Skilled worker imiigration

[pritibl]

Hi,

Me and my husband are Indian citizens working in the US for the past 6-7 years. We want to apply for immigration to Canada under the skilled worker category. We do pretty well on the points as both of us have advanced degrees from the US. My question is do we really need to apply through some agency or can I do it on my own and any pointers you can give me on how to get started will really help.

THanks
Preethi Mohan

 

[Leon]

You can do it yourselves. The one with more points can be the principal applicant, the other can be the spouse. Average processing time through Buffalo is 19 months.

 

[cchabert]

$1200 is a very little price for a lawyer to file your papers, and you can lose everything if something went wrong, I'm sure you paid a lot more in the USA for your working visas, (I'm in the same boat) my point of view is..."better safe than sorry" and more if you have kids, its your future here.

 

[pritibl]

Re: Skilled worker immigration

Thanks for your input, I was looking the official website and I couldnt find timelines on how long it would take me to obtain my residency if I applied today and what the process would be. Can you please help me out?

 

[Leon]

Ok, on the main page at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.asp there is a link to the right in a pink window where it says "check how long it may take to process my case" and will take you to http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/index.asp

From there, pick "Processed outside of Canada" which will take you to http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/international/index.asp

From there pick "Applications for permanent residence" which will take you to http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/international/menu-perm.asp

From there pick "Skilled workers (Federal)" which will take you to http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/international/02a-skilled-fed.asp

And there finally you can scroll down to the bottom and see that Buffalo statistics are 30% of cases finished in 16 months, 50% in 19 and 80% in 25.

As for the process, you can find it at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/apply-after.asp