Yes I agree having flexibility and adaptability is very important. I also caution those who asks me about Canada. Basically it is not an 'expat' type of move. It will not be comfortable, and you must really know what is your personal reason for you to making this move. If it is purely for money/career, perhaps staying in your home country will let you do that faster, and at the comfort of your status quo. For me personally, the move was motivated by wanting a better environment, and wanting the freedom that comes with living in first world secular country. So even if I had to work in a sandwich shop for 5 years, I was still willing to take it on.

To answer your question, I am in the field of law. As Malaysia is a 'mixed law' legal system according to the accreditation body, I was assigned to write and pass 8 law subjects. This can be done at my own time within 5 years of the assessment. Currently I'm still working on this stage, but since I have gotten a job at a solo practitioner's firm, I am learning a lot as I work everyday, and I have also secured my 'articling' position, which is a mandatory 1 year 'internship' type of period under a qualified lawyer. But I know a lot of foreign trained lawyers here who having completed their required exams, but are still hunting for this articling position. It's not easy to find as it is basically a job-hunt and you are competing with local law graduates who are obviously preferred. Having said that, hundreds and thousands of professional immigrants have made it before me, my current boss included. It's just a question of how far you are willing to go and how much you are willing to sacrifice to achieve your goals.

Hi Kyu,

EE is totally open to those who have never been to Canada before, like me. EE has a system where you will given points for different aspects of your profile - age, education, working experience, English proficiency. If you have Canadian education, then you are given points based on that. But if you have a 'foreign' education like me, then you need to take an extra step where you send it to an assessment agency (eg. WES) where they will assess your foreign education and give an assessment of what is the 'Canadian equivalent' of those qualifications are. In my case my degree from a Malaysian university was assessed as a "Canadian Equivalency - 4 year bachelors degree" and my masters from another Malaysian university was assessed as "Canadian Equivalency - Master's Degree".

If you are interested to start an EE Profile, and see where what CRS point you might get, I'm more than happy to assist. It's a pretty straightforward process once you familiarize yourself with the CIC website. As a start, without spending any money, we can look into the CRS calculator tool using an estimated IELTS score as well as an estimate of your academic qualification.

But basically TLDR, a 'good candidate' for EE would be:

1. Good English - you'll need a valid IELTS result of 7777 or more to get most points.
2. Academic qualification - degree is good, a masters will give you more points, a PhD will give you max points for this factor.
3. At least 1 year continuous work in your 'field' - max points for 3 years or more
4. You have enough cash to bring to Canada - 13k CAD for single person, it goes up if you are bringing spouse , and more if you have kids. Basically they want you to land with enough funds to manage yourself while you are getting settled.

Hope that helps and good luck in your research. DM me if you think I can help I did my EE application by myself with help and guidance from the internet. Don't waste money on consultants or lawyers, if you have good English that's all you need to navigate the process. There are also plenty of guidelines and tips from forums like those on Canadavisa.com. Right now EE-Federal Skilled Worker seem to have pretty high cut off points, but they might come down again. Also there are plenty of programs to look into such as the provincial nomination programs which will give you that extra 600 points, as well as the new Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot that was just announced yesterday. (Don't be put off by the name of the program, one of the communities listed is Claresholm, AB which is a town 1.5 hours SOUTH of Calgary.)