Getting a Canadian or UK visa from Morocco

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 to apply. Strong French on all four skills earns additional points on top of your first-language score, and more again if your English is also solid (CRS criteria). IRCC also runs invitation rounds reserved for candidates with strong French (category-based selection), where the score needed can be very different from a general round.

Canada: Francophone Mobility (Mobilité francophone). A work permit that lets an employer outside Quebec hire you without a labour market impact assessment. You need a job offer and intermediate spoken and listening French; jobs at every skill level qualify except primary agriculture at the lower levels (IRCC eligibility).

Canada: Quebec. Quebec chooses its own skilled workers under a special agreement with Ottawa. You apply to Quebec first, and only then to IRCC for permanent residence (IRCC: Quebec-selected skilled workers). Express Entry and Francophone Mobility are for the rest of Canada.

Canada: Provincial Nominee Programs. A province nominates you, which adds enough points to make an invitation all but certain.

UK: Skilled Worker. You need a licensed employer to sponsor you first. Then the salary rule applies: you must be paid whichever is higher, the general threshold or the going rate for your specific job. Care worker recruitment from overseas has closed; anyone selling UK care jobs from Morocco cannot deliver that route.

→ Work out your Canadian points: it takes about two minutes and tells you where you stand before you spend anything.

What it costs from Morocco

Government fees are set in Canadian dollars and pounds, and your bank converts them at its own rate on the day you pay, so the dirham cost moves with the exchange rate.

The UK health surcharge is the line most people miss. Over three years it costs more than the visa itself, and it is paid upfront. For Canada, add the cost of your language test, your credential assessment and any certified translations.

What is different for Morocco

Your police certificate is the fiche anthropométrique, not a court extract. Moroccan citizens living in Morocco apply at their local police station, in person or through a representative carrying their national identity card. From abroad, apply at the nearest Moroccan embassy or consulate, or by proxy through a local police station in Morocco. The Bulletin n° 3 that a Court of First Instance issues is not accepted for immigration purposes, because it only covers offences in that one city (IRCC Morocco). The fiche is issued in French and Arabic, so IRCC needs no translation of it.

Documents in French go to Canada as they are. IRCC accepts supporting documents in English or French. Anything only in Arabic needs an English or French translation, the translator's affidavit and a certified copy of the original (IRCC help centre). The UK is stricter: any document not in English or Welsh needs a certified translation, French included (gov.uk: documents you must provide).

Book the right language test. For French, Express Entry accepts TEF Canada and TCF Canada; the general TEF or TCF does not count. For English it accepts CELPIP-General, IELTS General Training (not Academic) and PTE Core (IRCC language tests). Taking both a French and an English test can be worth it, because Express Entry scores your second official language too.

You are not exempt from the UK's English requirement. The UK only treats nationals of a short list of majority-English-speaking countries as meeting it, and Morocco is not on it (Appendix English Language). You need a Secure English Language Test from an approved provider, or a degree taught in English confirmed by Ecctis (gov.uk: knowledge of English).

A TB test is required for a long UK stay. Morocco is on the UK's tuberculosis test list, and only Home Office approved clinics count; the current list has them in Rabat (approved clinic list). A certificate from your own doctor is not accepted.

Your degree needs assessing for Canada. An Educational Credential Assessment for immigration purposes is required for the Federal Skilled Worker program and to score points for foreign education. Use a designated organisation such as WES, ICAS, IQAS, the University of Toronto's Comparative Education Service or BCIT's ICES; doctors, pharmacists and architects go through their professional body instead (IRCC: ECA).

Biometrics. Both countries collect fingerprints and a photo at visa application centres run by contractors. Use only the official finders: IRCC and gov.uk.