How I earned a Canadian Permanent Residence from Pakistan without a Masters and Job offer
This article is specifically for people who are thinking of relocating to Canada or are already in the Canadian PR process but failing to get the required CRS score to get an ITA.
Background
As soon as I was done with my undergrad, a plethora of options came my way. From Civil services to an international master's, the versatility of choices I had in front of me was just overwhelming and I believe that a majority of fresh graduates have to go through the same mind crunching process that I went through.
Anyways, the easiest route that I could foresee at the time was doing an international masters, and after appearing in GRE / IELTS, I was admitted into my dream university at the time — The University of Waterloo, Canada. But much to my demise, Although I was able to qualify the rigorous university application process, I failed to convince the visa officer that I was a real student who aimed to come and study at this university. After my visa getting rejected, I started looking for alternatives, and that’s when the idea of immigrating to Canada stumbled upon me.
At this time, I had a bachelor's degree and almost 1.5 years of professional experience.
The Canadian Immigration Process
General Overview
The immigration process in Canada works on a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS), i.e. each candidate is allocated a specific score based on their Age/Experience/Level of Education and Language proficiency. This score is known as the CRS score. Once it is allocated, a candidate enters into a pool of immigration aspirants who are all waiting for a decision on their profiles to be taken.
This decision takes place on a lottery basis which happens bi-monthly (these times are inconsistent during Covid). A cut-off score is set during these draws which decide if a candidate will be invited to apply or not. All candidates having their CRS score greater than the cut-off score are issued an ITA (Invitation to apply) and that’s when a major chunk of your effort is completed.
In response to this ITA, you are required to submit your documents/bank statements/IELTS scores and then you are given an Acknowledgement of Receipt (AOR). In the following 6–12 months, you just have to wait for the Canadian authorities to authenticate your documents, perform background checks, and evaluate your eligibility. If everything goes as planned, you get the Passport Request (PPR) and CoPR Email which is the final sign confirming your Canadian Residence.
For more details, refer to Canda Express Entry.
My path and Timeline
When I started thinking about Canadian PR back in 2017, I calculated my score, and like a majority of applicants, with a bachelor's degree and 3+ years of experience; I had a CRS score of about 430–450. This score wasn’t enough to get an ITA in a federal draw and that’s what I was interested in more.
I looked at different options and it seemed almost impossible to score a 465+ without a Master's degree or a Canadian Job offer. I had the option of going to Canada for a Master's, but I had already tried and failed in the process. I also had the option of pursuing the PNP route, but I didn’t want to do it because of some restrictions on the PNP visa.
That’s when I noticed the option of ‘Two or more certificates’ in the educations section of the CRS points calculator.
I researched a bit about it, met with a few consultants but found that it is often overlooked by consultants and applicants alike. ‘Two or more certificates’ means that you need to have two degrees, and at least one of them needs to be of 3+ years duration. I already had a 4-year bachelor's degree so another 1-year diploma/certificate could do the trick for me.
Selecting this option in the education section boosts a person’s overall score to 468–474 (based on IELTS) which is a very safe score for Canadian PR.
As I was working full-time, I couldn't afford to take out the time to pursue a full-fledged 1-year program, so I used the services of Virtual University and did a Post Graduate Diploma in my field of study from there. At that time, it was just a hunch and I didn’t know if it would work out. Primarily because I hadn’t heard many success stories like that at the time.
So, I completed the Diploma in 2019, and it worked like a charm. I was able to get it attested from HEC, WES, and finally, use it towards my score for Canadian PR. I got the ITA in December 2019, and finally the PPR email last week.
My timeline for this process is as follows:
Bachelors Degree completed: June 2016
Visa for Canadian Masters Rejected: Late 2017
PGD from Virtual University Started: April 2018
PGD from Virtual University Completed: April 2019
3 years of work experience completed: June 2019
WES Attestations completed: July 2019
Required score in IELTS cleared: October 2019 (My IELTS journey here)
ITA Received: December 2019
AOR Received: January 2020
PPR Email and PR Process completed: November 2020
The process wasn’t as simple as I had originally expected. But simple enough that every aspirant should try it at least. This is just a brief gist of the overall process and the steps I took towards Canadian PR.
If you want to know more about this, or just want some consultation on the subject, feel free to reach out to me at ‘umer.tahir@hotmail.com’
Edit 1: If you want to know more about my first landing in Canada (Post Covid), please read my new article: https://umertahir114.medium.com/my-travel-journey-to-canada-post-18-march-no-authorization-letter-new-immigrant-6a20af797865
