Moving to Canada (from Israel)
After living in Russia for 21-and-a-half years and Israel for 5-and-a-half years, I'm moving to Canada as a permanent resident. My application was approved in November of last year, and I was given until September of this year to land in Toronto (though I'm not waiting until September to do so). I won't get into the nitty-gritty of the whole process since it's already been faithfully covered by Harry Schwartz. I will, however, give a general overview and cover some of the aspects unique to immigrating to Canada from Israel.
How long did it take?
The whole process, from the time I decided to apply for Permanent Residency and started researching it to receiving the final papers, took about 2 years. It included:
- initial research
- collecting the necessary documents
- preparing for and taking the IELTS English proficiency test
- submitting the application, and
- communicating with the IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) and providing them additional documents
While it doesn't look like much, there were a few factors which made it take significantly longer than it could have. Before we move on to them, here's the most important takeaway from this article:
Read the official docs
If you're interested in moving to Canada, take a few hours to read the official IRCC website. It will give you all the information you'll need. If you really want a condensed version, go read Harry Schwartz (see the link above). Keep in mind that those are anecdotal sources — use them to supplement the official information. By the way, what you're reading right now is also an anecdotal source.
Visa Centers
I still don't quite understand how this works1, but it seems that, when applying for Permanent Residency, the Canadian Visa Center2 in the country from which you are applying will be handling your application. In practice, that meant that in my case I was unable to get any updates on my application when I would call the IRCC in Canada. At one point, an agent told me that they can't access the files of people who are being processed outside Canada. For about 9 months I hadn't had a single update on my application, so you should be prepared for that.
Military experience
You have to disclose your military experience in your Permanent Residency application, and since serving in the military is mandatory in Israel, you will be required to provide additional details (bases on which you served, names of your commanders, etc.). This could also contribute to lengthy delays. Basically, you should be prepared to wait for some time, even though IRCC promises to process 80% of the applications in under 6 months.
Final notes
If the prospect of moving to Canada sounds exciting, you should start as soon as possible, as there will be several stages where you would be able to do nothing but wait.3
This should seem obvious, but always provide honest answers.
As long as you follow the process laid out by the IRCC, everything should work out.
See you in Canada!