Applying to immigrate to Canada

For several reasons, some explained in other posts, some personal reasons, I decided to become a candidate to a Canadian life.
It is not a very complicated immigrating system when you read the guidelines, but when you are there, living everyday expecting something to happen in your life, then you know that you were wrong.

I applied as a Skilled Worker, through the Federal Simplified Process, which is supposed to be faster than the "normal" process. This is because one can apply just filling the forms and paying the fees. After a first assessment by the Consulate then the documents can be sent to the consulate for them to finalize the process. The only problem is, right now, everybody decided to immigrate to Canada, believing in prosperous life, or for their own reasons... but the queue is long, and right now they are assessing files submitted in March 2007, so I still have 3 months to wait, in theory.

But differently from people from Brazil, who applied from Brazil, they are still there, having their lives, working, still with the same friends, the weather is great, family is there. Because I decided to move here first (my boyfriends is from here), the anxiety is enormous. I can't work, I can't go to school, I can't go to the doctor if I need.

The reason why I decided to apply as a Skilled Worker rather than a Common-Law is because at that time, we were not considered a common-law couple by Law, also we were together for a short period of time, maybe things could go wrong, and the best option at that time was for me to apply by myself. I would feel better after all...

My advice would be, for people in the same situation as myself, to apply as a common-law. This way the process is faster and you can start having a life soon, and the problems with immigration won't disturb your personal life. After all this time waiting, I can tell that the pain and anxiety caused by the immigration process in my personal life has been huge. It is not worthed.

Of course this decision depends on each relationship, each one. For me, I am still happy with my decision.

I found all the documents and forms at the Canadian Consulate www.cic.gc.ca - and the first thing to do is to take that online test to see if one has enough points to start the process. These points are based on Education, Age, Work Experience, Language Skills, if one has a job offer already, experience and/or family in Canada. I personally don't like this test because it doesn't express the reality here. Canada needs doctors, engineers, nurses, dentists, and all the qualified professions out there. But the urge is for low-skilled workers such as construction workers, manufacturing labour, servers, cooks, chefs, janitors, and so on. I see everyday loads of signs in restaurants saying "HELP WANTED", but to get a job as an engineer... good luck! It is not impossible, but is very long and expensive process. Also, I feel that there is some racism against Eastern culture. I normally see other Brazilians and Mexicans with great jobs, doing well, growing up in their careers. On the hand, most of the taxi drivers are from the East side of the globe and they speak an awful English. Often they are doctors. So what is happening? I really don't know, but is something weird. I will write more about this in other posts...

After doing the test and reaching at least 67 points (October, 2008), fill the forms and pay the fee. Meanwhile, take your English exam, gather your reference letters from your ex-bosses, make some money. And relax. One day the Consulate will email you saying they are ready to assess your file, so you need to send them your documents. At this point, you need the Criminal Record from different sources, Tax Income Receipts, and so on. For me, because I was living in Canada for more than 6 months, I had to get 2 more Criminal Record Checks, one from RCMP in Ottawa and one from the local police in Vancouver. Another 70 bucks...

And then you wait for other year to get everything done.

Simple, eh?