Express Entry is a new electronic management application system for immigration to Canada.

It is not a new immigration program. Rather, it facilitates the selection and processing of Canada’s economic immigration programs: the Federal Skilled Worker Class (formerly the Federal Skilled Worker Program), the Federal Skilled Trades Class (formerly the Federal Skilled Trades Program), the Canadian Experience Class, and a portion of the Provincial Nominee Programs. Applicants make an “expression of interest” in immigrating to Canada and, if they are eligible for at least one of the aforementioned programs, they then enter the Express Entry pool. The federal government and provincial governments, as well as Canadian employers, are then able to select candidates from this pool who will then receive an Invitation To Apply for immigration to Canada under one of the programs. Express Entry moves Canada from a first come, first served (or supply-driven) system to an invitation to apply (or demand-driven) system. Modeled on similar systems in use in Australia and New Zealand, Express Entry aims to fast track the processing of skilled immigrants deemed most likely to succeed in Canada.

To apply to Express Entry, you must satisfy certain criteria. We shall discuss this below.

Six selection factors: We will assess your application based on the selection factors in the federal Express Entry (FSWP) points grid. The selection factors are:

Your skills in English and/or French (Canada’s two official languages),
your education,
Your work experience,
Your age,
Whether you have a valid job offer, and
Your adaptability (how well you are likely to settle here).

The basic eligibility criteria are as follows:

A) You need to have your language test results ready (English or French – I shall write a separate link about this later).

B) You need to have an ECA report for your academic degrees/diplomas if they were not obtained from Canada. You can learn about the ECA process

C) You need to have at least one year continuous, full-time (at least 30 hours per week/1560 hours per year) or equivalent part-time experience in an occupation that is categorized under NOC 0, A or B in the past 10 years.

D) You need to have unfettered access to sufficient funds (that are unencumbered) depending on your family size (for the case in point here, “dependents” include your spouse and your dependent children). This money may not be borrowed from another person. You can check how much funds you need (here)

NOTE: You should be eligible under one of the Economic Immigration programs (Federal Skilled Worker Program), you need to score at least 67 points out of 100 to be eligible. So, are you eligible? Do you score at least 67/100 points? If no, I’m very sorry, you are not eligible to apply under the FSWP. If yes, keep your fingers crossed, you have another set of criteria to satisfy to be eligible for Express Entry.

Changes in Express Entry system and CRS

The recent report on 19^th November 2016 about Express Entry system and CRS made several changes towards Immigration and its policies. If a candidate does not update his/her profile, then chances are more to likely miss out an Invitation to Apply (ITA) in future.

Now it is very important to understand that the individuals who have already got an ITA will not get affected if we talk about the recent draw conducted on 16^th November 2016. There will be conditions placed for those who have already applied for. It should be known that most of the profile reflects their experiences of perfect order. Those individuals who are engaged in updating their profile will enjoy the best option to get their Immigration project approved.

Therefore, Canadian Immigration is made flexible from time to time to match the standards of Comprehensive Ranking Score(CRS).

Have you checked your Comprehensive ranking Score? As the ITAs are being issued to applicants with lower CRS, hope you are not missing out fearing that lower CRS may not get you ITA?