And even winning the points system just gets you into a POOL of potential expedited candidates, in Canada, from which various amounts are selected depending on quota, with active if unofficial preference for uniting families. (Also any number of other invisible categories.) US citizens do not get preferential treatment.
If you're not married to a Canadian, your best bet, anecdotally, is to get a job and thus a work visa - not necessarily easy in and of itself - and work here for a while and build connections and then apply.
Also note that the checks to see if your marriage is real are pretty intensive (a friend recently did her landed immigrant stuff and we all were handing over pics from gatherings, chat logs, agreeing to be contacted under oath, etc), and ALL OF IT is Paperwork Hell and Bureaucracy Tango.
It can be done. Lots do it every year. But among other things they make it difficult ON PURPOSE, to make you prove you really want to be here. And yeah refugee status is actually quite difficult to get if there is not a currently active shooting or bombing war in your country.
Being bilingual in French is an asset. Knowing Canadian social mores (yes they are different ESPECIALLY in some areas of What Words For Certain Groups Are Okay) and general-knowledge history is an advantage. Knowing stuff about where you want to settle is a huge asset as it does in fact make it look like you're invested in the country.
Being willing to live in small/northern/more isolated communities is an asset especially if your job/education are professional in nature. (Note: yes, different areas have different levels of prejudice etc and this is a good thing to check up on, and no Canada is not made of socialist roses; on the flipside provinces have Waaaaaaaaay Less Leeway in terms of mucking about with legal rights than states have [I often cannot believe the extent that states have], and honestly I would as a queer woman rather go back to Alberta than move to Seattle. *hands*)
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Date: 2016-11-13 07:59 pm (UTC)If you're not married to a Canadian, your best bet, anecdotally, is to get a job and thus a work visa - not necessarily easy in and of itself - and work here for a while and build connections and then apply.
Also note that the checks to see if your marriage is real are pretty intensive (a friend recently did her landed immigrant stuff and we all were handing over pics from gatherings, chat logs, agreeing to be contacted under oath, etc), and ALL OF IT is Paperwork Hell and Bureaucracy Tango.
It can be done. Lots do it every year. But among other things they make it difficult ON PURPOSE, to make you prove you really want to be here. And yeah refugee status is actually quite difficult to get if there is not a currently active shooting or bombing war in your country.
Being bilingual in French is an asset. Knowing Canadian social mores (yes they are different ESPECIALLY in some areas of What Words For Certain Groups Are Okay) and general-knowledge history is an advantage. Knowing stuff about where you want to settle is a huge asset as it does in fact make it look like you're invested in the country.
Being willing to live in small/northern/more isolated communities is an asset especially if your job/education are professional in nature. (Note: yes, different areas have different levels of prejudice etc and this is a good thing to check up on, and no Canada is not made of socialist roses; on the flipside provinces have Waaaaaaaaay Less Leeway in terms of mucking about with legal rights than states have [I often cannot believe the extent that states have], and honestly I would as a queer woman rather go back to Alberta than move to Seattle. *hands*)
And here ends my random spewcomment. *cough*