Planning to apply for a Permanent Residency - Suggest PR applying Options

[DeepakRG]

Hi,

I arrived in Canada on a dependent visa accompanying my wife who works for IBM Canada on a temporary assignment and has a Visa till July 2011 and may probably get extended. She is a full time employee of IBM India. I am a Quality Analyst(Software Testing) and hold around 6yrs of IT experience in India and now looking out for opportunities in Toronto as I have an open work permit till July 2011.

Now we are planning to apply for a Permanent Residency in Canada, but we are not sure how can we apply as our stay in Canada as of now is only till July and are bound to go back after July if visa doesn't get extended.

Please suggest few possible ways. Your help is much appreciated.

PS: IBM won't process my wife's PR as she is an full time employee of IBM India and I cannot apply from my end as I don't have any job right now.
Deepak.

 

[Leon]

You can go to http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/index.asp and look at your options. If you don't qualify under the skilled worker program, wrong line of work, no AEO, LMO not long enough to cover your processing etc. you can look at CEC. You don't say how long you have been in Canada but if your wife manages to stay for two years on a skilled work permit, she can apply under CEC, even if her permit doesn't get extended beyond the 2 years and you both must leave Canada. Another thing to look into is Quebec skilled worker where you do not need a job offer but it really helps for that if you speak French.

Another thing you can try as a temporary solution is if you get a good job and they want to keep you, they may help you apply under a provincial nominee program or they may help you get an LMO and a work permit of your own so in case your wife's permit is not extended, you will still have yours and she could apply for the open spouse permit and look for another job.

 

[DeepakRG]

Thanks for the reply Leon. I got couple of questions more...

We landed in June 2010 and will be staying till July 2011 as of now. If we plan apply for PR outside Canada i.e. from our country(India), will the skilled work permit of my wife will be of any advantage for processing ? She got here on a IBM Intra-company transfer.

-> How long it may take to process and with new set of rules and regulations is it easy to get a PR as we both belong to IT field ?

-> I need to apply for an open work permit extension, how long does it take for processing an extension ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Leon]

If you look at the link I gave you, you will see that the skilled worker program is restricted to certain occupations. If you don't belong to one of them, you can only apply if you have a job offer or if you are on a work permit that your work permit is valid until your processing will be done and that you have a letter from the employer offering continued employment. You have said that IBM will not help her apply so I think you can rule that out.

IT people are not on the most wanted list in Canada right now but it doesn't matter what you both do. Only one of you needs to qualify, the other gets a free ride as the spouse.

I think your best bet is if her work permit gets extended for another year that you can apply under CEC when she completes the 2nd year.

 

[DeepakRG]

Thanks Leon, it helped