Surest Route To Live and Work in Canada Permanently

This article will show you how to immigrate to Canada via the Express Entry Program. The Canadian government via the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada is using this scheme to invite qualified persons to come and live and work in Canada. If you even have a family of your own, you can move permanently with them to Canada.

The application process for the Canadian Express Entry program is straightforward. When you are successful, you get the Canadian Permanent Resident (PR) status. Therefore, you have almost all the rights of a Canadian citizen. Additionally, these schemes set you on the path to becoming a Canadian citizen after some years of staying as a permanent resident.

Under the Express Entry (EE), there are three sub-programs and each one represents a different immigration route to Canada. These programs include the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) Program, the Federal Skilled Trades Program, and the Canadian Experience Class scheme.

ALSO SEE: High Paying Jobs in Canada That Don’t Require a University Degree.

Now that you have an idea of what the Canadian Express Entry can do for you, I will explain how to apply for it. I will also share the details of the requirements and application process.

So, what is Canada Express Entry Scheme for Immigration?

Well, that has already been explained in the first few paragraphs. So, I will talk about how the system works, most especially how it ranks you against other applicants. You need to meet some minimum requirements under several categories as follows:

Age, Education, Work Experience, English Proficiency, Proof of Fund, and Criminal Record.

The process can be divided into five (5) broad steps as follows:

1. Check your eligibility status
2. Prepare your documents for the process
3. Upload your documents and submit your profile
4. Receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA)
5. Apply for Permanent Residency

ALSO SEE: Most Employable Degrees in Canada.

Check your Eligibility Status for Canada Express Entry Program

The IRCC website has a form that helps you check if you are eligible to apply for the program. The form takes in some information from you and calculates a score for you. You will get a score out of a possible maximum of 1200.

You will get marks for your level of education, age, language exam result, and so on. Right now, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the portal is not open. Therefore, you cannot use the form to check your eligibility. The next post that I will publish here will show you how to check your eligibility status.

Before you do this, you might want to sit for the IELTS exam so that you can know the scores to enter in the form. If you don’t have a score, whatever CRS you get is just an estimate. You don’t know if you will end up getting the scores you enter.

Prepare your Documents for Express Entry

After confirming that you are eligible to apply, collate your documents for the application process. The documents that you need include the following:

• International Passport
• Language Test Results for Reading, Speaking, Writing and Listening (usually IELTS)
• Prepare education documents (certificates and transcripts). You will send these to the World Education Service (WES) or International credential Assessment Service (ICAS) to evaluate. The report that you get from them is what you will give as part of your application for the immigration process.
• If you have a job offer from a Canadian employer, you have to show proof of that.
• If you get a provincial nomination, you have to prove that in your application too.

You should also need to get the following documents when you get an Invitation to Apply (ITA):

• Police certificates from the appropriate authorities
• Medical exams conducted designated test centers
• Proof of funds

Upload your documents and submit your profile

When the application portal, you should go online to input your information. At this stage, you are not required to upload your documents. The portal is available here.

After you submit your profile, you will enter the pool of candidates waiting to be picked in the periodic draws. You score against the scores of the other in the pool will determine how early you are invited to apply.

Receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA)

Based on the information you enter in your application, you may get an invitation to apply for permanent residency. If your score is high enough, you will be invited to submit an application.

When you get the ITA, you have a maximum of two months to submit your application.

Apply for Permanent Residency

It is at this stage that you will be required to submit the proof of everything you entered in your application. This is the stage where you submit your language test result, police report, proof of fund, and the other documents mentioned earlier.

The main challenge for many people at this point is proof of funds. This is the amount of money that the Canadian government expects you to come with. You need this money to settle down in the first few months when you don’t have a job yet. The amount that you need as POF depends on whether you are going alone or with your family.

If it is only you, then all you need is $12,960. Of course, that is Canadian Dollars. A family of two needs only $16,135 CAD. If you have more than 2 family members you want to immigrate with, then you should check the POF table on this page.

If you can’t raise such amount of money, you have only one option that allows you to migrate to Canada without any money or POF.

Important things to note:

For work experience, you must be able to demonstrate that you have worked for at least 3 years in the last 5 years. You can show proof of this by getting a reference letter from your employer.

You also need to show that the work experience is full-time, otherwise, you need to provide an equivalent number of part-time work hours.

Finally, if you have any other questions to ask, do not hesitate to ask in the comment section. Someone in our team of immigration/travel experts will respond to your comment.