Need info on canada immigration/PR

[neets126]

I have been in the US on L1/H1 visa for 5 years. My H1 B maxes out by May 2015 and my current employer has not filed Green Card. So I'm looking at oppurtunities to migrate to Canada along with my wife and toddler son. My wife and I are Indian citizens and my son is an American citizen.
I have the following questions regarding the process:
What's the fastest approach to get PR in Canada, i read about different groups like PNP, AINP etc?
How much will it cost? How long will it take?
Is IELTS mandatory for PR application?
Also, if I dont get PR before my H1 B expires, and I have to go out of US, will it affect the PR process?

Thanks for your help.

[Harry Callahan]

Canadian immigration under Harper/Kenney is not much better than the US and getting worse. The various provincial nominee programs typically require either a job offer from a Canadian company or school attendance in Canada. If you do have a job offer, the PNP route will be fastest (maybe 1 year). The "normal" applicant stream is the federal skilled worker (FSW) program, which has processing times of about 2 years for India (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/informa...killed-fed.asp). Applying for FSW requires either a job offer from a Canadian company or 1 year of prior paid work experience in one of 50 specific types of jobs (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigra...pand=jobs#jobs).

Best bet is to get a Canadian company to extend a job offer to you, and enter the country on a temporary work permit. Those are pretty fast to get (one day). Once you arrive, applying for permanent residency with a job in hand is much easier than the US, and you can apply on your own without support from your employer. The whole thing costs about $1000, or $3000 if you use a lawyer.

You'll need to take either an English or French test. There are two options for the English test (IELTS and CELPIP), and one option for French (TEF).