Express Entry is a step-by-step system under which one must apply in order to immigrate to Canada. When you apply for Canadian immigration, you must meet multiple criteria set out by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the federal body that is responsible for immigration in Canada. The criteria you must meet will depend on which program you apply under. Those who wish to immigrate to Canada as economic migrants (who aren’t being sponsored by their spouse or family member living in Canada), can apply under one of the following three programs which have their own criteria:
- Federal Skilled Worker Program
- Federal Skilled Trades Program
- Canada Experience Class
This article is the first of three articles. This article will focus on the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP). Subsequent articles over the next few weeks will cover programs 2 and 3 above.
High-level steps towards immigration to Canada under the FSWP:
- Check your eligibility (as per the program)
- Language testing (part of eligibility assessment process)
- Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) (part of eligibility assessment process)
- Find NOC code – your occupational code to apply under
- Create an Express Entry profile
- Await your Invitation To Apply (ITA) issued to you by the Government of Canada (dependent upon your Comprehensive Ranking Score or CRS)
- Respond to your ITA
Check your eligibility
The first step to creating an Express Entry profile (for FSWP or the other programs) is to determine your eligibility. You must say which province/territory you are planning on living in or which province/territory you are most interested in. Eligibility involves the following:*
- You must meet minimum requirements for language ability, education and skilled work experience
- Once you meet the above criteria, you must also check if you have the minimum 67 points you need out of 100 in order to create an express entry profile. You are given points for the following factors:
- Age
- Education
- Work experience
- Whether you have a valid job offer
- English and/or French language skills
- Adaptability (how well you’re likely to settle in Canada)
Some tips for you when it comes to the FSWP:
- Language ability is also important to ensure that you have the language skills required to do a job in Canada. You have to do a test like IELTS or another IRCC-approved English language test or the TCF or another IRCC-approved French language test. The language test is made to determine your ability to speak English and to test you on reading, writing, listening and speaking
- You need a minimum overall of CLB 7 in your first official language (English or French) to apply for FSWP. If you speak a second official language, then you need a minimum of CLB 5 in the second official language
- Age is an extremely important factor. Those between the age of 18 and 35 years get maximum points for age. Those below 18 years of age and above 35 years of age may apply, however, they will get either 0 points for age (for those under 18) or will start to lose age points with each passing birthday after the age of 35 years until they have lost all of the age points
- The higher your education level, the more points you get. Please check here for points for education: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/documents/education-assessed/read-report.html Remember that your education must be assessed by a body in Canada. The Education Credential Assessment (ECA) wil get you the equivalency of your foreign academic credential with that of a Canadian credential. You can do your ECA with one of several approved organizations.
- You must have at least one year of work experience in your NOC. You get points depending on the number of years of skilled work experience you have accumulated. Be sure to check that your work experience is listed in the NOC as skilled work – TEER 0-3 (please see below on NOC)
- If you have arranged employment in Canada (a job offer), you can get points for this as well. Read online for the specific requirements that a job offer must meet
- You can also get extra points if you are married and if your spouse speaks a minimum level of English or French (CLB 4 or above) in one of Canada’s two official languages. You can also get extra points if you or your spouse have past employment or studies in Canada or close relatives in Canada
Finding NOC code
NOC stands for National Occupation Classification. NOC is a four-digit number used by the Canadian government in order to classify your job that is broken down into groups. For immigration, the main groups are:
| TEER 0 | Management occupations |
| TEER 1 | Occupations that usually require a university degree |
| TEER 2 | Occupations that usually require
● a college diploma ● apprenticeship training of 2 or more years, or ● supervisory occupations |
| TEER 3 | Occupations that usually require
● a college diploma ● apprenticeship training of less than 2 years, or ● more than 6 months of on-the-job training |
| TEER 4 | Occupations that usually require
● a high school diploma, or ● several weeks of on-the-job training |
| TEER 5 | Occupations that usually need short-term work demonstration and no formal education |
*Please remember that only those jobs at Tier 0-3 qualify for FSWP.
Additional tips on using the NOC for immigration purposes
- Depending on the work you do, the education requirements are different as Canada has a detailed classification for the skills/training you need in order to do a job in Canada. You must search for the job that matches your experience to date in the National Occupational Classification (NOC) and confirm that you have the educational requirements that Canada would expect you to have
- Skilled work experience is important as the Government wants you to contribute to the Canadian economy with the skills you will bring with you. It is not your job title that matters, but the job duties provided within your NOC code. So do not focus so much on job title, but on job duties. Also, be sure to pay attention to keywords, for example, a bachelor’s degree is required or a diploma may be required.
Creating your Express Entry profile
After you have obtained your ECA and have found your NOC code and have your language test results, you must create your express entry profile. As you are filling out your profile, you must submit your:
- First name and surname
- Contact information
- Detailed education
- Detailed work experience
- Language test results
- Dependant information
Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS):
After submitting your profile, IRCC will allocate points to you based on your language test, education, age and work experience and you will be placed in a pool with thousands of candidates who have applied for Canada. These points come under the Comprehensive Ranking System and are different from the Express Entry (67 selection factor points) referred to earlier. Many do not realize that simply being in the Express Entry pool does not necessarily mean that you will be successful. You still must get invited to apply by IRCC and there are thousands who have created profiles who have never received an invitation. Therefore, regardless of if you are eligible to apply for Express Entry, you must also determine your CRS score when deciding to proceed with entering the Express Entry pool.
The more points you have, the more likely you are to be invited and the maximum points one can achieve is 1200. What matters most is that your CRS score be above the most recent minimum cut off or the predicted scores over the next several months so that you have a chance of receiving an invitation before your profile expires. It is very difficult to predict if CRS scores will go up or down and by how much over the course of the 12 months following the date on when you created your application although many people including immigration lawyers and consultants do try to issue predictions!
Awaiting Invitation To Apply (ITA) and Responding to your ITA
Candidates above the CRS cut off score set by IRCC will be invited to apply for immigration. Candidates will have only 60 days to submit an electronic application and upload documents. Therefore, while you are in the Express Entry pool, it is highly advisable that you prepare all the documents you will need should you be invited to apply for immigration. These documents include, but not are not limited to: identity and family documents (such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc), proof of settlement funds, admissibility documents (such as police certificates and medical results).
Conclusion and Next Steps
We hope that the above article was helpful. We look forward to letting you know more soon about the other streams under which you can apply for immigration to Canada.
In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us for an assessment of your eligibility for immigration under this or other programs.
We would be happy to assist you and are available on working days, Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm GMT excluding public holidays:
Email:[email protected]
Phone call / WhatsApp: +233 55 005 5888 / +233 54 012 7766 / +233 54 013 2212.
