From a Non-Immigrant Alien to finally becoming a Canadian PR

The journey to Canada started back in 2017 when my counterpart at one of my client side who recently migrated reasoned his intention to move to Canada. Immigration wise, we were on similar status as both had I-140 approved, which was an Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker in the United States and a precursor to the much coveted Green Card. He explained getting a Masters degree or a second degree is recommended to boost profile as well as scoring top bands in IELTS. That’s all I needed to begin my journey.

Subsequently, one of my ex-mentor from TCS(my first company) who had received PR status sometime in the same year galvanized my thoughts towards Canada PR.

So my plan was:

1. Enroll in a one year degree/certificate while working full-time in the United States

2. Prepare for IELTS and aim for highest band

3. Complete WES evaluation for myself

4. Create an Express Entry profile

5. Get ITA & subsequently PR

However, the path was not easy then as it is not now for present applicants with several factors that can work for or against my profile.

I won’t say I had a dream to settle in Canada back then as I wanted to have a backup option just in case my US journey stalls or falter midway. To my utter shock & dismay, exactly that’s what happened the following year. On Oct 12, 2018 I was notified that Oct 15th will be my last day in Cognizant US and I have to move back.

By then my Canada preparation had began already, as I had completed the one year Executive Certificate program as well as the IELTS General Training. When I moved back to India, I had made up my mind to give the Canada immigration process all my focus as having a Canadian PR(which is equivalent to US GC) will eliminate dependency of employer-based visa sponsorship and therefore reduce my chances of a similar fate once again in future. With a PR at hand, I won’t need an employer to sponsor me and I can be free of visa renewal stress and can stay focussed on my work.

My retreat from the States helped me change my perspective from Canada as a backup option to Canada as my primary focus. Equipped with the bare minimum pre-requisites at my disposal, I started the next steps of my journey on Nov 2018 after moving back to India.

Here is a sequence of events straight from my EE profile inbox.

July & Aug 2019 turned out to be the best months of 2019 for me.

After 8 months of creating my profile, I saw first signs of my efforts been paid off in the form of a letter of interest from the province of Ontario or in other terms I received a nomination from Ontario under its “Provincial Nominee Program(PNP)” on July 12^th.

At that time, I was undecided whether to accept or give up the nomination as I was sitting on a decent CRS score of 457 which I thought would have been sufficient to get a direct ITA under the Federal Skilled Worker Program & accepting a PNP means spending an additional $1500 in Canadian dollar.

Meanwhile on Aug 20^th I received ITA under the Federal Skilled Workers (FSW) program and had a 60 day deadline to respond to it. Anticipating I may not have sufficient time to produce the necessary documents within the stipulated time especially police clearance certificates from the United States and India, I decided to accept the provincial nomination instead as it would get me additional time for getting our PCC certificates and would fetch me 600 additional points that would for certain get me ITA in subsequent draws. Therefore on Aug 29^th I accepted the Ontario nomination, on Sep 4^th received ITA again from the IRCC and I submitted the final application on Oct 5^th.

The long strenuous process completed by Mar 17^th when we finally collected our passports stamped with visa accompanied with a letter of confirmation of permanent residence.