[param]

Canada (and I believe some other countries, like Australia) has a points based system. You can fill in a PR (equivalent to US Green Card) application from the comfort of your home country. When you are filling up the application, you can tally the points and know for sure whether you meet the cut-off to have your application be granted - i.e. you don't need to submit if you aren't going to make it. Points are given for your age (younger is better), education (masters is better than just bachelors) and your language proficiency (in English and French), among others.

Then, you wait a while and once the application is granted, you directly get PR. You have a period of time - say 1 yr - to move to Canada, and another period within which you should find a job.

i.e. - when you apply for a job, you are already a permanent resident.

Now that's what I would call a humane immigration system that also manages to attract 'desirable' immigrants. If Canada had America's weather, I would have never moved to the US.

[jacquesm]

I spent many years waiting to get my Canadian paperwork sorted out and spent a small fortune doing so. In the end I gave up and moved back to NL.

[hackerboos]

I was awarded Permanent Residency to me and my wife without either of us ever having visited Canada or a firm job offer(s).

No other country does that. The Canadian immigration system is one of the most generous around.

[refurb]

The Canadian immigration system is one of the most generous around.

It's easy to be "generous" when you have fewer people trying to immigrate to your country. I can remember maybe a decade ago Canada had an immigration target of 1% of population (~250K) and that many people didn't even apply.

Compare that to the US where there are 20 year waiting lists for some visa categories. The US has lower, but not that lower, immigration targets compared to Canada.

[testrun]

Australia is the same. Got permanent residency without being in Australia.

[hackerboos]

Recently? What is the program name?

[turar]

Some are not as lucky. One time CIC was so overwhelmed with a backlog of PR applications, they literally simply said, "screw it" and cancelled 300K (?) applications that have been sitting on their shelves waiting to be processed for years already. http://canadianimmigrant.ca/slider/300000-skilled-worker-app...

[jacquesm]

For you. I know people that have been in Canada decades that still don't have their permanent residency. If it was fair across the board it would be 'first in first out'.