Answering numerous questions regarding immigrating to Canada, we find many of them unnecessarily repetitive. Generally, we expect the Board visitors to browse through existing topics and see if the information is already available. At the same time, we recognize that the wealth of information contained in the many topics may be too difficult to quickly sift through, especially if one has a truly urgent question. We hope establishing a FAQ topic will help all of us.
Please read through this FAQ topic before posting your question, and you may save yourself some time.Best of luck with your endeavors!
The Moderators
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This is a live document, which will be updated continually: we thought to post it right away and grow from here, as opposed to taking the indefinite time to put it together and shape it up. You may want to check it periodically, and keep in mind that the "Last Post" date/time stamp on the main page doesn't reflect the updates of the same post, so it's best to simply take a look at the FAQ list itself.-----------
1. I would like to move to Canada and live there permanently. What can I do?
Please check the official Citizenship and Immigration Canada site immigration section for various immigrant categories and how to qualify.
2. I am unsure about living in Canada, but I would like to work there for some time. What can I do?
Please check the official Citizenship and Immigration Canada site work pages for that information.
3. I've been living in Canada for some time now. How can I become a Canadian citizen?
Please check the official Citizenship and Immigration Canada site citizenship pages for that information.
4. I'm a Canadian citizen; how could I bring my family members over to live in this country?
Please check the official Citizenship and Immigration Canada site sponsor pages for that information.
5. I have just received my permanent residency visa from the Canadian Consulate, and plan to fly to Canada shortly. Is there anything that's supposed to happen once I arrive?
Please check these pages.
6. I plan to apply (have applied) to immigrate to Canada in the skilled worker category. How long is the wait in a successful scenario before my passport is stamped with the immigrant visa?
Various sources, including Canadian diplomatic posts, quote processing times from 8 months to 2 years. There is a feeling, however, that 2 years is more prevalent in various parts of the world. It's always advisable to find the contact information for the Canadian post responsible for your location and ask them about processing times directly.
7. Visiting Canada
Footnote:
Recently moderators have been receiving an excessive number of private messages, many of them with absolutely generic questions. Please do not misuse the Private Message feature of this Board: i) moderators are not paid employees engaged in private consultations, we are volunteers contributing to the wealth of public information available on this Board; ii) this Board is specifically hosted to facilitate accumulation and exchange of publicly available information for everyone's benefit, and this is best achieved by bringing all questions and discussions into the open; iii) please do use private messaging in order to communicate your personal details or circumstances relevant to the publicly posted question, especially if those details are asked for. Thanks for your cooperation.