IRCC, Canada's immigration department, records more Korean citizens becoming permanent residents through a province's nomination than through any other route in its recent admissions data, with family sponsorship next. The Provincial Nominee Program lets provinces and territories choose newcomers to help their economies, and their streams reach beyond skilled workers to business people and students. Younger Koreans can start with International Experience Canada, a work and travel programme for young people: under Korea's current agreement, a Korean citizen may now take part twice, on longer permits than the old agreement allowed, in Working Holiday, which needs no job offer, or Young Professionals, which does.

Express Entry, the federal system that ranks skilled workers, gives points for a Korean degree only after an educational credential assessment shows what it equals in Canada. WES, one of the assessors IRCC designates, wants the transcript issued in English by your university and, where possible, sent electronically through the ICERTI or Certpia service the university uses; from Certpia, WES can open only an E-Certificate (전자증명서), and an expiry date on it can block access. For the police certificate, IRCC asks Korean nationals for the Criminal (Investigation) Records Check Report (범죄·수사경력 회보서) with its scope of reference set to "For permission of foreign country immigration and stay" (외국 입국 체류 허가용), from any police station in Korea or online.

The mistake to avoid is treating a wedding ceremony as a legal marriage. Under Korea's Civil Act, a marriage takes effect only once it is reported under the family registration law, so a couple who held a wedding but never filed the report is not married in law. IRCC counts someone as your spouse only if you are legally married; an unmarried partner can instead qualify as a common-law partner, but only after living with you continuously for a period IRCC sets. File the marriage report before any application that includes your partner.