I am an international student. Can I apply for permanent residence?

Permanent Residency in Canada: The number of international students joining Canadian universities and colleges is increasing with every passing day.

Students are coming from all over the world, but mostly students from China and India, especially Punjab have Canada as their top option for higher education.

Canadian government expects students to complete their studies and return back to their native country, but most of the students take admission in the colleges to get Permanent residence of this beautiful and peaceful country.

After achieving the first task of reaching Canada, students next target to settle down in Canada and get Permanent Residency in Canada, in fact they take help of immigration agents to get PR in Canada. Canadian government offers a number of programs.

For example, international students in Ontario can opt for any of the following programs for which they are eligible.

1. Canadian Experience Class (CEC)
2. Opportunities Ontario: Provincial Nominee Program (PNP)
3. Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP)

In all the above programs, all the applicants must apply through the Express Entry system. Apart from this candidate should meet the language criteria, minimum of 1 year of experience and other requirements which are amended from time to time. For more details, you may visit website http://www.cic.gc.ca

Canadian Experience Class (CEC): Any student who has studied full time at least 2 years in any of the accredited post-secondary school, may be eligible for this program.

Second important criteria for this program is a full time 1 year paid experience. So it’s clear anyone with unpaid internship experience or any kind of cooperative placement, does not make you eligible for this program.

Quebec Experience Class: If you have intermediate proficiency in French Language and have studied full time in Quebec province, you qualify for this program.

Interestingly even if you don’t have any work experience, your chances of getting PR under this program are good. You should have completed any diploma, degree, post graduation degree or PhD from the approved college or university in Quebec.

Provincial Nomination Programs: International students can also opt for PNP programs run by different provinces like Nova Scotia, Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia. The eligibility criteria vary with the province but their processing time is shorter as compared to federal programs.

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