Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has launched the Express Entry system to manage applications for permanent residence and applicants from across the world who qualify under Federal Skilled Worker Program/ Canadian Experience Class/ Federal Skilled Trades Program or a portion of Provincial Nominee Program will be offered the Invitation to Apply for Permanent Residency by the authorities. The qualifying criteria to receive the invitation varies from Program to Program. For people to qualify under the FSWP and FSTP, the candidate must have an Employment Offer approved by the competent authorities in Canada whereas, to apply for Permanent Residency under PNP, the candidate must receive a state Nomination and for Canadian Experience Class they need to meet the selection criteria.
It will be a point-based system. A maximum of 1200 points can be allotted under the Express Entry system. Points break- up will be as follows:
- A maximum of 500 points for human capital factors like age, education, experience, and language will be awarded; 40 points will come from if an applicant has an accompanying spouse or common-law partner, and up to 80 points if the candidate holds at least one year of experience in Canada
- Transferrable skills will add another 100 points. Skills that can be used across different jobs and industries in technical and non-technical areas are usually referred to as transferrable skills
- 600 points will be awarded if the applicant has a job offer in Canada or have received nomination certificate from any of Canadian provinces
Anyone who is accepted into the Express Entry pool could get an Invitation to Apply (ITA) for permanent residence. Only the candidates who fall in the top bracket will get this ITA. The draws will be conducted every month. If the candidate has been invited to apply, the candidate will have 60 days to submit a complete Application for Permanent Residence online.
To sum up, once the online application is received it goes through the following steps:
- Step 1- Candidates create an Express Entry profile identifying their skills and qualifications in an online resume. The profile is then ranked against other applicants based on various factors that indicate that the candidate will be an asset to the Canadian workforce.
- Step 2- Those applicants that do not have a Canadian job offer from an employer will need to register in the Canada Job Bank site.
- Step 3- Assessment of every profile in the Job Bank is done to judge who could meet the criteria of a federal economic program and then upgraded with other entries in the Express Entry pool.
- Step 4- If an application is selected, the applicant will be issued an Invitation to Apply to which he/she needs to respond within 60 days’ time to qualify for permanent residence.
The entire process takes a maximum of 6 months.