In 2017, Linda had had enough!

She was stressed at work and had not been promoted for 3 years.

The cost of living was rising exponentially in Nigeria and her family income was not increasing.

Then there was the insecurity issues in the country. In fact, she was tired. She needed to leave the country for a saner life for herself and her family!

She was 38 years old.

A few of her colleagues had already relocated to Canada, so she reached out to them for help.

They told her about the new express entry system that uses CRS scores to invite people for permanent residence in Canada.

Excitedly, Linda quickly calculated ger CRS scores using the CRS tool here: https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/crs-tool.asp

Her score was just short of 400, and at that time, only people with at least scores of 420 were been invited to apply. Her age was a problem as those below 35 years old with a Masters degree seemed to have the advantage with this new express entry system.

And the older you got, the harder it was to be invited through the express entry system.

Linda wept bitterly that day. Why didn’t she try earlier? Does this mean she will not be able to relocate to Canada with her family afterall? Was this the end of her Canada dreams? Was there any other way she could legitimately enter Canada and be able to stay permanently?

It was a sad week for Linda.

Luckily for Linda, the following month, her friend told her how she had relocated to Canada 2 years previously using the study route, and was now a permanent resident. Her friend was 42 years old at the time of their discussion, which meant she was close to 40 when she went to study in Canada.

Linda’s eye lit up!

She quickly arranged a WhatsApp call with her friend to get all the details of how to start her study journey to Canada.

She had so many questions:

How much would it cost altogether?

What level of study did she need to apply for? And how would she choose a course of study?

Could she go with her family? She had 2 kids and her husband. What province could she choose?

How easy was the process?

How long before she becomes a permanent resident?

Did it matter that she already had a Master’s degree?

How would she get admission into the University? Would they offer her funding to study? (her friend got a funding of $25,000)

What documents did she need to present?

How would she get help with this process?

Her friend answered every single one of her questions. She was really concerned and wanted Linda to come to Canada as well.

She told Linda that relocating at such an advanced age was very difficult. In fact, the Canada visa officers were quite hostile to Nigerian applicants (especially older ones coming to study), so it was important to avoid a refusal as much as possible!

Her friend was refused once before she sought professional help in her second attempt to study in Canada.

Lind knew she had a lot of work to do, but with her friend’s help, she dived in and got to work. This is the tool she used to choose a school (as recommended by her friend): https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/study-canada/study-permit/prepare/designated-learning-institutions-list.html

She chose a province and course recommended by her friend and she even got a $23,000 funding which covered her tuition.

Her friend advised here on the strategy to use so that her family could join her in Canada as well. The success of that process was the highlight of Linda’s year!

Today, she has finished her study and has applied for permanent residence.

All happened when she was already 38 years and going to 39 years old, with little hope of ever relocating with her family.

So, if you are 37 years and above and you are wondering how you can relocate to Canada at your age, you can actually do what Linda did to relocate.

But please note that you need to know what you are doing because the odds are against older folks, and the visa officers are just looking for just one reason to refuse you.

Don’t give it to them!

Getting admission is easy. Getting your study permit – now that’s another matter altogether!

You can always find your way around the internet to gather the resources you need to apply to study in Canada. That would take lots of time and may not give you a targeted step by step process.

But whatever you do, do it quickly because policies change quickly in Canada

I wish you the very best.


P.S. You could use the same guide that Linda’s friend gave to her, which has worked not just for Linda, but for other people too (males, females, single, married).

Why don’t you take a peek at what the guide offers here: https://joshdigitalhub.com/canadapbp

I wish you success.

Joshua Olutoke

Nice one

Kudos to Linda's friend who gave her detailed procedures.

Other people would have made statements like:

It's God o, I just applied.