There are many ways of immigration.

The most popular ways are:

• Federal Skilled Worker program - under it an individual with certain work experience can become the permanent resident of Canada, provided that he is in good health, have adequate education, work experience and knowledge of English or French.
• Canadian Experience Class, allowing to apply for permanent residents to those who was working and/or studying in Canada before.

The most affordable is probably claiming oneself as a refugee, but this process is tricky and unpredictable.

Also one can become a resident of Canada if he has a close relative in the country.

Yes, it is absolutely possible to do everything by self, and lots of people do it in this way if they are familiar with the process enough. Only if you are not sure about what and how should be done, you'd better consider hiring an immigration specialist to take care of your immigration case.

For Canada you do not need to apply apostile to any document, because Canada does not recognize it. 

In general, you must legally live in Canada in the status of permanent resident for 1095 days (3 years) during the 4-year period, to be eligible to apply for citizenship. The process of obtaining citizenship is rather simple and straightforward, though it involves some paperwork and preparation. 

Every refugee case is specific and different from others, and there are no common criteria to determine if particular case will be successfull or not.

Only general assumptions can be made in regards to refugee cases. For example generally refugees from Israel have very little or no chances for positive case decision. At the contrary, refugees from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have good chances to obtain permanent resident status in Canada.

Every refugee case should be thoroughly assessed and well-documented before submission. 

When medical forms are sent to the applicant, explicit instructions are usually enclosed, indicating the period during which forms are valid and medical examination should be completed. For example, for Federal Skilled Worker Class applicants are usually given 90 days from the date medical forms are recieved to schedule their medical examination. Forms must be completed and signed by designated medical practitioner within that period. Further processing (which includes sending completed forms to the processing centre and forwarding decision to the visa office) are being done without applicant's involvement and are not therefore included in the 90-days period. 

1. Take a language test or otherwise assess your skills in English or French
2. Choose the immigration class that fits your possibilities and requirements
3. Estimate your budget
4. Prepare all necessary documents
5. Fill application forms
6. Submit application forms and pay processing fees

Next steps may involve more paperwork and correspondence, personal interview(s), medical examination etc.

It depends. Every immigration case is different. If you're familiar with Canadian immigration laws and procedures, and your case seems quite straightforward to you, you can decide to do your immigration homework yourself and save up to several thousands of dollars.

Otherwise, you may wish to hire a professional who will carefully consider all details of your case and do the work for you. Depending on how thoroughly he is involved, it may cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

It is the Citizenship and Immigration Canada who is solely responsible for the final decision in every immigration case. Therefore, neither we, nor anybody else can guarantee positive outcome of any immigration case. Our goal is to maximize your chances using all legal possibilities, and to not let your case get stuck midway.

Again, there is no warranty regarding any case. All assessments and assumptions are evaluative only.

For your immigration case to be approved, most vital things are:

• proven high profeciency in English or French
• no past criminal records
• good health of yourself and your accompanying family members

The above listed criteria are critical regardless of the immigration class and should always be considered on the first place before applying.

Other important factors are:

• education
• occupation and work experience
• arranged employment in Canada
• relatives or friends in Canada
• marital status

 

Having a close relative in Canada (permanent resident or citizen) increases you chances for a positive decision. Not every relative counts - there are certain requirements in regards to the relation degree. You'll have to provide documents, proving your relationship and your relative's status in Canada. 

Medical examination for immigration and refugee purposes can be performed only by designated practitioners. Depending on medical institution medical examination can cost from $100 US and up per person. In certain cases costs can be waived for refugees. 

Generally speaking, yes you can. But chances vary from country to country, as the decision is made in particular visa office. There are lot of cases when after applying for permanent resident status from abroad applicants also applied and received temporary resident ("tourist") visas. Of course there are cases when applications for temporary visas were declined, but the reasons may be different in every case. 

Yes, you can, if your legal status in the country lasted for not less than 1 year. You are still considered lawfully admitted to the country, if you once have had a legal status in it but have lost it by the time you submit your immigration application.

The law allows immigration officer to make a positive decision in the case even if an applicant does not have enough points. Good reasons must exist for such decision to be made; it should be obvious that an applicant will be able to establish himself in the country.

For example, in particular visa offices many cases have been approved without enough points, because applicants demonstrated their high profeciency in English or French. In some of these cases the shortage was 4 to 6 points. There are applicants with as little as 63 points instead of 67, who were granted positive decision recently.

Also there are other immigration classes and programs, under which that applicant may be more successfull.

Depending on immigration program applied and case details, complete immigration process from submitting an application to landing in Canada can take from about 6 months to 5 years and more.

Generally immigration cases are being processed from 1.5 to 3 years, though there are always some exceptions. Recent changes introduced in late 2008 are said to shorten processing time under the Federal Skilled Worker category.

There are no specific requirements about how often passmark is changed.

The purpose of the point system is to reflect the current immigration demands and therefore passmark can be changed anytime when such necessity arises. Usually it happens not very often, once in several years or so.

Different programs have different requirements as to where the applications should be submitted.

Applications for permanent residence in Canada are usually submitted to the appropriate visa office (usually Canadian embassy or consulate). There are visa offices all over the world, and each one of them serves particular countries and/or territories. There are certain requirements regarding which visa office one should submit an application to. 

In 2008 changes to the Federal Skilled Worker program were introduced, accordig to which certain applications now should be submitted to the Centralized Intake Unit in Sydney (Nova Scotia, Canada) for the eligibility assessment.

Also many some immigration programs involve 2 processing stages, with applications and supporting documents to be submitted to different processing facilities.

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