Links to get started with immigration
- How to immigrate to Canada
Contains links to different methods of immigrating to Canada, including Express Entry, Self-employment, Starting a business, etc. - Check whether you're eligible to apply
Leads to questions about what you want to do [move temporarily or permanently], why you're considering Canada [starting a business or finding full time employment], among others. At the end of the questionnaire, the system tells you what program you might be eligible for.
For Express Entry:
- Comprehensive Ranking System [CRS] tool
Ultimately, your eligibility in the Express Entry pool is based on how many points you have. Your English test [IELTS] results, age, work experience, etc are factored into your total score. Every quarter or so, they change the cut off mark. The most recent was 440, but it's good to aim as high as possible. There's some more information here and here. - Documents you need
Before submitting your profile, you need to
- take an English test [IELTS]
- These are the test dates, fees, and locations
- You will need to practice before the test. Here are some resources:
- to do this, you ask your university to send your transcripts to an assessment body
- a lot of people use the World Education Service (WES) for this purpose.
- As of August 3, WES now also requires school leaving certificates in addition to the university transcript [i.e. you must ask WAEC to send them an original copy]. Here's how.
- find out your National Occupation Classification (NOC)
You can search for key phrases [e.g. bank, law, etc] in the lower half of that page. E.g. if you're a lawyer, yours is probably 4112.
- Submit your profile
- Once you've been invited to apply [i.e. after uploading your profile], you have 60 days to submit all the required documents. In addition to the ones mentioned in Step 2, you will need the following:
- Biometrics [Can be done at VFS]
- Medical exam
- General overview of the exam and when to take it
- More specific instructions for people applying for permanent residency
- How to find a physician to do your exam
- Police report [for every country you've lived in for more than 6 months].
- Proof of funds
Costs
In total, one can expect to pay 665,050 per person from the beginning to the end of the application process [which can take 6 - 12 or more months]. Here's a breakdown:
- 75,000 - IELTS
- 20,000* - University transcript
- 10,000 - WAEC certificate
- 91,500* - WES evaluation fee [305 CAD including shipping]
- 25,550* - Biometrics [85 CAD via VFS]
- 11,000* - Nigerian police report
- 40,000* - Medical exam
- 165,000* - Application fee [550 CAD]
- 147,000* - Right of Permanent Residence Fee (refundable) [490 CAD]
- ~80,000* - Courier
*These are estimates, based on my own experience and black market exchange rates. For example, your university may charge less than 20k to send your transcripts to WES, or you may not need to spend more than 5k on the police report [remember I did all this activity from Port-Harcourt and some things on that list are cheaper/easier if one lives in Lagos or Abuja]. Also, some fees don't apply to dependents.
How to pay
I made all my international payments online, via Barter. If you find it difficult to navigate, please let me know and I will help.
Links to get started with immigration
- How to immigrate to Canada
Contains links to different methods of immigrating to Canada, including Express Entry, Self-employment, Starting a business, etc. - Check whether you're eligible to apply
Leads to questions about what you want to do [move temporarily or permanently], why you're considering Canada [starting a business or finding full time employment], among others. At the end of the questionnaire, the system tells you what program you might be eligible for.
For Express Entry:
- Comprehensive Ranking System [CRS] tool
Ultimately, your eligibility in the Express Entry pool is based on how many points you have. Your English test [IELTS] results, age, work experience, etc are factored into your total score. Every quarter or so, they change the cut off mark. The most recent was 440, but it's good to aim as high as possible. There's some more information here and here. - Documents you need
Before submitting your profile, you need to
- take an English test [IELTS]
- These are the test dates, fees, and locations
- You will need to practice before the test. Here are some resources:
- to do this, you ask your university to send your transcripts to an assessment body
- a lot of people use the World Education Service (WES) for this purpose.
- As of August 3, WES now also requires school leaving certificates in addition to the university transcript [i.e. you must ask WAEC to send them an original copy]. Here's how.
- find out your National Occupation Classification (NOC)
You can search for key phrases [e.g. bank, law, etc] in the lower half of that page. E.g. if you're a lawyer, yours is probably 4112.
- Submit your profile
- Once you've been invited to apply [i.e. after uploading your profile], you have 60 days to submit all the required documents. In addition to the ones mentioned in Step 2, you will need the following:
- Biometrics [Can be done at VFS]
- Medical exam
- General overview of the exam and when to take it
- More specific instructions for people applying for permanent residency
- How to find a physician to do your exam
- Police report [for every country you've lived in for more than 6 months].
- Proof of funds
Costs
In total, one can expect to pay 665,050 per person from the beginning to the end of the application process [which can take 6 - 12 or more months]. Here's a breakdown:
- 75,000 - IELTS
- 20,000* - University transcript
- 10,000 - WAEC certificate
- 91,500* - WES evaluation fee [305 CAD including shipping]
- 25,550* - Biometrics [85 CAD via VFS]
- 11,000* - Nigerian police report
- 40,000* - Medical exam
- 165,000* - Application fee [550 CAD]
- 147,000* - Right of Permanent Residence Fee (refundable) [490 CAD]
- ~80,000* - Courier
*These are estimates, based on my own experience and black market exchange rates. For example, your university may charge less than 20k to send your transcripts to WES, or you may not need to spend more than 5k on the police report [remember I did all this activity from Port-Harcourt and some things on that list are cheaper/easier if one lives in Lagos or Abuja]. Also, some fees don't apply to dependents.
How to pay
I made all my international payments online, via Barter. If you find it difficult to navigate, please let me know and I will help.
