How many Fingers am I holding up ?

When Bruce Forsyth was host of Play Your Cards Right, probably the greatest TV gameshow ever devised, he had a few catchphrases, the most profound of which was, "What do points make?", to which the well-trained and obedient audience would always cry, "Prizes!"


Well, emigrating to Canada as a Skilled Worker is just like being in a gameshow but, in this case, What Do Points Make??


That's right.


Happy little immigrants.


You see, Canada doesn't let just anyone into the country. You either have to come here on 'holiday' and just forget to go home (as many people do) or qualify as an eligible immigrant. In the case of the Skilled Worker class, this means subjecting yourself to a kind of Antiques Roadshow evaluation where, if you get enough points, you're allowed in. Kind of like Airmiles.


You might be thinking that this sounds a little complicated but, actually it's not. A tad cumbersome perhaps, but all the info you need is freely available on the Canadian Immigration website and in you own head (or under you own bed or in you own kitchen cupboard or wherever you keep your important personal information).


If you do need help, there are many Immigration Consultants and Immigration Lawyers out there who will provide advice and assistance in the form of "Free Consultations" or "Free Assessments" (in fact there are probably some in the ads on this blog).

These generally involve asking you the same questions that are posted on the Canadian Immigration website, applying the same points values to the answers, adding those points up and telling you whether the total is higher than the qualifying threshold set by the Canadian government (and also published on their website).

So, really, what these consultants and lawyers should be doing is offering free assessments to assess whether you need their free assessment. The "pre-assessment assessment" questions would be:

1. What is 40 + 28?
2. Is 68 less than or greater than 67?
3. Do you know your own name, address, age, what language you speak, the other members of your family, academic qualifications, occupation and how much money is in your bank account?

If you can't answer any of these questions, please, PLEASE, take the free assessment. Otherwise, my advice is try doing it yourself first; there's even an assessment test on the Canadian Immigration website.

Immigration consultants want to help you immigrate, but their assessment is the only thing that's free. The rest of their service comes at a price which is usually significant. They don't have any special, exclusive line into the immigration bureaucracy and they can't accelerate your application. They will tell you what documentation you need to supply (which, again, is also published on the Immigration website) and they will fill in the form for you and send it off. These are all things that you can do yourself if you have some basic organisation skills and the ability to read and write.

Having said all that, I do realise that some people don't like filling in forms or become overwhelmed by the amount of documentary information that is required as part of the immigration application process so, if you have tried yourself and just can't do it, by all means use an Immigration Consultant/Lawyer. I've spoken to people who have and were very pleased with the service they got. I've also heard some horror stories where the company "forgot" to send the completed application in and it was only six months later when the customer requested an update on progress that the mistake was discovered.

So, if you're really serious about this, you owe it to yourself to spend time on the Canadian Immigration website before you make the decision on whether to spend a thousand pounds or more on a consultant. It is not the first piece of research you'll do on your journey to a new life.

Next, my own experience with the immigration process.