From Ethiopia to Canada Finding School for Four Children
Introduction: As a Canadian company that recruits students to Canadian educational institutions from abroad, our mission is to help students achieve their dream of studying in Canada.
In this case study, we will discuss how we successfully helped a family of four school-going students from a conflict region in Africa to first obtain admissions to a Canadian school, and then obtain the necessary visas to come to Canada.
Background: The family is from Ethiopia and they had planned that their five will move to Canada for education. Four of the children are of school-going age, and the fifth is three years old. The oldest was 14 years old and the youngest of the school going children was seven.
The mother will accompany them as a guardian while the father will remain where is currently for professional reasons. The mother needed a tourist visa while the father wanted to accompany them initially with a tourist visa.
iNishta’s task: Our task was to find suitable school/s for the four children and then help them get the study visas as well as a visitor visa for the mother. Additionally, the father also needed a visitor visa as he wanted to accompany his family on their first trip to Canada.
Finding Suitable Schools: Our first task was to find suitable schools for all four school-going children. Since the family wanted all their children to attend the same school, we had to find a school that had grades from primary to secondary. Additionally, we had to consider the location of the school, affordability, and other aspects that were important to the family.
Obtaining Required Documents: Ongoing tensions in their birth country made them to move to a new place, and that made it difficult to get the necessary documents from their previous school. However, the parents were very supportive in trying their best to provide the required documents despite the obstacles.
Admission and Study Permit Applications: Following extensive research, we shortlisted a few suitable schools and shared with the parents to choose a few. And after months of research and communication that included schools, education boards and the parents, we managed to obtain admission for the oldest child and then applied to the same school for admission for the other three school-going children. We also had to submit study permit applications for all four children, which was a challenge due to the difficulty of providing the required documents.
Immigration Consultant Services: Our immigration consultants managed to sort out all obstacles and submit the study permit applications. Unfortunately, the processing time was almost nine months due to the backlog created by Covid-19. As a result, we had to defer the intake twice.
Successful Outcome: Finally, after a long wait, the good news arrived. All four study permit applications and the two visit visas were approved, and the children are now planning their much awaited and exciting move to Canada.
Conclusion: Recruiting foreign students to Canadian educational institutions can be a challenging task. We have to understand the educational requirements for specific countries. And securing the needed documents can be made very difficult when potential students (and their families) go through political tensions and even violence which makes it difficult to get necessary documents, translations etc., on time. However, with the support of the parents and the help of immigration consultants, we were able to successfully obtain admission for all four school-going children and study permits for their education in Canada.