Becoming a student to immigrate?

[thenormal]

I have lived in canada for 3 months and would love to get back there as an immigrant worker. Apart from the standard procedure (waiting for the employer to call you, then having your job offer approved by the government) a friend of mine tells me there's another way.

Basically i should apply for a student visa and sign myself up to a school course in canada longer than 6 months (8-9 months is better, he says. He suggests one of those typical english courses). Then graduate (or obtain a certificate) and a few months before the visa expires apply to employers to get hired for a job. If you succeed, the visa can be converted (from student visa to temporary worker visa) and eventually be extended for 1 year or more.

I'd like to hear your thoughts. I don't know... it sounds good but maybe i have been misinformed?

 

[Leon]

It's not really as simple as that. You would have the advantage that you are in Canada already but a study visa can not "be converted" to work visa that easily. You'd basically have exactly the same chance as if you went to Canada on a visit visa to look for a job. In both cases, you need to find an employer, the employer needs to advertise the job for a certain length of time to prove that he can find no Canadians or PR's who are qualified as well as he is offering market wage. If Service Canada agrees, then they will give him a positive labour market opinion (LMO) which you can use to apply for your work permit. The work permit might be given out for 1 or 2 years and you can apply to extend it but the employer may need to advertise your job again every time. If this is a skilled job, you can apply for your PR after 2 years of work (under Canadian experience class).

The only thing you gain from studying in Canada (apart from the degree) is that if you study for a year, you would qualify to apply for PR as a skilled worker under category 3 (of course only if you have 67 or more points and have at least 1 year skilled work experience at some point) or if you take an approved course (English as a second language excluded), you could gain a student work permit after 6 months which would allow you to work anywhere for up to 20 hours a week and after your course is over, you could apply for a post-grad work permit, also an open permit for the same length of time as your course (8 month course = 8 month permit). You could use that permit to find an employer a bit more easily and once you are already working for this employer, he might be more willing to go through the hassle of converting your open permit to a regular work permit in order to keep you.

 

[thenormal]

It's not really as simple as that. You would have the advantage that you are in Canada already but a study visa can not "be converted" to work visa that easily. You'd basically have exactly the same chance as if you went to Canada on a visit visa to look for a job. In both cases, you need to find an employer, the employer needs to advertise the job for a certain length of time to prove that he can find no Canadians or PR's who are qualified as well as he is offering market wage. If Service Canada agrees, then they will give him a positive labour market opinion (LMO) which you can use to apply for your work permit. The work permit might be given out for 1 or 2 years and you can apply to extend it but the employer may need to advertise your job again every time. If this is a skilled job, you can apply for your PR after 2 years of work (under Canadian experience class).

The only thing you gain from studying in Canada (apart from the degree) is that if you study for a year, you would qualify to apply for PR as a skilled worker under category 3 (of course only if you have 67 or more points and have at least 1 year skilled work experience at some point) or if you take an approved course (English as a second language excluded), you could gain a student work permit after 6 months which would allow you to work anywhere for up to 20 hours a week and after your course is over, you could apply for a post-grad work permit, also an open permit for the same length of time as your course (8 month course = 8 month permit). You could use that permit to find an employer a bit more easily and once you are already working for this employer, he might be more willing to go through the hassle of converting your open permit to a regular work permit in order to keep you.

Yes, the first part of your answer is basically the typical sponsorship for immigrant workers. The second part is about the student visa "trick".

Very detailed explanation. Basically his idea was to sign up to a course longer than 6 months (to apply for the student visa) and he thought an english course was the best option (he didn't care about the course, because his sole intention was converting the student visa into the work one). But as i can see you can't apply for a temporary work visa if you're attending an ESL course. So if i wanted to try the study road, basically my best shot would be sign myself up to a canadian university and then After 6 months request a temporary work permit to try my luck with some employer there....

Also, as instructed by this page http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/work.asp you can apply for a temporary work visa while studying only if you're attending a "Canadian post-secondary institution". What the heck is that? I doubt the school i wanted to sign to (which is this http://www.language-school-canada.com/) is one of those...

kinda messy, also i've been looking at some tuitions and they're pretty high for international students (25.000 CAD roughly)... wow.....

 

[Leon]

You can find the requirements for the student work permit here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/work-offcampus.asp and they explain what kind of college it has to be. You can ask the college but it actually says here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/work-offcampus-who.asp that you can not get a student work permit if you are taking English as a second language. The student work permit is only for up to 20 hours a week work and only valid as long as your study permit.

The information about the post-grad work permit is here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/work-postgrad.asp and even though I can't see that it excludes people who are taking an English course, I think you should double check that to make sure.

Yes, tuition for international students is high, that is for sure.

 

[thenormal]

You can find the requirements for the student work permit here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/work-offcampus.asp and they explain what kind of college it has to be. You can ask the college but it actually says here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/work-offcampus-who.asp that you can not get a student work permit if you are taking English as a second language. The student work permit is only for up to 20 hours a week work and only valid as long as your study permit.

The information about the post-grad work permit is here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/work-postgrad.asp and even though I can't see that it excludes people who are taking an English course, I think you should double check that to make sure.

Yes, tuition for international students is high, that is for sure.

yes the post-grad work permit option seems to be the best one as I can't afford to sign myself to a university. Gotta figure out if the english schools i wanna sign to are registered as (HERE I QUOTE THAT WEBSITE)

* a public post-secondary institution, such as a college, trade/technical school, university or CEGEP (in Quebec), or
* a private post-secondary institution that operates under the same rules and regulations as public institutions, and receives at least 50 percent of its financing for its overall operations from government grants (currently only private college-level educational institutions in Quebec qualify), or
* Canadian private institution authorized by provincial statute to confer degrees but only if you are enrolled in one of the programs of study leading to a degree as authorized by the province and not in all programs of study offered by the private institution.

 

[Leon]

Also make sure you qualify for a post-grad work permit if you are taking an English course. The college might know or you can ask the Canadian embassy where you live if they know.

 

[thenormal]

Also make sure you qualify for a post-grad work permit if you are taking an English course. The college might know or you can ask the Canadian embassy where you live if they know.

yes, that seems to be the hardest part... finding out which institution might be elegible...

also the work-in-campus permit section not to specify if you can ask for a permit even if you're attending an english course

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/work-oncampus.asp

 

[genius77]

Also make sure you qualify for a post-grad work permit if you are taking an English course. The college might know or you can ask the Canadian embassy where you live if they know.

yes, that seems to be the hardest part... finding out which institution might be elegible...

also the work-in-campus permit section not to specify if you can ask for a permit even if you're attending an english course

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/work-oncampus.asp

i guess there is no possibility of working - even on campus - if an international student will just enroll in an english course, especially if lasts 6 months or less. one of the requirements is to have a valid study permit and usually, english courses are for short-term only which do not require a study permit.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/institutions/participants.asp - try this link also, i think this will be helpful for you.

 

[thenormal]

Also make sure you qualify for a post-grad work permit if you are taking an English course. The college might know or you can ask the Canadian embassy where you live if they know.

yes, that seems to be the hardest part... finding out which institution might be elegible...

also the work-in-campus permit section not to specify if you can ask for a permit even if you're attending an english course

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/work-oncampus.asp

i guess there is no possibility of working - even on campus - if an international student will just enroll in an english course, especially if lasts 6 months or less. one of the requirements is to have a valid study permit and usually, english courses are for short-term only which do not require a study permit.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/institutions/participants.asp - try this link also, i think this will be helpful for you.

very useful indeed. thanks