Key Highlights
- We scored a wide range of the applications we handle from 1 to 10 for complexity, using five weighted factors, and published every number.
- Three of them score low enough that our own page sends those readers to a self-help guide rather than to us.
- A low score describes the application, not your file. It is never advice to file alone.
- Scores move. A refusal, a missed date or a procedural fairness letter turns a green application into a red one, and the interactive tool below shows exactly where each one lands.
- The scoring is ours. Dikshit Soni, RCIC R536007, from the files SAAB Immigration actually runs. A yardstick, not an official measure.
Do I need an immigration consultant in Canada, or can I handle this myself? It is the first question almost everyone asks, and most immigration websites answer it the same way every time, whatever the application is. That is exactly why nobody believes the answer.
So we published our own numbers instead. We scored a wide range of the applications we handle from 1 to 10 for how complex they are to get right, and put the score at the top of each application page where anyone can check it against us. The result is the SAAB Case Complexity Index™. This post is about what those numbers actually tell you about whether you need help, which is a different question from what the index measures.
Start with the three that point away from us
The scores that matter most for credibility are the low ones, because they are the ones where our own pages stop selling.
An eTA scores 1.6. A Visitor Record scores 2.9. A PGWP scores 3.3. On those pages you get the score, the most common reason those applications fail, and a link to a guide that walks you through it. What you do not get is a pitch.
That is not generosity. It is the only way a scale like this can mean anything. A complexity score published by the people who benefit from high numbers is worth nothing unless the low numbers are allowed to be low.
What those pages do still say, and what this whole post turns on, is that a low score is a statement about the application and not an instruction about what to do with it.
The number you start with is not always the number you end with
Here is the part people miss. An application does not carry one score for its whole life. It carries the score of whatever it has become.
A work permit extension sits at 4.0. Filed on time with the right evidence, that is a fair reading of it. Filed a day after the permit expired, you are no longer filing an extension. You are filing restoration, which scores 9.1, on a 90 day clock that started the day status was lost rather than the day you noticed. Refused instead, and you are dealing with a refusal at 9.4, where what you can do next is set by the officer’s notes rather than by what you would like to file.
Nothing about the person changed. The application changed underneath them.
Have a look at what that actually costs, using our own published numbers.
- Work Permit Extension scores 4.0. Filed after the permit expires it becomes restoration of status at 9.1.
- Study Permit Extension scores 4.0. Refused, it becomes an immigration refusal at 9.4.
- PGWP scores 3.3. If a procedural fairness letter arrives it becomes a fairness letter response at 9.7.
- Visitor Record scores 2.9. Once the 90 day restoration window closes, the route left is a Temporary Resident Permit at 9.2.
- Super Visa scores 5.3. With an earlier refusal on the record it becomes an inadmissibility question at 9.2.
- Any refusal that stands becomes judicial review at 10.0, on a filing window of 15 or 60 days.
So do I need an immigration consultant in Canada
The honest answer is that it depends far less on which application you are filing than most people assume, and far more on three things that have nothing to do with the form.
What is already on your record. A previous refusal anywhere in the world, a gap in status, a question you answered loosely on an earlier application, a period of work that was not authorised. Any of these turns a routine filing into one where what you disclose matters more than what you attach. This is the single most common reason a low scoring application goes wrong in our practice.
Whether a clock is running. Restoration closes at 90 days. A fairness letter gives you days, not weeks. Judicial review is 15 or 60 days depending on where the decision was made. A deadline does not care how strong your case is, and it is the one category of problem that cannot be fixed later.
Whether you can say where your file is weak. Most people can describe their situation. Fewer can name the part an officer will not believe without more proof. If you cannot point at that part yourself, nobody is checking it.
None of that appears in a score out of 10, and none of it is visible from a checklist. It is why the index is built to describe applications and the consultation is built to look at files.
Bring the file, not the form.
If anything about your situation concerns you, a consultation is the point at which somebody reads your actual history against the rules rather than guessing from a score.
What the five factors are, briefly
The full method, the weights and the reasoning are on the index page, so this is the short version.
Five factors, each scored 1 to 5 and then weighted: forms and evidence at 15 percent, officer discretion at 25, refusal exposure at 25, deadline pressure at 10, and cost of getting it wrong at 25. The weighted figure is spread across a 1 to 10 scale.
Notice that refusal exposure and cost of getting it wrong carry half the score between them. That is deliberate, and it is the reason the numbers behave the way they do. Complexity is not really a question of how many boxes there are to fill in. It is a question of what happens when one of them is filled in wrongly, and how much work it takes to undo.
It is also why Super Visa sits at 5.3 rather than lower. The form is not complicated. The income threshold and the insurance rules are where people come unstuck, and neither of those is visible from the application itself.
Where the scores land
At the low end: eTA at 1.6, Visitor Visa from inside Canada at 2.7, Visitor Record at 2.9, PR Card Renewal at 3.0, PGWP at 3.3.
In the middle, the ones people underestimate: work permit extension and study permit extension at 4.0, citizenship at 4.5, Super Visa at 5.3, visitor visa at 5.8.
At the complex end: Express Entry at 7.8, spousal sponsorship at 9.5, humanitarian and compassionate at 9.6, a procedural fairness letter at 9.7, and a flat 10 for judicial review, appeals, removals, pre-removal risk assessments and refugee claims.
Look at the top of that list again. Almost everything scoring above 9 is something that went wrong earlier and is now being put right. That is the shape of the whole index, and it is the argument for care at the bottom of the scale rather than at the top.
What a score is not
It is not a view on your file. Two people filing the same form can be in completely different positions, and a green application becomes a complex one the moment there is a refusal, a gap in status, or something on the record that needs explaining.
It is not a prediction of approval. A low score does not mean you will be approved. Prepared properly these are usually approved, which is a different claim, and preparing one properly still means reading the rules against your own facts and being straight about where the file is weak.
It is not an official or industry measure. These are our scores, from Dikshit Soni, RCIC R536007, built on years in this industry and the ground reality of the files SAAB Immigration runs. If you already know immigration well, the numbers may tell you nothing. They are here for the general applicant, as a yardstick for what you are up against before you start.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an immigration consultant in Canada for a simple application?
It depends on your record rather than on the form. If there is no previous refusal anywhere, no gap in status, no earlier answer you are unsure about and no deadline running, a low scoring application is usually not complex to prepare. That is still not advice to file alone, because a simple application handled wrongly is refused, and a refusal scores in the complex band. If anything concerns you, book a consultation.
Does a low score mean I should file it myself?
No. The score describes the application, not what you should do about it. A 2.9 means that application is usually not complex when it is prepared properly. It says nothing about your history, your timing or the parts of your file an officer will want proved.
Where do the scores come from?
From Dikshit Soni, RCIC R536007, scoring five factors from 1 to 5 against the files SAAB Immigration actually runs, then weighting them into a figure out of 10. It is our own judgement and experience, not an official measure. The breakdown is shown on every application page under “How we scored this”.
Why do refused applications score so high?
Because a refusal changes what you are filing. The next step is set by the officer’s notes, the deadlines are fixed and short, and the cost of getting it wrong a second time is much higher than the first. Refusal exposure and cost of getting it wrong carry half the weighting between them, so anything that follows a refusal lands near the top of the scale.
Can a score change for my application?
The published score for an application type does not change from person to person, but the application you are filing can change. File an extension after the permit expires and you are filing restoration at 9.1 instead. Receive a fairness letter and you are answering that letter at 9.7. The tool above shows where each of those lands.
Is a consultant required by IRCC?
No. You are entitled to file your own application, and nothing on this site suggests otherwise. If you do use a representative for a fee, they must be authorised, which for a consultant means a CICC licence. Dikshit Soni is RCIC R536007.
Sources
- SAAB Case Complexity Index™, scores and method, saabimmigration.ca/case-complexity-index/
- College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants, public register of licensees, college-ic.ca
- Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, section 182, restoration of temporary resident status
- Federal Courts Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection Rules, application for leave and judicial review filing periods
Related reading
These pages carry their own complexity score at the top, with the most common reason each one fails.
Check the score, then check your own file.
If anything concerns you, a consultation puts your history and your timing in front of a licensed consultant before a date passes. Call +1 (877) 683-7222 (SAAB) or book below.
This is general information about how SAAB Immigration Services Inc. scores application complexity, and not advice on any individual file. Immigration decisions turn on their own facts. Dikshit Soni, RCIC R536007, SAAB Immigration Services Inc., Kitchener and Mississauga, Ontario.
