 All right, I'd like to acknowledge that this immigration clinic is being held on the traditional ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the Musqueam, Squabish, and Tsleil-Watith nations. I really, like this is a great time right now. And I am so thankful for having Sanam Kashfi. Am I saying it correctly? Yeah. And I see C in the audience too. Thank you too. Thank you. I'd like to acknowledge that between the conversation of C and Sanam, this whole session has began. So thank you. Thank you for doing this. And so many things to be thankful for. We'll have a scorcher later in the summer. So, you know, get ready for that. But right now we have our first of many immigration clinics. And since it's the summer, everybody's still out to the campus. We'll have it on Zoom. And I'd like to introduce our very special guest, Sanam, who's a regulated Canadian immigration consultant, RCIC, and a member in Good Standing. An immigrant herself, Sanam is passionate about finding the right immigration solution for each of her clients and helping to make their journey to Canada easier. With over a decade experience of working for the government of Canada in departments such as service Canada, agriculture Canada, and foreign affairs. Sanam had the opportunity to travel across Canada to all major cities and rural areas for 10 years. This unique perspective allows her to assess which Canadian province and city best matches where you should call your next home. So I'm gonna stop here. And without further ado, I'll pass you on to Sanam. And if you have any questions, just put it in the chat and I'll relay it to Sanam, okay? Enough of me. On to Sanam. Thank you, Vincent. I really appreciate all your help and helping me in this presentation and also setting this whole thing up. I'm just gonna share my presentation with you guys. I'm gonna share my health screen. I can't see for coming up with this whole thing or having this discussion in my office about it. So Vincent told you guys about me. So I am regulated. It is really important to work with a regulated person because if there's any issues, we have a body that protects you against us and you can always complain to them about whatever mistakes we have done. And that's really, really important. I think a lot of people don't understand that when they work with people that are not regulated because when there's a mistake done, they just, that person goes, oops, and they move on. So I think it's really, really, that is like my pet peeve about, please work with a regulated person because you are protected that way. Having said all of that, I just wanted to give you an overview of immigration in Canada and also different problems I've seen over the years with international students trying to make their pathway to permanent residency from all of it. So I'll just go through it and then I'm a very relaxed person. So if there is questions coming up, just go ahead and ask me because I feel like that's what this is set up for for you guys to just ask me your questions so I can help in any way possible. So basically, if you want to come to Canada, there are two ways. You can come as a temporary, which I'm assuming all of you are, or permanent residency. Most people choose temporary as visitor, study permit, and then work permit. And then when you become permanent residence, you're either going to the federal programs or the provincial programs. You can do permanent residency from abroad or inside Canada, but as you can imagine, every year immigration gets harder. So most people are using the temporary pathway to come in and then they're hoping to go through the permanent residence. The federal programs are family sponsorships. So when you become permanent residency resident, you can sponsor your parents, your grandparents, or if you have adopted children or children from abroad, you can bring them through this class. There's a special entry which I'll go into extensively. There is rural and Atlantic programs, which are right now my favorite programs, so I just wanted to give you a little glimpse into them. And then there's many other programs like refugee and humanitarian compassion, and you know what they're all in here. And then the provinces, each province has also its own permanent residency pathways. So I'll go through BCP&P a little bit with you guys. And then again, if you have questions, just put them in the chat and Vincent will convey them. So study permit extensions. I just put the stuff that I saw over the years that I see like the issues that come up, but again, if you have any questions, just go ahead and ask me. For study permit extensions, a lot of people panic because the government of Canada and I copied it straight out of their website says, apply for a study permit extension at least 30 days before your study permit expires. So the first thing you should do when you get your study permit at the airport is put it in your calendar the day it's gonna expire and then put it in your calendar again, like 30 days and 60 days. So you understand that that's coming up because if you don't have status in Canada, it creates a whole bunch of issues and it's better to just get onto the extensions as soon as possible. However, a lot of people see this on the website and they've already gone past the 30 days and they start panicking and they don't understand what to do and then they spiral down. So you can send an extension two days before it expires. So you can't send it the day before because the form will not validate, but if you send it two days before, you're okay. And then you go and maintain status which I'll go into extensively, but just keep that in mind. If you go past the 30 days, it's okay because I see a lot of you panicking about that. Okay, the next one is restoration. So restoration is when your study permit has a lap, so you have passed the extension date, you haven't submitted an extension and now you're out of status. Out of status means that you no longer hold any status in Canada. So you're not a visitor, you're not a student, you're not a worker. You have 90 days and I cannot stress this enough. You have 90 days to restore your status. If you go past the 90 days, there is nothing we can do. So you have to leave and apply from abroad again. You cannot do any kind of application inside Canada. So the next thing you need to mark in your calendar when you get your study permit is when is your restoration day? So 90 days from the day your permit expires. The other thing I've noticed is you restore your status if you wanna stay in Canada. So sometimes people are like, well, I'm out of status, might as well leave, but then they restore and then they leave. You don't need to do that. If your intention is to leave, just leave. You don't need to start, you can just leave at any time. The sooner you leave, the better, but you have that option all the time. The last thing I wanted to talk about is restoration is $200 plus whatever is the permit you're restoring for. So if you're storing for a study permit, it's $200 plus 150. If you're storing for work, it's whatever work, open work permit, 255 plus the 200. So just keep that in mind because I see a lot of applications where people just pay the 200 and then they don't pay the extra fee and then later on they refuse it for that or it just creates problems. So just understand that there is the restoration fee and then the other thing that you... Unless you're restoring for a visitor, a visitor, you can just pay the 200 and then maintain status. So when you have your study permit and you extend it to at the time that you have extended it, but you haven't heard back from the government of Canada, you are on maintained status. So again, I apply for my study permit extension. My study permit has expired and now I'm on this like kind of like limbo. That, a lot of people worry about that. That's called maintained status. As long as your study permit extension went out the day before or like two days before and you stay on maintained status. Maintained status is good until you travel. So you cannot leave the country while you're on maintained status. Otherwise you lose your status completely. And if you do, you need to make sure that you have like a visitor visa to come back because if you leave, you have no more status. And if a lot of people have seen their visitor visa also elapses and then they can't come back. So make sure that in addition to your study permit, you also, if you are coming from a visa required country, there is a counter foil like a sticker in your passport. That also needs to be valid. So just because you have a study permit doesn't mean that you can travel in and out. Study permits and work permits, the paper is not what you can travel with. That's just your status inside Canada. So you come in and you can do that. But the thing that you travel with is that sticker in your passport. So make sure that both of them are always valid. And so if you're on maintained status, you're good until you leave Canada and then you lose it. The other thing I've noticed that's like not immigration related, but it comes up a lot is you do in BC lose your MSP while you're on maintained status. So you have to make sure that you either have your private healthcare insurance or you know that you don't have healthcare. So that's really, really, really important. During the pandemic, MSP was a little bit relaxed and I used to call them and fight with them because we were in a pandemic, but since recently they don't cover you anymore. So you have to be aware of that, especially if you get sick or break your leg or whatever. Yeah, go ahead and see. I just tried to, my study permit expired and my new one just started this month and it's literally a date yesterday I tried to pick up my prescription and it was saying that I couldn't pick it up for some reason and I ended up calling around and it was because I still had this extended coverage thing but my MSP had just expired, but they couldn't actually see that that has had what happened on the website. So then I had to submit, I just submitted my new permit to the thing, but it still takes a couple of days to process, but they couldn't even tell what was wrong. Oh my God, yeah. So MSP just doesn't see anything, like they don't talk to each other, right? So they just cut it off. Thanks for sharing. I wanted to say, yeah, sorry, that you can extend your MSP status for six months while you're in maintained status. I did that. When? You just have to go directly to MSP. Yeah, last month I was able to extend it and I gave it until December. You have to do it directly through their website. Can you give us like a step? Can you send me a step by step what you did? Because this is my number one complaint from my clients. No, MSP does not. Sure. I can send it later right now, I'm at work and so I don't have the information here. But yeah, I was desperate because I moved to Alberta for work and I'm in maintained status. So I can apply to Alberta Health and my MSP was ending. So I was able to extend it just by going on their website. Kind of like if you were reapplying or something like that. I first called just to see if it was possible because I read that in a UBC page. And yeah, they just told me that I needed to kind of like not reapply, but I needed to send like a letter saying that my status was like my, I was in maintained status and I wanted to extend it for six months. Okay, that's perfect. Please send me the link. I just put my email to be tied and I'll tell you why MSP... Yeah, go ahead. I just want to say that it takes 21 business days for them to come back to you. But yeah, like next month I got a paper saying that it got extended and if I need to go to the doctor or whatever, I just need to take that paper as proof. Oh, that's fabulous. I'm so glad that you came and shared with that because the reason why MSP came up with this policy is because a lot of people were saying they were on maintained status even though their work permits or study permit were refused. And then MSP was covering these bills hoping to get paid. And then because they were refused, they never got the payment. And then MSP was like, that's it. This is our new policy. So I'm glad that there is something so if you can send it to me, that would be great. I don't know if I can share that. Let me just look at it. I actually received a letter from MS like Health Services saying that you and there was a letter and another envelope enclosed in it. And it said basically that if you can provide us with a photocopy of your new work permit or like the letter of your maintained status and mail it back to us in this envelope, we will extend your MSP. Okay, that's fabulous. That's kind of what happened during the pandemic, but it kind of went away. So I'm glad that it's still around. Nice. Yeah, go ahead. There's a question in the chat from Annie Kim. What kind of sticker on the passport were you talking about? She couldn't find it. Yeah, so if I don't know where you're from, if you're from a visa-required country, when you received your study permit, you would have sent your passport to VAC or VFS and they would have, like the Embassy of Canada would have issued a counterfoil. It's called like a giant sticker with, it's your visa to Canada, but it's a traveling visa that's like printed in your passport. Does that make sense? Oh yeah, when I first got into Canada, I got a study permit of only three weeks. So at the moment, so I had to reapply, I extend my study permit at the moment. So I think my travel visa is already expired, but after that, I came back to Canada from Korea again, but I didn't get any of your stickers from there. So your visa and your passport is expired? I don't know, I don't have any stickers, but I just have a stamp that it says I... Do Koreans need a visa, like a visitor visa to come to Canada? I just checked the website, Koreans is an electronic transfer agreement? Yeah, so you have an ETA. Your ETA is good because so if you are from a country that has an ETA and electronic travel authorization, when you do a study permit extension, automatically your ETA becomes extended for 10 years. So you have... Yeah, so you're good there. But if you're from a... And you'll never see that in your passport, it is electronic, it's in the cloud and everybody... I don't know, airlines all know about it, so it's all there. But if you're from a visa-required country, then you need to make sure. Oh, okay, thank you so much. Perfect. So the other one I saw at Winston was about postgraduate work permit. Yeah. We're about to go there and then you can ask me a question if I don't cover it. All right. So I'm assuming everybody knows what a postgraduate work permit is. The documents that you require, are you normally your transcript and proof of graduation, which is a letter that's issued or the actual certificate, whatever comes first. My... So I just wanna go over issues that I've seen over the years and then you guys let me have your questions. When you are studying your student and depending on... Like right now there's a temporary thing where you can work full-time, but depending on where you follow and what date you have applied for a study permit, you can either work full-time or 20 hours. During the time you're a student, let's say you can work 20 hours. When you finish your last course. So sometimes people are on a co-op and they're working full-time until the last day of their studies. And then from that day, until you graduate, you can only work part-time, depending on your permit. So if you are allowed to work full-time right now, you can, but if you are not, you can only work those 20 hours. And then the day you finish school. So school gives you that graduation letter and says you're done. Your graduation is in like a few months from now, but you're done. The minute you're done, you can no longer work on your study permit. So that's really important to understand. The minute you have received your transcript and your graduation document, you can no longer work. So that's when you have to apply for your postgraduate work permit. So usually in my office, we prepare the postgraduate work permits like a month before. So the day you receive your documents, we just submit. And then from the day you submit your postgraduate work permit, you're allowed to work full-time. But you cannot do that until that application has gone out and you have proof of submission. So that's really important to understand because I think a lot of people get stuck in that and then it's just a mess later. So just make sure you understand. And if you need me to repeat it, I'm happy to do that after. So what are the officers looking for in a postgraduate work permit? The most important thing is your attendance. So making sure that you have always been a full-time student. And if you're not, explain why in your postgraduate work permit. Because life happens, we all have issues, things we go through all sorts of stuff. You just have to make sure that you explain that and you have documentation to back it up. At the same time, you are allowed to be absent from school for five months. However, and I should have put that in there and maybe I'll email Vincent so I can put it out there, but there's certain requirements that the immigration needs from you. And you need to have the permission of the school that you are taking a leave of absent for blah, blah, blah reasons, right? So make sure that before you take off five months, you let the school know and the school gives you permission to take that time off. And then again, explain that in your postgraduate work permit submission letter under client info, you're allowed to, like you can write a letter and put it in. So usually I put wherever there's an issue, I explain it to deaf so that they have all the evidence. And then the other thing the officer is looking for is your marks. So if your marks are constantly on the verge of failing, they will question you or not accept it. So make sure that if the passing grade is 70, you stick to 70. And if it's not, you explain why. Like let's say we have a bad term or whatever, you just explain it. If you have documentation, put that in there too. So we talked a lot about like when you're authorized to work, so make sure that you are sticking to those hours because that does matter later as well. So you can apply for a postgraduate work permit inside Canada or outside Canada. You have 180 days. So some of my clients, they choose to leave after graduation and they go home and they stay with their family. They save that time. And then when they come back or before they come back, they apply so that their postgraduate work permit starts from later, while they're back in the future. I think Alaria needs to go, but she had a question regarding recommendation of flag polling to get the postgraduate work permit approved faster. I love flag polling, but I have to assess my clients. So if my client has any kind of issues either on either side in Canada or in the US, I don't send them. I don't send my Iranian clients at all to the border, ever. So it all depends on which country you come from and any personal issues you may have on either side. But if you're, yeah, go ahead. I'm from Mexico, so like which recommend flag polling because I have a friend that likes from Japan and everything went well. If you're squeaky clean, yes. However, the government of Canada recently has become very touchy on Mexicans. And I just, you just need to, yeah. So I just need you to know that. And then, but if you're like, if everything's perfect, you're easygoing, you have never worked outside of the hours that you were supposed to. Everything's perfect, go for it. But you just have to know that. Yeah. And I've had clients that had no issues in Canada, but the US, they got stuck in the US. So you need to know that. And does it help, like I have a permanent job, does that help like the moment of when I'm in the office? It's not the requirement. The officer really looks at the requirement, but you can always put that in as well. And then also have a letter from your employer that you were an essential worker and you mean a lot to the business and all of that. It always helps. But the flag polling has nothing to do with the application really. It has to do with the officer at that, like that day. And what follows you in your immigration path? That's the most political way I can put it. Yeah. Thank you so much. Can you explain what flag polling is to those who are not familiar? So flag polling, so certain applications, instead of applying for them online, you can go to the border between Canada and US and I'll walk you through it. So, oh, and another thing just before I, for the area, make sure if you're taking your car, make sure your car is like sanitized before you go. I usually recommend my clients to walk it so that there's nothing in their car because like marijuana is legal in Canada, but it is not in the US. And I've seen a lot of issues there. So just you have to make sure that your car is like sanitized and also like anytime you're entering any border, your phone can be taken from you and just look through and then evidence can come out of it. So I recommend to my clients, do not take anything with you. That's another one. Okay, so I'm gonna walk you to your flag book. So flag polling is basically, sometimes applications take a long time and people need their applications right away. So you can go to the border and apply for it. A lot of people think that you can do it at the airport. You can when you're flying in, however, you can't just go on flag ball at the airport. So the way it works is you can go to any border, let's say where in Vancouver, so there's Pointe-Roberts, there is Peace Arc, and then there is Surrey and there's one in Abbotsford. The best one that I like is Surrey. I just find over the years I've gone through all of them. Peace Arc was amazing during the pandemic because nobody was traveling, but because it's a very busy border, sometimes the officers just have no patience. And the person that's assessing your application is not an immigration officer, is CBSA, so Canadian Border Agency. And even though it's part of their mandate to do it, they don't like it. It's not their job and they don't, like it is their job, but it's like, it's not what they do on a daily basis, so they don't like it. So sometimes they can be a bit mean or snarky. So you just need to know that. So the way it works is, and I'll walk you through Surrey because I do that all the time, so there is a, just before the gift shops or the duty-free shops, there is a little plaza. I always get my clients to park there and then they walk down to the US border. They go to the US Custom Agent at the kiosk and they say, I'm here to flagpole. They'll refer you to this building. They'll say, just walk to the building. They'll go to the building. They'll sit there. And depending on your immigration background, you can be there for like 10 minutes or you can be there for hours because for some reason, even though they're kicking you out of the country and they're not refusing your entry, but there is a loophole around this. That's why it's called flag-bullying. They will assess you and then they will deny you entry. This does not affect your immigration pathway or visa to US or any of that stuff. And you do not need to have a visa to the US flagpole. You just need to have a valid status in Canada today. So then once they've done their assessment, they'll send you to another kiosk and they'll give you a piece of paper. And then if you're driving, they'll stop the border entries from cars coming and they'll loop you back into Canada. If you're walking, they'll just hold the traffic and then tell you to go to the Canadian kiosk. At the Canadian kiosk, they'll ask you for that piece of paper and then they'll tell you which line to go into. So you say, I'm here to flagpole, they'll say, great, give me that paper and then go to line number B. And then when you go in there, they'll assess your application so you'll have your application in hand. So whatever documents you would send for a postgraduate work permit, you basically take those with you. You do not need to take forms. They don't care about forms, they just need the documents. And then they'll assess it and they'll give it to you. This process can take hours and hours and hours. Sometimes you'll go through the whole US thing, you get to Canada and they're like, you should have booked an appointment. So sometimes it's better to just first go to Canada, ask them if you need an appointment, book your appointment, come back the next time and then do the whole thing. But that's flag-pulling in short. But you have to make sure that the permit you're applying for flag-pulling works for it. For extension, it does not. They don't support it. Postgraduate work permit, they do. Yeah, there are a few questions in the chat asking about the part-time status during the pandemic. Can you touch on that or will you be speaking about it later? The part-time status, what do you mean part-time status? Like I have a question here from Louisa saying that the reason that they were part-time was because of the pandemic. And I have another question here from Lynn saying basically the same thing. The pandemic was the reason they went on a part-time study below a certain number of credits. Do you guys want to come on and explain what was the reason you went part-time? Like what part of the pandemic made you go part-time? Go ahead, Louisa. My reason mainly was until we're first waiting for my visa. And also, I didn't want to stop kind of my study because I was so spring intake. So I had to wait like a next three years to apply for my major. So I didn't want to kind of like stop studying. So I decided to become part-time in the meantime. Okay, and then when you say you were waiting for your visa, what does that mean? You were on an extension or you didn't? No, no, I was applying for the first time. Because you were from abroad? Yeah, I was studying online my first year. Yeah, because you had that like during the pandemic, immigration decided to do this two-sister thing where they would approve you and then you could start studying online from abroad. And then the second part of the study permit, which is security checks and all that stuff would go through while you were studying. Is that what you mean? Oh, no, what I meant is I started studying online. Yeah. But since I couldn't go abroad yet into Canada and I had to wait the next three years to sort of like apply to my major because I was still in the first year. I had to do part-time in the meantime in order not to stop studying. I see, I think kids, that's a very specific reason. So I think you should just explain that, explain all of that in your submission to immigration when you're applying for a postgraduate. Like from this day to this day, that was studying part-time and these are the reasons. Okay, thank you. No worries. Okay, anybody else have questions? I think Sophia also asked about if you could repeat the documents needed. The documents needed are, if you're applying online is basically the checklist will show up for you. So it's usually that the form is the first one and then there's client info and that's where you can put your explanations. And then there's like your passport, your transcript, your, I think it's called certificate of graduation or whatever has given you the approval that you are done. You just have to wait till the diploma shows up. I think that's pretty much it. But the checklist will show up on my CIC based on the answers you put in there. And lastly, here's a common question I get like once in a while for about study permits. Can students extend their study permits after graduation or do they have to apply for a new study permit? No, you have to apply for a new study permit. You have to have a new L-way to apply. Okay. Okay, and then also you can, if you submit that while you're waiting for the answer you can work full-time, during the time between schools, you can work full-time if you have applied for another one. The other thing that I see a lot, I see another question, just give me one second and I'll get to it. A study permit is an open work permit. Sorry, I'll just type. A postgraduate work permit is an open work permit. And there's two checkmarks in your application when you're going to, like you have to explain why you're applying for an open work permit. And you need to make sure that you have selected the 155 plus the 100. I don't know why the government of Canada doesn't just put open work permit 255, but sometimes some of you forget to pay this extra $100 and you pay 155. And before they used to ask for the extra hundreds, now I'm seeing refusals on it. So just make sure to pay 255 for an open work permit. Okay, let's see what the question is. Just one more like flagpole question from Aretha. Yeah. You can at any time, a flagpole, and then you can withdraw the online application and get your refund. You can definitely a flagpole if you want to. And Jazz has a question. Oh, yes. I have a question about requirement of the full-time students. Yeah. So the first year I took CAP program, which stands for Creative Art Path Program. So it is for those who didn't meet English proficiency. Yeah. So for the first semester, I took one course from Emily Carr, which is credit three. And the rest of the course are fulfilled with the CAP program, which didn't give me any credits. So do you think- But they gave you a certificate at the end, right? Yes. Okay, so put that in there. So do you think, yeah, does it affect you with the requirement of the full-time students? It shouldn't affect it, but explain in your submission that that's what happened on the first term and also put that certificate of completion from the language school. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I just want to highlight the flag pulling. You are going in front of a CBSA officer and you are going in front of a CBSA officer on the other side too. So just have to make sure that everything's good because I've seen a lot of issues. So it's not like, oh, okay, I'm just gonna go. So you have to make sure everything is clean before you go to the border. Okay, one more question. I had a question. I don't know if there was- Go ahead. Someone who's going to go first. Okay, do you need to be graduated in order to submit the work permit application? Okay. Ganesh, you need to have that, Vincent, what is it called? Is it a graduation certificate? Yes, so basically once you graduate, you talk to the current international student advisor and we do release the certificate of graduation along with your transcript. So basically all your, what's that? Once you've graduated, just send INT advising at ecuad.ca that you've graduated and then I check all your evaluation and then once it's cleared and you're ready to graduate, we send you all the certificate of graduation or you can make a copy of your parchment. But yeah, the certificate of graduation would do. And then there's a question about I leave Canada for, is it okay if I leave Canada for a year for a master's degree during a valid time of postgraduate? Yes, you can always leave. Just understand that you can only get one postgraduate work permit in your lifetime in Canada. So that time is precious, I always call it gold because that is your pathway to permanent residency. And so if you take that time off to go somewhere else and study, you're just taking it away from your work, work experience in Canada. But yeah, it's totally okay. Okay, any other questions on these? Yes, I have another question. I've heard some stuff that there are only like certain jobs. Oh, I don't know how to explain myself, but someone once told me that you can't have like, if you want to apply for a work permit, your job has to be of like a certain status or something. No, that's not true. That's only if you're bringing your, so if you're married or have a common law partner and you have a study permit and they have an open work permit based on your study permit. And then you graduate. In order for them to get an open work permit, you need to have a job in knock zero A or B which is now tier zero, one, two and three. That's the only way they can get a work permit. Recently, the government of Canada came up with a policy where spouses of people that are working in tier four and five can get a work permit. So what I've been doing in my office is instead of applying for the postgraduate work permit and then the open work permit for the spouse, if this person doesn't have a knock tier zero, one, two, three job, then what I do is apply for the postgraduate work permit. Once it's approved, I use the open work permit to then get the spouse's work permit. It's a little technical, but that's only if you have a spouse. If you don't, you don't even need to have a job to apply for a postgraduate work permit, doesn't matter. Okay, thank you. Okay, so with that, any other questions? Yeah, I had a question. So your work permit or your postgraduate work permit essentially only allows you to live and work in Canada. I cannot believe Canada and come back based on the PGWP, right? Like I need another? No, no, no, no. Oh, so yeah, so a permit, the thing that's printed is not your travel document. The thing that's in your passport is your travel document. So you always have to make sure that one is valid too if you do not come from an ETA country. So if you have, yeah, so you need to make sure that's valid. So you can apply for a visitor visa inside Canada and explain that your counterfoil has expired. Okay, got to. No, the lack of work experience does not, you don't even need to have ever had worked in your life. The reason why you're getting a postgraduate work permit is because you're graduating from a public school inside Canada and you have met all of your study permit requirements. And like that, that's the only reason you get a postgraduate work permit because you have met the requirements. It doesn't have anything to do with job. You have, usually a study permit is, postgraduate work permit is given to you based on the duration of your studies. So if you study eight months, you get one year. And if you study two years, you get three years. And that's always comes down to the discretion of the officer because they do sometimes make mistakes. But basically you have between one to three years to work. So does that answer your question? No worries. Anything else? Because I'm glad you guys asked these questions because you need to know more about your postgraduate work permit. Okay, so on that topic, let's talk about express entry. So before I start this section, which is permit residency, I want you to understand that immigration, I started my firm in 2017 and immigration has only gotten harder. Getting a temporary is getting easier. And I'll, we'll see what happens in the future. But in the past three years, our last minister drawn four million temporaries into the country. And every year there is around four to 500,000 spots for permanent residency. So permanent residency before was, oh, come get your postgraduate work permit, work one year, become Canadian experience. As long as you have a good enough English and you graduated in Canada, you would have been fine with one year of work experience. That is not the case anymore, especially if you have noticed recently, express entry has also changed. So we're going to go through all of these. So federal skilled worker are people that, so express entry, the way I explain it is it's a swimming pool with a doorman and the doorman or a bouncer allows three types of people into the pool. And these people are federal skilled workers. So if you have studied and worked abroad and you have, you worked in a skill level. So tier zero, one, two and three are the skilled levels. And you need to meet the requirements of the federal skilled worker. So I have put the link here. You need to have 67 points in order to qualify to get into the pool. And the 67 points are based on your age, your language skills, your years of work experience and your education level. And then they give you some options if you've been in Canada for longer, but basically this is what they're assessing you on. And if you get 67 points, then you're good to go. You can jump into the swimming pool. The other one that probably applies to you most is Canadian experience. So if you are, you need to have a job in skilled levels. So tier zero is management. Tier one is like university levels work. And tier two is like more university colleges. So like a doctor or architect is tier one and like graphic designer is tier two or three. So these are the jobs that they're looking for. An administrative assistant works as well. There's a whole bunch of stuff. So you can basically go on like Google knock quotes and then put in your job and see what tier it falls into. You have to physically be in Canada working for a Canadian employer. So sometimes people are like, oh, I am in Canada but my employer is in the US and I work remotely. That doesn't count. The employer also has to be Canadian. And you have to work, you can work part-time or full-time. You just have to meet this 1,560 hours. This is your like golden number. Now the government in Canada is mean in a way. So most people work 40 hours a week but the government in Canada only recognizes 30 of those 40 hours. So a lot of people are like, oh, I already qualified for Canadian experience because I've worked 40 hours. But they want you to work the full year. And if you worked for 40 hours a week, you wouldn't qualify. You would, yeah, you wouldn't hit, you would be more than, or you would hit that 1,560 hours a lot sooner and they want you to work that full year. So basically it's the 30 hours they're taking. If you are working in tier zero and one, so management or as I said, like tier one, your entry into express entry has to be CLB seven, which is aisle 6666. And then if you are in tier two or three, your entry is CLB five. This is to get into express entry. Now to get out of express entry has become a whole different experience because to get in, you might even qualify with 300, 200 points. But right now to get out, depending on the category you're coming out of, a normal everyday category, the Canadian experience category is drawing above 500 right now. So you have to make sure that your scores are high to get in. And the biggest thing that you have control of that helps you with that is these scores of language scores will not get you there. The maximum, the best score that you can get in to get the maximum points is CLB nine or aisles 777 and eight for listening. That's when you get your maximum points for express entry for the language. Federal trade worker is people that work in trades. They have their own requirements. I'm surprised that they have a whole category, but they haven't been drawn for years now. And recently when express entry came into category base, they also brought in trades, which makes no sense to me. It's a redundant policy, but that's what's happening right now. So I just wanted to show it, like give you a glimpse of these categories that have recently just been created. And they've become very, very, very selective, which, so basically if you're a French speaker, you're looking really good. If you speak fluently French and English, you're good. If you work in healthcare, you have a lot more option open to you. So the other one they're looking for is like science, technology, engineering, trades again, which is strange to me that this category exists, transportation and then agriculture. So these are right now what Canada requires or needs in terms of jobs that are available out there that are not being fulfilled. So this is why express entry has become targeted. We knew this was coming, but it always makes me sad when this is happening because now Canadian experience, which was the whole point of all of this, what is becoming murky. Do you have any questions on express entry? I think Sophia wants to get a clarification what the express entry is. Okay, so once you decide to go to permanent residency, let me see if I can go back up. So to become permanent residents, there is federal programs. So the programs are designed for the entire country. And then there is the provincial part of programs. So each province has its own immigration pathway. The main program for immigration for Canada is express entry. And it's a swimming pool with a doorman that allows certain types of people to get into the pool to then get drawn out of to go to permanent residence. Is that clear? Yes, thank you. Okay, so questions? Is that too much? I'm sorry, it's such a dry, weird topic. That's why like one-on-ones are so important so I can sit down and assess all of these with you. The next one is- Oh, I had a question. What conditions does express entry become better of a pathway than say like normal PR? Like what are the- Like why would you choose- What is your definition of normal PR? No, oh, I just assumed after you get your post-graduation work permit, you apply for like a PR based on that. And I'm assuming this is different? No, this is it. This is your PR pathway. Okay. Yeah, so normally, so normally what you're told from abroad or from here is, come here, get your post-graduation work permit, work one year and you're good to go. Yeah, yeah. What I'm saying is that's changed. Oh, I- And normally what you do is you fall under the Canadian experience. So you come here, you get a job in tiers zero, one, two and three. You work for one year, you meet those requirements, you go through express entry. This is the pathway to PR. However, it's changed. And it's changing and changing and changing. So if I can show you, so if I show you what the drawings look like. So before there were three categories. Canadian experience, federal skilled worker and federal trade worker. Now they're drawing all these different, they've created all these subcategories and those categories are now overtaken the Canadian experience pathway. I'm sorry, I just watched that. It has been like tricky lately. Okay, so I wanna show you. So normally express entry always drew no program specific and the draws, I mean, the draws have been ridiculously high but the draws were usually around like 480, four, I haven't been that long for a long time. Anyways, they've gone up so much. And then recently, so around 480, this is what it is. And then recently they've been drawing categories. So if you're a French speaker, then now they're drawing you separately than when you were just a Canadian experience. I don't know how to open it anymore but it's just like before it was like, you were a federal skilled worker, you were at a studying here and you met the requirement of express entry or you would come here and work for one year. And now I'm saying that one year has become extremely competitive because they're around 517 and the other categories are kind of taking over. And if they have 500,000 spots, most of those, like let's say divide them by half and half of them are the provinces and the other half is express entry. Now you're competing with all these people that are being drawn with a much lower score than you. So if you're in trades right now, you're looking really good. But if you came here, worked as a, I don't know, administrative assistant for one year, you're now competing with everybody else that's sitting in 517. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, thank you so much. No worries. I have a question that's like related, I guess, kind of. So I'm not sure what the best way to frame it is but me and my friends and we're talking about how like whenever you graduate and you start or with the post-grad work program and you start getting the work, how it's that work is like supposed to be related to your degree specifically. That is a misunderstanding. Okay, so what's actually it? No, you do not need to have your degree and your work do not need to match, ever. Where would that misunderstanding come from then? Look, these days, everybody under the sun is giving emigration, so that's where it's coming from. What I have put in my presentation which I'll get Vincent to send it to you guys is, and I'll add the Canadian experience link is you just read the website. You just stick to the website. Everybody is blogging and whatever about immigration. Every, like it's just sad because people are just telling you their experience and that's not true. So where it's related, when I get to the PMP, I'll explain to you where a relationship comes in and I think that it's also a misinterpretation but under Canadian experience, you can do many, many jobs. So your 1,560 hours can be filled in three years with different jobs and they don't need to be, as long as they're in categories zero, one, two and three, you're fine. They don't even need to be related to each other let alone your degree. Cool, because like it was just, so like for example, if I get my degree and it's like in media arts or whatever, like I could be working in like the little animation studios or I could actually be like a technician for the school, like working in the animation lab and like that's what my technician did, like that's how he became permanent resident and how, because like he was told that like having like a technical job was able to like get him more points than like working at like a little studio. No, that's again, that's not express entry. So we're going to go into this one. And I'll explain it to you. So PMPs have their own, so each province has a PMP, Provincial Nominee Program and the Provincial Nominee Program for each province is different and their requirements are different and their standards are different. Now in BC where we have a lot of competition, so we have a whole different pool for immigration in BC and if I show you, so the way I explain it to you, picture a swimming pool for express entry and now picture a swimming pool for BC PMP. Sometimes the provinces take people straight out of the express entry pool. BC PMP does not, they have their own pool. So the way I, so actually express entry is kind of copying BC because BC was the first one to come up with categories. So you can, if you have previous work experience and you need two years of work experience, you can come out of the skilled worker category of BC PMP. If you're an international grad, which you guys all will be, you do not need to have previous work experience. So your previous work experience will give you points if they're related, but you don't need to have it in this category. So usually the international grad category is a little bit higher than the skilled worker because a lot of international students don't have previous work experience. But so you don't need previous work experience for international grad and you do for two years under skilled worker. So that's really important to you. Sometimes you qualify for express entry as well. So you either are a federal skilled worker, federal trade worker or community experience. So you can do BC PMP express entry together or you do not qualify for express entry. So you do skilled worker or international grad without express entry. The difference between them is express entry is a little bit faster. This is a slower PR pathway, but you're still on your way to PR. Where the tech that was explaining to you comes in is BC PMP also has its own separate categories for the jobs that are required in BC. So targeted draws tech has its own list of jobs that they require. Targeted draws healthcare is one. So you clearly see the points are a lot lower here. Targeted draw childcare. So if you, as a, I always use administrator assistant, as an administrator assistant, you're competing in this pool. But if you are, and I'll show you the tech 29 occupations, so this list of 29 occupations are specific. Like you have to be under these not codes. These are old not codes, but I don't know why BC PMP hasn't updated them. But these are, the draw is here, 88. And then healthcare, if you click on it, you'll see the not codes. Childcare, you see the not code. They're at 60 because these are the people that really, really want. So is the lower number better? For sure, because this is what your points are. So how does your points work? So you have to be, your BC PMP assesses you based on certain things. So going back to my presentation. So with like a lower number, there's like a lower barrier to enter? Yeah, yeah, like you have less. So BC PMP is gonna look at your directly related work experience. This is where that directly work experience comes. Again, it's not the same job, but they need to match, okay? Or they need to be related. So it gives you points based on that. It gives you points based on your education. It gives you points if you've completed your education in BC. It gives you points based on your education. Now, the most important thing to know for BC PMP is if you do self-tip and you get three nines and then a five, BC PMP takes the lowest mark. So they'll take the five and they'll calculate your language points based on that, not the whole situation where express entries different, they'll take each one. The most important thing to know for BC PMP is you have to have a job. So you can't just apply for it. You have to have an active job with a contract. If you're in tech, your contract needs to be one year. If you're outside of tech, your contract needs to be indeterminate. You can't be limited to the company. Your employer needs to have five employees and it needs to be in business for one year, which is not the same as Canadian experience where you just need to work for one year and you would qualify, right? So it's a lot different. So what I did hear for you in my presentation is I put the guide for you. So what I need you to do is, and I know a lot of people don't like reading, but this is your pathway to BC. And if you go to page 51, then the points category shows up and then you can see how BC PMP assesses you. So all of these programs are all, they're all giving you marks based on the things that you have done in Canada or outside Canada. So express entry is the same, Canadian experience is the same, and they're assessing you based on those scores. So that when I show you numbers like 88, 60, scores, 500 and something, that's what it is. From page 51 down BC PMP is gonna show you how they give you marks. So directly related work experience gives you points. And then if you're working currently in Canada, it gives you points. If you've been here for one year, working this job gives you more points. Your degree, the level of it, if it was completed in BC, and then these are those selected categories, your language score. And then the most important thing is like, what is your job? How much are you making per hour? That gives you points. And then are you in Vancouver or greater Vancouver area? Are you away? The further away you are, the more points you're getting, which is what's happening now. I think people from abroad and from away are getting more points than people in Vancouver. So you have to understand that too. Anyways, I can just go on and on. This was a whole topic on the topic, but that's why I put these links for you. Does that make sense now? Oh, a little bit. You see, I have three more questions. Okay, Alice, do you wanna come and ask your questions? I was wondering what level of French. So the level of French is CLB7 as well. I think that's what they're looking for. But even if you have lower, there is points for French. There's like, you can get extra points for French. Okay, let's go to the pool. Previously, I thought that entry was a massive pool, which includes everyone. But after I heard the question from Alice, I want to ask, is there an English language pool or French language pool? No, everyone can go in, except you still have to fall into those three categories, federal skilled worker, Canadian experience, or federal trade worker. Once you go in, based on those, they'll assess you for the categories. Does that make sense? Do you wanna ask me a question? Can I interject one second? Yeah, go for it. So the time is now 11, and then we do wanna have some time for the one-on-one sessions. So how much longer do you have for your presentations and all? Almost done. Okay, cool. So I just wanted, so because of all these competitions, and I won't go into it, but I'll send these links so that you can share with you. I like two programs that are easier, but you have to move. So one is the Rural Northern Pilot Immigration Program, and one is the Atlantic Program. I like places that give you the option of express entry, the provincial nominee, and then an extra category, like an extra program. And these two places right now have extra. So I just have those, so I'll send you the links so you guys can review it. And then if you have questions, you can ask me. And then if you have more questions, you can book a consultation, or I think we're gonna have another one of these in October, right? Yeah, since we have a pretty good participation right now, we're thinking of doing more of an in-person RCIC meeting with Sonam, and we'll be in campus during a reading week in October. So watch out for that. I'll send you an invitation soon. Okay. With that, I'm done my presentation. But we had some questions though. Just wanted to make sure I don't miss those. Okay. Let's do five minutes for questions, and then we'll start with the one-on-ones at 11.15. Yes. Sorry, go ahead. Oh, I just have a question really quick. It's about working. So I have my study permit, it's renewed. It's all good. I have the work permit too. And I was wondering if I can only work 20, 30 hours a week right now or 40, because it says on the website that as a study permit holder, that on scheduled breaks, such as summer and winter break, you can work more than part-time. You can work full-time. You can work full-time. Okay, so right now the summer, it is a break. So I can't. Yes. Thank you. Yeah, as long as sometimes the programs are condensed, so there is no break. As long as your program has a break, you can work full-time during break. Yeah, I have the break. Perfect. And then the last question was, so BCPMP is different pathway from express entry. Yes. So there is the federal program, which is for all of Canada, express entry, and then each province across the country has its own pathway to immigration, and that's what a PMP is. So BCPMP has its own, so the British Columbia government has its own pathway for immigration. It sometimes joins express entry, so they marry each other, and sometimes it doesn't. Yes. I'm gonna put more links in it, and then I'll send it to Vincent for more presentation. So somebody was asking, can I send the file? Yes. Yeah, Esther, Esther, go ahead. Oh, I just wanted to update you regarding the girl she was saying about the working hours. So the limit for international student has been released. So there's no limit for 20 hours anymore. That's even within school, like when you go to school and when it's summer break. So you're free to work how many hours you want to, like up to full-time hours. I just wanted to let you know that. That is true. However, it depends on when you apply for your study permit. There is a date, and you have to make sure you meet that requirement, because some people do not qualify that, even after the policy was released. So where would I look up and find that exact date? I'm gonna make a note and I'll send that to people. So if you had an extension, you might have not qualified for it anymore. Let me just make a note of all the stuff I have to do. Okay, so Sanam, just send me the, what's that, the power of the slides, and I'll just send it to all participants and everybody who hasn't joined. Same thing with the recording. I will send the recording as well. The link to it. Perfect. Okay, are there any more questions before we break into the breakout rooms? Hi, Turtle. Your roommate's tortoise, he's saying hi. Hi, my name is Otis, he walked into it. Hi, Otis. I just had one more question. I have, I've heard from people that if you have a four-year degree, that somehow it cuts, like you don't have to wait as much to apply for a PR. They somehow count those years for, so that's a misunderstanding then again. Yeah, you get more points. Yeah, people that get certificates and diplomas get less points than the people that have four-year degree, but they still have to compete for PR. I see, okay. All right, so I'm gonna stop recording.