Jayanthi

Hi,

Me and My husband are staying in U.S. we both are on H1-B. Plz suggest me the steps that needs to be followed to get the canadian PR. some of my questions below.

1. can i apply for canadian PR without being in canada?
2. how much time it will take for me to get it?
3. I have never been to cananda. Do i need to have any prior visit to canada before applying for it?
4. How much is the processing fee in USD?

Thanks,
Jayanthi.

Judy in Calgary

Hello, Jayanthi, and welcome to the BE forum.

Yes. At least in theory. But, in almost all cases, you have to have a job lined up in Canada before you can get a PR visa. It would be easier to get a job in Canada if you travelled to Canada in order to attend job interviews and so on. But you can still submit your application from the USA or some other country.

It depends. You might be able to get temporary authorization to work in Canada within, say, 6 - 8 months of applying. Then you could reasonably expect to get a PR visa within 6 - 12 months after you'd started working in Canada on a temporary work permit (TWP). But there are a lot of variables that can lengthen the process in an individual case. Also, at the front end of the process you have to add the length of time it would take you to find employment in Canada (and no one can predict the exact length of time that would take).

No, you don't have to have been to Canada. But, as I said before, you pretty much have to have a job lined up in Canada and, for that, it would be helpful to travel to Canada.

In theory, the fees will cost you a couple of thousand dollars. In reality, by the time you've paid for this and that (medical exams, photos, sending documents by courier, and on and on), you'll probably find that it's closer to $5,000.

You should read these Wiki articles to get up to speed:
From the discussion thread entitled Help with Alberta PNP Form, I learned that Alberta's PNP is a good option for people who are in the USA on H-1B visas.

To find out how PNPs work in general, I suggest you read the Wiki article called Provincial Nominee Program-Canada.

Alberta's PNP is called Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP). Its website is here.

I am asking you very nicely to read the articles to which I have provided links before you ask further questions. If you read the articles first, you'll be able to ask more focused questions. If you just go ahead and ask more questions without first reading the articles, you'll ask questions that the articles could have answered.

Hope that helps.
x

Want2Move

Jayanthi,

If you do not mind living in Alberta, you can follow this website:

http://www.albertacanada.com/immigra...aigns/h1b.html

All the requirements are listed on the website and you do not have to have a job offer. It is supposed to be a quick process (less than a year for the whole thing).

As Judy has already provided you a lot of information and links, please go over them. She is one of the nicest ladies on this forum who is very kind and tries to help everybody as much as she can. Alberta was her home province, but looks like she has recently moved to Beautiful British Columbia.