Amira has been living in the United States for 7 years. She finished her Master’s degree in the United states, obtained a work visa and had a very promising job. She was valued by her employer, was well compensated and even put in a down payment on her very own condo. She hoped one day to apply for Green Card and to settle for good in the United States.
However, the politics and the anti-immigration rhetoric put a stall on Amira’s plans. Her employer continued promising that he would support her Green Card application as much as he could, but as the time went by it was becoming clear that Amira’s path to the permanent status might not be an easy one. To add to this, several of her close family members were now barred from coming and visiting Amira in the United States because of their citizenship.
Amira called us to see if she had an easier path to immigrate to Canada. She was young, single, had great education and her English was good enough to obtain high IELTS test scores. With her work experience of over three years she was gaining high points in Express Entry (the federal immigration program). We also recommended Amira to select Ontario as her province of choice making her visible for any Ontario Provincial Nominee (OINP) draws. Based on the previous OINP selection, we expected that Amra would be a prime candidate for this provincial program.
Along with Amira we completed her Express Entry profile, reviewed and corrected her supporting documents, and placed Amira into the pool of the Express Entry candidates.
A week later, Amira was selected under the OINP to come to Canada. One week after that, she received her Invitation to Apply in Express Entry.
So what happened?
Amira decided to decline the OINP selection and to proceed with the regular Express Entry PR application. She wanted to have the freedom of going to any province of her choice once she is a permanent resident of Canada. Her PR application is currently in its last stages.