EXPRESS ENTRY
Express Entry Immigration to Canada
Express Entry allows for eligible candidates to apply immediately, without waiting for those ahead of them. This means that if you are a strong candidate, you will be invited to apply for Permanent Residence before others who may be less qualified. The Express Entry system allows the best candidates to proceed to the “front of the line up”; which is good for you, but also good for Canada’s immigration goals.
In order to be eligible for Express Entry, you must meet the minimum criteria for one of these 3 economic streams of immigration:
- The Canadian Experience Class
- The Federal Skilled Trades Class
- The Federal Skilled Worker Class
If you meet the minimum criteria for one of these classes, you are able to apply through Express Entry.
Territories and provinces can also recruit people from the express entry system, so as to meet the needs of their local labour market. This means you can be selected to apply under one of the coveted Provincial Nominee Programs
Process and Timeline
If you meet the minimum criteria for one of these classes, an immigration consultant can help you apply through Express Entry. Check CIC Processing time here.
Each month, CIC will assign a minimum cut-off for candidates in the pool. Your ranking in the pool is determined by a number of different factors, but is mainly dependent on your:
- Work Experience
- Education
- Language Level
- Age
- Job Offers
- Provincial Nominee Sponsorship
The most common and well-planned route to take in Express Entry (EE) is to first be placed in the EE Waiting Pool, then work on improving your EE score by obtaining a PNP Sponsorship, job offer, or more work experience. Once you have been accepted to the Pool, you will be free to stay there for 1 year. After that period, you will be asked to exit the pool and reapply.
If you receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) while in the EE Pool, you will have 90 days to submit an application to CIC for Permanent Residence under one of the above programs. If you do not submit an application within the 90 day time limit, your application is denied and you are exited from the EE Pool.
Stage 1 – You Must Complete An Online Express Entry Profile
As a potential candidate, you are required to complete an online express entry profile. It will help you to provide useful information about your:
- Work experience
- Skills
- Education
- Language ability, and
- Other useful information that may be needed.
If you meet any of the criteria listed above, then you may be accepted. You are also encouraged to promote yourself to potential employers in many ways like recruiters, job boards etc.
For an offer of employment to be accepted in express entry and received points, the employment agency must need an LMIA from ESDC (although, there are few exceptions to this rule).
You don’t need to pay any LMIA fee if you are applying to be a permanent resident.
Note: if you are qualified for the express entry pool, you won’t be guaranteed to apply for permanent residence. Those applying for permanent residency must meet the basic admissibility and eligibility criteria as clearly stipulated in Canada’s immigration law.
Stage 2 – The Best Candidate Will Be Invited To Apply For Permanent Residence
You will be ranked with other candidates in the pool through a system known as ‘comprehensive ranking system’. It is a point-based system, in which people are awarded points using the information they provided at their profile.
Any person with the highest score in the pool will be guaranteed an invitation to apply. They will get some points for:
- A valid offer of employment and/ or
- Skills and experience factors
- A nomination by either a territory or province
- Additional points for:
- Qualifying education in Canada
- A valid job offer or
- A nomination by a territory or province
These additional points are very important, as they will make you to rank high to the extent that you will be invited to apply during the next round of invitations for eligible candidates.
If you are invited to apply, you will have up to 90 days to submit your applications for permanent residence.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada will process a good number of completed applications (this means that if you supply all the required supporting documents, it would be processed in six months or less).
You can stay in the pool for 1 year or 12 months. If you weren’t invited to apply for permanent residence within this period, then you may have to resubmit a new express entry profile for a quick processing time.
Comprehensive Ranking System and Entry Requirements
This includes a comprehensive list of those candidates that wish to migrate to Canada, but who are yet to be pre-assessed. They can get points through various criteria, and the most ranking candidates will receive invitations to apply.
To be chosen, you need to satisfy some basic criteria- all the entry criteria must be satisfied by you, including having the needed scores. Calculate your express entry points here
Pool Entry Criteria
To participate in the pool, you must meet any of the federal immigration programs criteria namely:
- The federal skilled trades program
- The Canadian experience class, and
- The federal skilled worker program
Comprehensive Ranking System
This is a point-based system that will be used to score and assess your profile in the express entry pool. The duty of the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) is to assess all the information you have provided including:
- Education
- Language ability
- Work experience
- Skills and other factors
It is important to note that each of these factors plays a unique role in your economic success when you arrive in Canada. You will get additional points if you are nominated by a territory or province or if you receive a new employment offer.
Invitations to apply for permanent residence are usually sent to high ranking candidates in the express entry pool. If you are lucky to be invited, you can then submit your applications to immigrate to Canada as a permanent resident.
Comprehensive Ranking System Method
Scores are given up to the tune of 1,200. There are four important elements of the comprehensive ranking system method:
- Skills and experience factors (they are the main economic success for those wishing to immigrate to Canada)
- Common-law partner and spouse factors (such as education and language skills- the good thing is that they result in better economic success for you, the common-law partner and spouse).
- Skills transferability ( this includes work experience and education. When these factors are perfectly combined, they will guarantee higher earnings and greater possibility of being employed.
- Additional points if you get a nomination from a territory, province or a valid job offer or if you have acquired a Canadian certificate, diploma or degree.
Invitation to Apply for Skilled Immigrants
Please note that if you are invited to apply for permanent residence, you have 90 days to complete your online application. Browse about the current changes to express entry scheme.
If you are invited to apply, you will need to provide evidence of all the information you filled in the express entry profile. Your application won’t be accepted, if the information you give is different from the one in your application.
If invited to apply, you will receive a message telling you:
- The program you are invited under, and
- What you are expected to do next.
If the team discover that you didn’t present yourself well or you presented false information or you didn’t present important details, your application will be automatically declined or refused. In this case:
- Your application won’t be accepted
- You will be tagged ‘in-admissible’ , and
- You could be barred from entering Canada for the next five years for any reason.
Improving Your Score
To improve your score, you need to do a lot of things. Improving your scores remains one of the things you will need to do, that will enhance your chances of being invited to apply. For instance, you may prefer to:
- Get a job offer through:
- Job Bank or
- Marketing yourself to potential employers through private sector job boards
- Contact territories and provinces
- Get more work experience
- Improve your education level, and
- Improve your language score or skills