This has probably crossed every aspiring student's mind when thinking about their long term plans but has not really been discussed. Thought i'd put it out there.
When thinking about settling in Canada after finishing your education, one normally thinks about getting married and settling down with their family and all. Canada has always been an attractive destination because of their family unification programs that have allowed residents to bring their family members over such as spouse's, parents, grandparents, siblings etc. Some programs even allow you to sponsor extended family members like uncle's, aunt's, cousins etc. These have greatly been influential in people choosing canada as their immigration destination. Most of you have also considered this at some point. But things are changing. Canadians are not in favor of rising immigration levels anymore and some even want a complete freeze on immigration.
These programs are changing drastically and becoming less accommodating. Especially the parents sponsorship program which has been put on hold for the past 2 years and gone through a major restructuring to make it harder to qualify as a sponsor. There has also been a quota setup to only accept 5000 applications per year. I can see this program being phased out slowly over time as people become more accustomed to strict immigration rules. It is already taking 7-8 years for those who had applied before the application freeze. Eventually, it will be brought in line with other developed countries like US, AUS, UK etc where it is almost impossible to bring your parents/ siblings over.
Similarly, the spousal sponsorship program has been revamped as well. Used to be you would sponsor your spouse and within a few months they would become PR's. That has been changed to a 2 year probationary PR program where the sponsored person gets the right to live and work in Canada but their PR is conditional (much like as it is in Australia).
I don't mean to discourage anyone. All i'm suggesting is that you consider these things in your long term plans if family re-unification is important to you. The post graduate immigration options are also in a very infantile stage at the moment and CIC is sort of experimenting with what is working and what is not. They are also taking cues from Australia's experience (immigration options for students in Australia are very limited at the moment) and i would keep an eye on the canadian immigration options. What is available today may or may not be available by the time you graduate and that may leave you in a tough spot.
What i am trying to say is don't put all your eggs in one basket i.e. don't plan on getting an education in Canada only so you can fulfill the requirements for getting PR as those requirements can change at any time. Plan on getting an education that will lead to good opportunities as priority #1. With a solid education and sound skills and experience, you can open doors to jobs anywhere in the world. If #1 leads to getting PR in Canada, that's a plus.
Speaking from own experience + experience of some people i know who were on both sides of the fence.
When thinking about settling in Canada after finishing your education, one normally thinks about getting married and settling down with their family and all. Canada has always been an attractive destination because of their family unification programs that have allowed residents to bring their family members over such as spouse's, parents, grandparents, siblings etc. Some programs even allow you to sponsor extended family members like uncle's, aunt's, cousins etc. These have greatly been influential in people choosing canada as their immigration destination. Most of you have also considered this at some point. But things are changing. Canadians are not in favor of rising immigration levels anymore and some even want a complete freeze on immigration.
These programs are changing drastically and becoming less accommodating. Especially the parents sponsorship program which has been put on hold for the past 2 years and gone through a major restructuring to make it harder to qualify as a sponsor. There has also been a quota setup to only accept 5000 applications per year. I can see this program being phased out slowly over time as people become more accustomed to strict immigration rules. It is already taking 7-8 years for those who had applied before the application freeze. Eventually, it will be brought in line with other developed countries like US, AUS, UK etc where it is almost impossible to bring your parents/ siblings over.
Similarly, the spousal sponsorship program has been revamped as well. Used to be you would sponsor your spouse and within a few months they would become PR's. That has been changed to a 2 year probationary PR program where the sponsored person gets the right to live and work in Canada but their PR is conditional (much like as it is in Australia).
I don't mean to discourage anyone. All i'm suggesting is that you consider these things in your long term plans if family re-unification is important to you. The post graduate immigration options are also in a very infantile stage at the moment and CIC is sort of experimenting with what is working and what is not. They are also taking cues from Australia's experience (immigration options for students in Australia are very limited at the moment) and i would keep an eye on the canadian immigration options. What is available today may or may not be available by the time you graduate and that may leave you in a tough spot.
What i am trying to say is don't put all your eggs in one basket i.e. don't plan on getting an education in Canada only so you can fulfill the requirements for getting PR as those requirements can change at any time. Plan on getting an education that will lead to good opportunities as priority #1. With a solid education and sound skills and experience, you can open doors to jobs anywhere in the world. If #1 leads to getting PR in Canada, that's a plus.
Speaking from own experience + experience of some people i know who were on both sides of the fence.
