Getting a Canada or UK visa from Cameroon

Which route fits you

Canada: Express Entry. No job offer needed. You are scored on age, education, language and work history, and the highest scores are invited. Strong French in all four skills adds extra points on top of your language score, and more if you also have moderate English results (IRCC: Express Entry for French-speaking skilled workers). That is why a bilingual Cameroonian should test in both languages. French-language proficiency is also a category for targeted rounds open only to candidates with a fairly high level in all four French skills (category-based selection).

Canada: Mobilité francophone. A work permit for French speakers with a job offer outside Quebec. The employer needs no labour market impact assessment, almost any occupation qualifies (primary agriculture jobs at the lower skill levels are excluded), and you need intermediate spoken and listened French (IRCC: eligibility).

Canada: Quebec. Quebec selects its own skilled workers outside Express Entry: you apply to Quebec first, then to IRCC for permanent residence (IRCC: Quebec-selected skilled workers).

UK: Skilled Worker. A licensed employer must sponsor you before you apply, and you must be paid whichever is higher, the general threshold or the going rate for your job. Care worker recruitment from overseas has closed, whatever an agent in Douala or Yaoundé tells you.

UK: Health and Care Worker. For doctors, nurses and other eligible health roles. You do not pay the immigration health surcharge (gov.uk: Health and Care Worker visa).

→ Work out your Canadian points: try it with French only, then with both languages, and see the difference.

What it costs from Cameroon

Fees are set in Canadian dollars and pounds; your bank converts them at its own rate when you pay.

The health surcharge is paid upfront for the whole visa, and over three years it costs more than the visa itself.

What is different for Cameroon

Your police clearance takes two steps. IRCC accepts only the Police Clearance Certificate issued by the Judicial Police in Yaoundé; a Bulletin n°3 on its own is not accepted. First get the Bulletin n°3 from the Ministry of Justice: in Yaoundé if you were born in the English-speaking regions, in Adamaoua, North or Far North, or are a foreign national; otherwise at the court for your place of birth. Then take it to the Directorate of the Judicial Police (PJ Elig-Essono) in Yaoundé for the certificate itself (IRCC Cameroon).

From abroad, someone in Cameroon has to do it for you. Cameroonian citizens outside the country send their original birth certificate and a power of attorney to a person in Cameroon, who follows the same two steps (IRCC Cameroon). Choose someone you trust with an original document.

Speaking English does not exempt you from the UK test. Cameroon is not on the list of majority-English-speaking countries whose nationals meet the requirement automatically (Appendix English Language). You need a Secure English Language Test from an approved provider (gov.uk: SELT), or a degree taught in English that has been confirmed by the UK's qualification assessment provider. Canada exempts nobody either.

Your Canadian language tests are fixed. TEF Canada or TCF Canada for French; CELPIP, IELTS General Training or PTE Core for English (IRCC: language tests). Results expire, so book them when you are ready to enter the pool.

A TB test is required for longer UK stays. The only approved clinic is IOM Cameroon in Yaoundé; a certificate from any other clinic is refused (TB testing in Cameroon).

Your degree needs assessing for Canada. Education from outside Canada needs an Educational Credential Assessment from a designated organisation, such as World Education Services, the International Credential Assessment Service of Canada or IQAS (IRCC: ECA).

The UK Ancestry visa is open to you in principle, and rarely in practice. Cameroon is in the Commonwealth, which the rule requires, but you also need a grandparent born in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man (Appendix UK Ancestry). A grandparent born in British-administered Southern Cameroons does not qualify.