other attractive countries, has to deal with a huge number of fraudulent applications for PR on every route and they try their best to weed out the bad apples and allow entry to the good ones for the good of all applicants and the country itself. Once I am resident there (if all goes well) I will be glad that they are so conscientious about whom thy allow to enter.
I must also disagree with the opinion that Cat 1 is the better FSW application route.
Cat 2 has much to recommend it.
Firstly, it is a way for people in professions outside "the list" to gain PR.
Secondly, it is cheap! It is a "try before you buy" scenario - you get a job and LMO and all it costs you is the one way airfare and I think $150 for the TWP. Then you can apply through Cat 2 later.
You get Canadian experience, which is worth a lot.
If you don't like it there you have lost very little - the fee is a fraction of the PR application fee and you have been paid for the time working there.
If you do like it, you already have a bank account, a SIN number, a driving licence, an idea of what jobs are available for your spouse and family, friends, knowledge of the money and schools, you are right there to hunt for a house at leisure knowing the areas around where you work and you have money to pay for relocation of your stuff or to buy what you need.
Looking at other forums, the stress of arriving without a job and perhaps not a whole lot of savings, then finding work harder than you imagined to secure is very demoralising and a major cause of people giving up and returning to their homeland.
Heaven knows I know it is not good emotionally if like me (and others who intend to do this) you decide to have the PA go on ahead to begin work and the family to follow, but in all other ways it is much preferable and safer in my opinion.
Even for Cat 1s, I would recommend that once you have PR you go over and secure a job before leaving your home country for good.
Going with everything is expensive to go and expensive to return and if you do not find reasonably paid work within a short time of arriving and your funds begin to shrink, you would be forced to return and be much worse off than you began.
Better safe than sorry, IMHO. But, each to their own!
