Immigrating to Canada or the United States
Contemplating a new life in another country? You're not alone. Each year tens of millions of apply to im 00004000 migrate, in one form or another, to another country often in search for a "better" life.
Immigration can mean many things. From a legal standpoint, immigration means any form of migration or introduction of people into a new country. This can include both permanent immigrants and temporary immigrants moving to a country to either visit, work or study. Commonly, however, when people apply for immigration to a country other than their own, they are in fact applying for a permanent residence visa. Permanent Residence is a status that allows an immigrant to legally reside and earn a living in the destination country so long as they abide by the host-country's laws.
Among the most common destinations for immigrants are the United States and Canada. Perennially the single greatest destination country is the United States which averages
In 2009 alone, 1,130,818 immigrants were admitted to the United States as Permanent Residents in addition to the 12,450,000 Permanent Residents in the country. By contrast, just over 240,000 immigrants are welcomed to Canada as Permanent Residents and just under 900,000 persons were admitted to Canada as Temporary Residents despite millions of applications received by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CiC) and the numerous Canadian Consulates abroad.
Once open and easily accessible, the sweeping immigration reforms in 1996 brought about the most recent wave of immigration retraction making immigrating to the United States more difficult, complicated and expensive for most immigrants. Likewise, while the Canadian immigration laws are very egalitarian in nature and provide many opportunities for immigrants in a variety of different categories regardless of ethnic or social background, the system is complex, opaque at times and often slow to act resulting in many unnecessary delays and denials.
Why and how one embarks on their immigration journey is a deeply personal matter but the process is one shared by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The most common ways one immigrates are through employment or family-sponsorship.
I. Employment-Based Immigration
Work or employment-based immigration is the largest, by volume, source of new immigrants for both Canada and the United States. Temporary Work Visas are the most common method one can immigrate to the United States or Canada, but only a few categories of these visas permit you to apply for Permanent Residence and, even then, often years after the Temporary Work Visa was issued. Temporary work visas usually require an employer to apply on the immigrant's behalf and that the position is reviewed by a labor agency within the country to ensure that the position could not be filled by someone who is already a resident of the country first.
The preferred method, for those seeking to immigrate permanently to Canada or the United States is to obtain Permanent Residency through a Work Visa (rather than having to apply for Permanent Residency years after obtaining a Temporary Work Visa). In Canada this is done through Skilled-Worker application which is Canada's preferred application for immigrants who are not sponsored by Canadian Citizens or Permanent Residents. The Skilled Worker application has many options for individuals with work experience in specialized industries which the Canadian government deems necessary. When one's Skilled Worker application is granted, they enter Canada as a Permanent Resident with no need for further applications. While in Canada this is the common, and preferred, immigration method, in the United States, direct immigration through work is quite rare. Only individuals who have demonstrated special talents and notoriety are normally able to immigrate directly. However, the United States provides an H-class visa (the H-1B Visa being the most common) which permits the visa-holder to apply to become a permanent resident once they enter the country.
Temporary work visas usually take about 3-6 months to process, H-1B visas 6-8 months (but are typically only accepted once a year for the following-year's workers) and Skilled-Worker visas in Canada can take 18-25 months in most cases. Processing times are completely dependent on the country you are coming from and how well your application is prepared. For work applications to be successful, assistance from an immigration lawyer is necessary since the documentary and legal requirements are very technical and hundreds of thousands of applications are denied each year just for these technical errors and many more are simply delayed for years.
II. Family-Sponsored Immigration
Though the two countries differ in how they treat different family members both the United States and Canada both adopt open immigration policies towards immigrants being sponsored by family or loved ones. As a general rule an immediate family member who is either a Citizen or Permanent Resident of Canada or the United States can sponsor their relative to immigrate as Permanent Residents themselves. The United States even allows fiancAes to be sponsored while Canada is one of the few countries to permit common-law, conjugal and same-sex partners to be sponsored as spouses.
Family Class Immigrants are sponsored for a Canadian Immigrant Visa by a close relative who is either a Canadian citizen or a Canadian permanent resident. The Canadian relative is known as the Sponsor. To qualify as a Family Class Immigrant, an applicant must be the Canadian Sponsor's: spouse; or fiancA; or parent or grandparent; or dependent child; or orphaned brother, sister, nephew, niece, or grandchild -- under 19 and unmarried.
The Sponsor must be able to demonstrate the financial ability to provide for the essential needs of the Family Class Immigrant and dependents. The financial ability requirements are eased when sponsoring a spouse and/or an unmarried child(ren) under 19 years old.
The avenues and, indeed, which family members may be sponsored, differ tremendously between the United States and Canada, but both country's dedication to family unity means that, with an immigration lawyer's help, sponsoring your family's immigration is generally quite easy.
In general, immigration is a complex legal process which requires a great deal of knowledge and preparation. An immigration attorney can help make the process easier to understand and go through, so be sure to retain the services of an immigration lawyer to represent your interests.
