Every route to a Canadian passport, explained plainly. We audit your profile against every open pathway, build the application that actually fits you, and stay with you through landing, the residency obligation, and the oath.
Express Entry, provincial nomination, family sponsorship, Quebec, regional pilots. We map your profile against every open route in the country.
The residency obligation is 730 days in every rolling five years. We audit your absences and defend determinations on appeal.
1,095 days of physical presence, three years of tax filings, the knowledge test, and the oath. We verify your count before you file.
Most people arrive in Canada on a temporary document. A study permit, a work permit, a visitor record. Those documents have end dates, and living under them means living with a countdown running quietly in the background of every decision you make about your career, your housing, and your family.
Permanent residence stops that countdown. It gives you the right to live, work, and study anywhere in Canada, access to publicly funded healthcare, and protection from having to leave when a permit expires. Citizenship goes further still. It removes the residency obligation entirely, gives you a Canadian passport and consular protection abroad, and gives you the vote.
Between those two points sits a system of roughly a hundred distinct programs, each with its own eligibility grid, its own intake caps, and its own way of failing an applicant who chose the wrong door. Express Entry alone manages three programs and layers category based selection on top. Every province except Quebec and Nunavut runs its own nominee streams. Quebec selects independently. Regional pilots open and close.
Our role is to remove the guesswork. We audit your profile against every open route, tell you honestly which ones you actually qualify for today, identify the single change that would most improve your position, and then build the application properly the first time. And if the honest answer is that you should wait, or take a language test before spending anything else, we will say that too.
Express Entry is the federal government's electronic management system for three economic programs: the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Federal Skilled Trades Program, and the Canadian Experience Class. You create a profile, receive a Comprehensive Ranking System score, and wait to be invited to apply.
Category based draws and cut-off scores change throughout the year. We assess your profile against the current round pattern rather than last year's.
Every province and territory except Quebec and Nunavut operates its own nominee program, each with its own streams and priorities. A provincial nomination is the single most powerful boost available to an Express Entry candidate, and several streams accept applicants who would not qualify federally at all.
An enhanced nomination adds six hundred points to your CRS score, which effectively guarantees an invitation in the next round. Base nominations follow a separate, non-Express Entry paper process.
Canadian citizens and permanent residents aged eighteen or over may sponsor certain close relatives for permanent residence. Family class is not a points system. It is an eligibility and relationship-evidence exercise, and it carries appeal rights that economic categories do not.
Sponsors undertake a binding financial commitment for a set period. We explain exactly what that undertaking means before you sign it.
Quebec selects its own economic immigrants under an agreement with the federal government. You apply first to the province for a Certificat de sélection du Québec, and only then to IRCC for permanent residence. The criteria, the timelines, and the language expectations are distinct.
Alongside the mainstream categories, Canada runs targeted programs designed to direct newcomers to specific regions and sectors. These often have lower thresholds than Express Entry, but tighter conditions on employment and location.
Pilots open, close, and change intake caps frequently. Confirm current status with us or with IRCC before making plans around any one of them.
Canada offers permanent residence to founders backed by designated organisations, and to self-employed persons with significant experience in cultural or athletic fields. Provinces run their own entrepreneur streams in parallel.
One free review maps your profile against every open route in the country.
Four Questions, no email required. You will see the pathway that most likely fits your situation today, a realistic timeline, and the single first step we would recommend.
General guidance only. This is not legal advice and does not create a consultant client relationship. Program criteria, cut-off scores, and intake caps change frequently. Confirm your position with a licensed representative or with IRCC.
Canada requires 1,095 days of physical presence within the five years before you sign your application. Days spent in Canada before you became a permanent resident count as half a day each, up to a maximum credit of 365. Enter your numbers below.
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Credited days of 1,095 required
Enter your days above to see where you stand.
This calculator applies the general physical presence rule of 1,095 days within the five years immediately before the date you sign your application, with pre-PR days credited at one half day each to a maximum of 365. It is an estimate only. Other requirements apply, including language ability and the knowledge test for applicants aged 18 to 54, and there are separate rules for Crown servants and their families. Always confirm your count with a licensed representative before filing.
Each Stage has its own requirements, it own deadlines, and its own ways of going wrong. Here is what actually happens at each one
2 to 6 weeks | Where most mistakes happen
Almost every unsuccessful permanent residence journey begins with the wrong category. Applicants apply where they have heard of a program rather than where they actually fit, and they discover the mismatch only after months of waiting and a non-refundable fee.
The correct starting point is an honest audit of your profile against every open route: your age, education, work history and its National Occupational Classification, your language results, your family connections in Canada, your settlement funds, and the provinces where your occupation is genuinely in demand.
60-day windows | Document heavy
Once you are invited to apply, the clock is unforgiving. Express Entry gives you sixty days to submit a complete application with every supporting document. Missing or inadequate documents are the most common cause of refusal at this stage, and there is rarely a second chance within the same invitation.
Reference letters are where files most often fail. A letter that does not state your duties, hours per week, salary, and dates in the form IRCC expects will not substantiate the points you claimed, and the points will simply be removed.
Confirmation of PR | PR card
Approval is not the end of the process. You must land before your Confirmation of Permanent Residence and immigration medical expire, complete the landing formalities at a port of entry or through the online process, and provide a Canadian address for your PR card to be mailed to.
Your first year sets up everything that follows. Social Insurance Number, provincial health coverage, banking and credit history, credential recognition, and school registration all have their own timelines, and several of them affect your later citizenship application through your tax filing record.
730 days in every 5 years | Appeal rights exist
Permanent residence is permanent in name, but it is conditional in practice. To keep it you must be physically present in Canada for at least seven hundred and thirty days within every rolling five year period. Certain time abroad can be counted, including days accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse or parent, and days employed full time by a Canadian business or the public service.
Applicants most often discover a shortfall when renewing a PR card or when returning to Canada and being reported at the border. A negative determination can be appealed to the Immigration Appeal Division, which may allow the appeal on humanitarian and compassionate grounds even where the arithmetic is against you.
1,095 days | Test & oath | Dual citizenship allowed
Citizenship is the final step, and the requirements are precise. You must have been physically present in Canada for at least one thousand and ninety five days within the five years immediately before you sign your application. Time spent in Canada as a temporary resident or protected person before you became a PR counts as half a day each, to a maximum credit of three hundred and sixty five days.
You must also have met your income tax filing obligations for three of those five years. Applicants between eighteen and fifty four must demonstrate adequate knowledge of English or French and pass a knowledge test on Canada's history, values, institutions, and symbols. The process ends with the oath of citizenship at a ceremony.
Permanent residence is won on preparation and category selection, not on optimism. This is the sequence we follow on every file.
We assess your age, education, work history and NOC, language results, family ties, and funds against every open federal and provincial route, then give you a written summary.
We identify the single change that lifts your position most, whether that is a language band, a credential assessment, a provincial nomination, or simply better timing.
We prepare the profile, reference letters, proof of funds, police certificates, medicals, and translations, and we submit within the invitation window.
We guide you through landing, PR card renewals, the residency obligation, and finally the citizenship application, test preparation, and the oath.
Most representatives handle one application and disappear. we stay with a family from the first eligibility audit through landing, the residency obligation, and the citizenship oath, because the decisions made at each stage determine what is possible at the next.
Keep a travel log from your first day, and file a tax return every single year.
These two habits cost nothing and quietly decide two of the most consequential outcomes in your immigration life: whether you can prove the 730 days that keep your permanent residence, and whether you meet the three of five tax years that citizenship requires. Reconstructing either from memory five years later is where good cases fall apart.
A permanent resident may live, work, and study anywhere in Canada, and has access to most social benefits including healthcare. A permanent resident is not a Canadian citizen, does not hold a Canadian passport, and cannot vote or stand for election.
Permanent residence also carries a continuing obligation. You must be physically in Canada for at least seven hundred and thirty days in every rolling five year period, and the status can be lost. Citizenship removes that obligation permanently, grants a Canadian passport and consular protection abroad, and gives you full political rights. Some jobs requiring high level security clearance are also restricted to citizens.
It depends entirely on the category. Express Entry applications, once an Invitation to Apply is issued, have historically been processed relatively quickly, but the time spent in the pool before an invitation can be far longer than the processing itself and depends on your score.
Provincial nominee applications add a provincial stage before the federal one. Family sponsorship timelines vary considerably between inland and overseas applications, and between spousal and parental categories. We give you a realistic range for your specific category at the outset rather than quoting the shortest number available.
No. Many people obtain permanent residence with no Canadian job offer at all, particularly through Express Entry and through family sponsorship, which is not an economic category.
A job offer can help in certain provincial nominee streams and in some regional pilots, where it may be a hard requirement. Be extremely cautious of anyone selling a job offer or an LMIA. Paying for a job offer is unlawful, is a common fraud against newcomers, and can result in a finding of misrepresentation that bars you from Canada for five years.
At least seven hundred and thirty days within every rolling five year period. The five years is not fixed at the date you landed. It moves with you, so the assessment is made against the five years immediately preceding the moment you are examined.
Certain days abroad may still count, including time accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse, common-law partner, or parent, and time employed full time abroad by a Canadian business or by the federal or a provincial public service. These exceptions are narrower than most people assume and must be properly documented.
You may apply once you have accumulated at least one thousand and ninety five days of physical presence in Canada within the five years immediately before the day you sign your application.
Yes, pre-PR days count, but at half value. Time in Canada as a temporary resident, such as a student, worker, or visitor, or as a protected person, is credited at one half day for each day, up to a maximum credit of three hundred and sixty five days. That maximum is reached at seven hundred and thirty pre-PR days. Use the calculator on this page for an estimate, and let us verify it before you file.
Yes. The most common cause is failing the residency obligation. Status can also be lost through a finding of serious criminality, through misrepresentation in the original application, or by voluntarily renouncing it.
Importantly, permanent residence is not lost automatically the moment you fall short. A formal determination must be made, and you generally have a right of appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division, which can consider humanitarian and compassionate factors including the best interests of any child affected. If you have been reported at the border or refused a travel document, contact us before the appeal deadline expires.
Canada permits dual and multiple citizenship. You are not required to give up your original nationality when you become Canadian.
However, your country of origin may not permit it, and some countries automatically strip nationality on naturalisation elsewhere. That is a matter of your own country's law, not Canadian law, and you should confirm it with your embassy. Note also that Canadian citizens are generally required to travel to Canada on a Canadian passport.
For most economic permanent residence categories, yes. You will need an approved language test result, and your score directly drives your Comprehensive Ranking System points. French ability has become substantially more valuable in recent years through category based selection and francophone streams.
For citizenship, applicants aged eighteen to fifty four must demonstrate adequate knowledge of English or French. Applicants outside that age range are exempt from the language and knowledge requirements. Family sponsorship has no language requirement for the sponsored person.
In almost all economic categories your spouse or common-law partner and your dependent children are included as accompanying family members on the same application, and they receive permanent residence at the same time as you.
Two points are frequently missed and cause serious problems later. First, dependent children must meet the age and dependency definition at the point the application is locked in, so timing matters. Second, every family member must be declared and examined even if they are not coming with you, or you may be permanently barred from sponsoring them in future.
The initial eligibility review is free and carries no obligation. Beyond that you receive a written retainer with a fixed professional fee before any work begins, separate from government fees, and there are no hidden charges.
We do not guarantee approval, and you should treat any representative who does as a warning sign. Canadian law prohibits guaranteeing an immigration outcome, because the decision belongs to IRCC or the province, not to your consultant. What we commit to is an honest assessment before you spend anything, including telling you when the answer is that you should wait or change something first.
Book a free thirty minute eligibility review. We will tell you which pathways are genuinely open to you today, what your realistic timeline looks like, and the one thing that would most improve your position. No obligation, and no pressure.
Serving clients in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and across Canada · Based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
info@ubuntuwic.ca
Content on this page is general information and not legal advice. Program criteria and processing times change frequently.
Information sessions, citizenship celebrations, community events and the everyday work of settling in. Hover to pause, click any photo to open it full size.
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Ontario’s biggest OINP overhaul in years is live, the new Workforce Priority Stream EOI portal opened August 4, alongside a fresh PNP Express Entry draw (507 ITAs at CRS 768) and continued French-language momentum. Here’s what it means for you.
A busy July: six Express Entry draws, the French-language cut-off dropping to 399, a pause on new Parents & Grandparents sponsorship, and new LMIA wage thresholds, plus what it all means for you.
Serving clients in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and across Canada · Based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
info@ubuntuwic.ca
Content on this page is general information and not legal advice. Attestation letter requirements, financial thresholds, work limits and post-graduation work permit criteria change frequently.
