Hello,
My fiance and I are considering applying for Canadian permanent residence in the skilled worker category, and we have some questions after reading the instructions and old forum topics. We will be grateful for advice.
I have a Master's degree in computer science from a U.S. university and work as a software engineer for another U.S. university. My fiance is working towards his Ph.D. in computer science in the university I graduated from. Since he does not have a Master's yet, we assume that I should be the primary applicant, and we are going to marry before applying. We are not U.S. citizens, but we plan to apply in Buffalo.
1. My first question concerns work experience. I have 7 months of full-time work experience, and I also have two years of part-time (20 hours per week) experience as a research (1 year) and teaching (1 year) associate while doing my Master's. Will these two years count as one year of full-time experience? Also, I know there are separate job codes for research/teaching and for software engineering. Both my research and teaching were in computer science, so can I use the software engineering job code, or should I use the research/teaching ones instead?
2. My work experience will be more by the time they actually review our application. Will this be taken into consideration, and do I need to do anything for it?
3. We are claiming all the points for English proficiency. I know that I as the primary applicant should take IELTS to prove it. Does my fiance have to take it as well? Also, what happens if I claim some French proficiency and am asked to take TEF but do not score enough? Will I just lose some language points, or will this cause a problem for the whole application (other that the obvious problem if the points remaining are not enough)? Do we need to send the test results with the application, or can we send them later, depending on when the tests are scheduled?
4. We have read conflicting information regarding when FBI fingerprints and the equivalent from our home country should be submitted to Buffalo. Do they really need to accompany the application, or can we submit an application without them, and then send them to Buffalo when they are ready (it seems to take more than two months to get FBI fingerprints)? Also, we have the ones from our home country ready, but they are already more than six months old. We haven't been to our home country in the meantime - actually, we have not left the U.S. Can we submit those, or do we need to get newer ones?
Thank you in advance for your help!
My fiance and I are considering applying for Canadian permanent residence in the skilled worker category, and we have some questions after reading the instructions and old forum topics. We will be grateful for advice.
I have a Master's degree in computer science from a U.S. university and work as a software engineer for another U.S. university. My fiance is working towards his Ph.D. in computer science in the university I graduated from. Since he does not have a Master's yet, we assume that I should be the primary applicant, and we are going to marry before applying. We are not U.S. citizens, but we plan to apply in Buffalo.
1. My first question concerns work experience. I have 7 months of full-time work experience, and I also have two years of part-time (20 hours per week) experience as a research (1 year) and teaching (1 year) associate while doing my Master's. Will these two years count as one year of full-time experience? Also, I know there are separate job codes for research/teaching and for software engineering. Both my research and teaching were in computer science, so can I use the software engineering job code, or should I use the research/teaching ones instead?
2. My work experience will be more by the time they actually review our application. Will this be taken into consideration, and do I need to do anything for it?
3. We are claiming all the points for English proficiency. I know that I as the primary applicant should take IELTS to prove it. Does my fiance have to take it as well? Also, what happens if I claim some French proficiency and am asked to take TEF but do not score enough? Will I just lose some language points, or will this cause a problem for the whole application (other that the obvious problem if the points remaining are not enough)? Do we need to send the test results with the application, or can we send them later, depending on when the tests are scheduled?
4. We have read conflicting information regarding when FBI fingerprints and the equivalent from our home country should be submitted to Buffalo. Do they really need to accompany the application, or can we submit an application without them, and then send them to Buffalo when they are ready (it seems to take more than two months to get FBI fingerprints)? Also, we have the ones from our home country ready, but they are already more than six months old. We haven't been to our home country in the meantime - actually, we have not left the U.S. Can we submit those, or do we need to get newer ones?
Thank you in advance for your help!