Federal skilled worker vs Family class

[elliejay]

Hi,
I'm looking for some advice on my immigration situation, and this forum seemed like a good place to start. So I'm Canadian (by birth) and my husband is Italian. We live in Italy, have one baby (and another on the way) and both have doctorate degrees in the hard sciences. We want to settle permanently in Canada (ideally Nova Scotia) and I'm trying to decide whether Family sponsorship or Federal skilled worked (express entry) would be the smarter stream to choose. I feel like family sponsorship would almost certainly be approved, but the wait time is almost a year from Italy. Express entry is much quicker, and especially with the new changes to the point system, I feel like he might meet the minimum threshold even though he has no job offer.

Could anyone offer insight on pros/cons of these two streams, aspects I'm not considering, etc.?

Thanks in advance!

 

[elliejay]

I forgot to add that he's completely fluent in English. Obviously an important factor .

 

[MilesAway]

Don't rely on the times on the CIC website. Those are not averages, but rather an upper limit of sorts. 80% of applications are completed within that time. A quick glance at the Rome spreadsheet in the Family Class section showed that applicants were done in 3-5 months. Given you live together and have a child together, I don't think you would have any issues with Family Class.
Have you done the points calculation for Express Entry to see how many points he has?

 

[elliejay]

His points are around 470, so just below the usual minimum thresholds, but now that they're only going to award 200 points max for having a job offer in Canada, I'm guessing the threshold will soon change. Anyway, the processing times on that spreadsheet are really making me think family class might be less hassle overall. That's hugely informative, thanks!