I am a British citizen living inside the UK. I wish to immigrate to Canada and become a Canadian citizen. I am in a long distance relationship with my partner who I have visited before and wish to stay with in Canada, and we plan to eventually apply for civil partnership or common law partnership (I am unsure as to the differences between these two partnerships, if any).
I am over the age of 18 and have a Level 6 qualification (BSc Software Engineering), and I currently work as a software developer with some work experience under my belt. I have no debts to pay other than my student loans. I don't drive as of yet however I plan to begin lessons very soon.
I have looked online for steps that I would need to take to become a Canadian citizen, but nothing is in one place and conflicting information can be confusing. I would greatly appreciate some help on the matter, and can give additional information on my current situation on request.
EDIT:
Thanks for the information. I've looked up my immigration options, and according to my choices (on the Government of Canada site - http://www.cic.gc.ca/ctc-vac/getting-started.asp) I'd be able to sign up for Express Entry, but I'd only be able to do so if I have had two years of continuous employment in my current position (Skill level A, Software development). I did some more digging around regarding this, and found this article:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=664&top=29
Which states:
“Full-time” means at least 30 hours of paid work in one week. One year of full-time work is at least 1560 hours.
Now, where I work, I put in 40+ hours a week. Does this mean that I will be able to accrue enough hours to equal the equivalent of 2 years of full-time work in just 1.5 years? Also, does it factor in paid holidays?