Where to begin?
 

Hi all,

My wife and I are just beginning the nerve jangling first steps of exploring how we can get visas in which to move to Canada and become permanent residents.

Would anybody be able to recommend which visa application is most appropriate based off of our current situation?

We're British citizens, but living in the USA as permanent residents. We don't have job offers from Canada, but have professional jobs (I'm an academic librarian with a Masters degree, she's a District Manager for an international retail giant and has an undergrad degree).

We have no family in Canada and aren't looking to open any businesses. We'd seek similar jobs to what we already have. We have a three year old child who's a US & UK citizen.

Any help on where to begin is greatly appreciated!
Cheers.

Re: Where to begin?
 

Hi, and welcome to BE.

Best place to start is the CIC eligibility tool - Do you want to come to Canada, or extend your stay?

Hopefully that will tell you if you are eligible for any visa route and if so, which one. If it says you are eligible for Express Entry, then you'll also need to check your points score on the CRS, as it's a points based system (i.e. only those scoring the highest are selected and invited to apply for PR ). You can check that here - Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) tool: skilled immigrants (Express Entry)

HTH, good luck.

Re: Where to begin?
 

You need to start by seeing if you qualify for any of the federal immigration schemes, based on the info you give that will be FSW. To qualify you need to check you get at least 67 points based on the following:
Selection factors: federal skilled workers

If you do then you need to check what your score on CRS to see if you are likely to be selected from the pool to apply for PR.
Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) Criteria – Express Entry

You will need somewhere around 410 - 430 to be in with a chance base don the recent draws.

Without these you would probably need to go via a temporary work permit route first to earn points for Canadian work experience