The step-by-step plan for Canada

In this step you see which way into Canada is open to you. For Dutch citizens there are three realistic doors. Which one is open to you depends mainly on your age and your points.

• Express Entry. This is the main route. You create a profile online and go into a pool: the group of candidates Canada invites from. There you're ranked on your CRS score, the points score Canada gives every candidate.
• The Provincial Nominee Program. This is the second way. A province nominates you. That yields 600 points and so effectively puts you at the top. Every province has its own streams (programmes) and its own requirements.
• The working holiday route. If you're 18 up to and including 30, you have a third option that skips the other two. You then work in Canada for a year on an open work permit: a permit that isn't tied to one employer.

That working holiday is more than a detour. Canadian work experience counts heavily when you later apply for permanent residence. So if you're young enough, you can reverse the order. First you live and work in Canada for a year. Then you apply for permanent residence, from a much stronger position.

With this step you know how many points you score, and so how promising the points route is for you. Calculate your score honestly with the official calculator. Age, education, language and work experience make up the lion's share of your points. Be strict with yourself. Points you hope to get don't count.

There are two things you need to know here. Many guides still get them wrong.

• A job offer no longer earns points. Those points were abolished in March 2025. So looking for a Canadian employer "for the points" no longer makes sense.
• French has become worth much more. NCLC 7 on all skills yields 25 points. If you also have English at CLB 5 or higher on all four skills, that becomes 50. That level of English is a formality for most Dutch people.

NCLC and CLB are the Canadian scales for your language level: NCLC for French, CLB for English.

The real gain isn't even in those points, but in the category draws. A draw is a round in which Canada invites the candidates with the highest scores. Besides the ordinary rounds, Canada also invites per category, for example for French speakers. The cut-off score is the lowest score that still received an invitation in such a round.

• In 2026 the French rounds closed between 382 and 420 points.
• In 2026 the ordinary rounds were only for people who already worked in Canada (the Canadian Experience Class). They closed between 507 and 523.

That's usually more than a hundred points' difference. And thousands of people are invited at once each time. There was no round open to everyone, without a category, in 2026. If you have school French and want to invest a year in it, this is the cheapest route to Canada there is.

One caveat. In April 2026 Canada asked for comments on plans for a new Express Entry. One of those plans: removing or changing the extra points for French. Nothing has been decided yet, and there is no date. That consultation does not cover the French-language draws, and that is exactly where the real gain is. Check the IRCC points table again just before you create your profile.

In this step you see what the journey is going to cost you. The application itself is clearly priced. Count on about CAD 1,590 per adult and CAD 270 per child, plus the cost of biometrics (taking your fingerprints and a photo).

Most of the money is in the things around it:

• the credential assessment, in which your Dutch diplomas are officially compared with Canadian ones;
• the language test;
• the medical examination;
• the shipping of your belongings across the ocean;
• a car you sell here and have to buy again there.

Work it out with your own choices in the calculator, before you start anything.

With this step you decide together whether it will be Canada, and in which province. Canada is far away, and that's no detail. You're not back with family in a weekend.

Going alone? Then have this conversation with the people you leave behind. The questions below work for them too.

Take three evenings. One conversation is too short for a decision like this. Agree on three evenings, a week apart:

• Evening 1, why. What do we hope to find in Canada? What are we leaving behind here? Would that really be different there?
• Evening 2, what we give up. Who and what will we miss? What are we dreading most? What do we do if it disappoints?
• Evening 3, the conditions. What has to be in place for each of us to say yes? When do we check together whether it's going well, for example after six and after twelve months? And what would be a reason for us to go back?

Write the conditions down. On the kitchen-table card it all fits on one A4.

On the second evening, also discuss the things that only weigh later:

• the winter;
• the distances;
• the fact that in most provinces you're stuck without a car.

Also discuss seriously which province you want to live in. Administratively, that choice decides more than people think. Your health insurance, your driving licence and your tenant protection differ per province, sometimes considerably.

Divide the work. Agree who takes on which part of this plan: the papers for the visa, the house and the cancellations, the school, the move. That way not one of you carries everything. Invite your partner into your plan; then you both see what's done.

Is one of you going without an income of your own? Whoever lives in Canada and doesn't work in the Netherlands usually no longer builds up AOW, the Dutch state pension. For every year you're not insured, you later get 2 percent less AOW. You can insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB. You have one year for that, counted from the moment you're no longer insured. Also discuss whether that partner keeps an account and money of their own, and how you decide together on large expenses.

Married, registered or living together? That can make a difference for your partner's residence permit, for co-insurance in healthcare and for inheritance. Check at the visa and at your healthcare further on in your plan what applies to you.

Are children coming? How you tell them depends on their age:

• Up to about four. Tell them shortly before the move and keep fixed routines, such as the bedtime ritual and the cuddly toy in the hand luggage.
• Primary school. Tell them well in advance and let them look along: photos of the school, the neighbourhood and the house. Let them choose something, such as their room.
• Teenagers. Involve them in the decision itself. For them, saying goodbye to friends weighs the most. Agree how they keep in touch and when they'll see their friends again.

School too is arranged per province. In Québec French is the language of instruction, and English schooling is only possible there with permission. Read the article about school with this step before you choose the province.

Who learns the language, and when? You probably speak English already. If you choose Québec, French is the only official language, and the language of the school. French can also earn extra points for your visa; that's at your points, earlier in your plan. Often the partner without work needs the language most, and that's exactly the one without colleagues to practise with. Plan it together, preferably before you leave.

Choose below the date on which you want to be standing in Canada. The step-by-step plan works out whether that's feasible with what still has to happen. If it gets tight, it says so honestly.

Do know what you have in hand and what you don't. The credential assessment and the language test you can plan. The moment you're drawn from the pool (that is, receive an invitation) you can't plan.

A target date is yours: you can always move it. On this route that's more the rule than the exception.