Notes

In most cases, you must apply at a Canadian visa office outside of Canada. In some cases, you can apply to become a permanent resident after you arrive in Canada. For example, live-in caregivers or people granted refugee protection can apply from within Canada.

If you want to immigrate to Canada, there are a few different ways to apply. You will need to decide which immigration program will work best for you and your family.

Find out about the requirements and the steps to apply in each category:

* Skilled workers and professionals
Education, experience and language skills you need
* Investors, entrepreneurs and self-employed persons
Who can start a business in Canada
* Sponsoring your family
How to sponsor a family member to join you here if you are a permanent resident
* Provincial nominees
Learn about settling in one of Canada’s provinces as a provincial nominee
* Quebec-selected skilled workers
Find out how to apply to be selected to settle in Quebec

Skilled workers and professionals: Who can apply

Skilled workers are people who can become permanent residents because they are able to become economically established in Canada.

Your application to come to Canada as a skilled worker will be assessed on six selection factors and a point system. The six selection factors are:

* Your education
* Your abilities in English and/or French, Canada’s two official languages
* Your experience
* Your age
* Whether you have arranged employment in Canada
* Your adaptability

You must also show that you have enough money to support yourself and your dependents after you arrive in Canada, and pass a medical examination and security and criminal checks.

Skilled workers and professionals: Who can apply—Six selection factors and pass mark

Will you qualify?

If you are eligible to apply as a skilled worker, you will be assessed on six selection factors and a point system. Learn more about each factor by clicking on it.

Education	Maximum 25 points
Ability in English and/or French	Maximum 24 points
Experience	Maximum 21 points
Age	Maximum 10 points
Arranged employment in Canada	Maximum 10 points
Adaptability	Maximum 10 points
Total	Maximum 100 points
Pass mark	67 points

You can assess your qualifications using CIC’s Skilled Worker Self-Assessment Test. The test is available in the Related Links section at the bottom of this page.

John's test score

Skilled Worker Self-Assessment

Total Point Score

Your final score is: 74

Here is the breakdown of your total score:

Factor		Maximum Points	Your Score
1	Education	25	25
2	Language Ability	24	18
3	Work Experience	21	21
4	Age	10	0
5	Arranged Employment	10	0
6	Adaptability	10	10
Total Score		100	74

Pass Mark

The pass mark as of September 18, 2003 is 67.

Did you pass?

If your mark from this test is the same or higher than the current pass mark, you may qualify to immigrate as a skilled worker.

If your mark is lower than the pass mark, you might not qualify to immigrate as a skilled worker at this time.

However, if you believe there are other factors that would help you to become economically established in Canada, you may still apply.

Send a detailed letter with your application explaining what these factors are and why they may help you successfully establish yourself in Canada.

Include any documents that support your claim.

Final Decision

A CIC officer will make the final decision on the application you submit to a Visa Office. Make sure you fill out the application forms completely. You will need to provide documents to support your application and, if selected, to pass medical and security checks.

The results from the on-line self-assessment test are for your advice only. CIC does not keep a record of these results. If you want to keep a record, you can print or save this page from your computer.

See Immigrating to Canada as a Skilled Worker for more information on Skilled Worker immigration.

Be sure to check out the Working in Canada section for more information.

There are other programs to assist you in immigrating to Canada. See Provincial Nominations and Business Class Immigration.

>>> Try the test again


Mary's test score

Skilled Worker Self-Assessment

Total Point Score

Your final score is: 78

Here is the breakdown of your total score:

Factor		Maximum Points	Your Score
1	Education	25	25
2	Language Ability	24	16
3	Work Experience	21	21
4	Age	10	6
5	Arranged Employment	10	0
6	Adaptability	10	10
Total Score		100	78

Pass Mark

The pass mark as of September 18, 2003 is 67.

So it is helpful that Mary's has cousins living in Canada.

MY notes
Permanent Resident does not mean being a citizen. It's a classification for a person who has moved there and may or may not intend to become a citizen.

What Move?

We thought about moving to Canada 4 years ago, even did a little research and decided we'd rather fight by acting locally and thinking globally by getting seriously involved in politics.

It accomplished some things and now that the country is moving in our direction, why think about moving now?

Because the damage George Bush has done may take a few generations to correct and we have only another 30 or 40 years left and we are tired of living in an ignorant country where a few elites control everything.

Of course, we may learn, after some research, that Canada's problems simply have a different scale and range of problems, but right now, until we do more homework, don't really know much about the country that is just a few hours away.

We used to live just 25 minutes away before 9/11 and didn't think twice about driving over the Blue Water Bridge into a world that seemed cleaner, nicer, had better provincial parks and couldn't tell the difference whether you were a native in their shopping center or not.

But we have a lot to learn and this is a great tool for keeping notes. Even George Bush's snoops might take a week or two to figure out that blogging tools can be used for some other purpose, like storing information.

Non-terrorists can use blogging tools to research and write about about how to get the hell our of here, just like I did when I left the ghetto as a kid. Wish I has these tools then. Might have taught to me think more clearly about just running away.