Express Entry

How Express Entry works:

Potential Candidates first create an online Express Entry Profile to let IRCC know about your skills, work experience, language ability, education and other details.

Before doing this, it is important to take a language test in English or French. If you were educated outside of Canada, you may also need to have your education assessed against Canadian standards.

For more information regarding organizations where you can get your education assessed, please visit the IRCC Educational Credential Assessment page.

If you meet the criteria of one of the federal economic immigration programs subject to Express Entry, you will be placed in a pool of pre-screened candidates.

Federal Economic Programs are:

  • The Federal Skilled Worker Program,
  • The Federal Skilled Trades Program,
  • The Canadian Experience Class, and
  • A portion of Provincial Nominee Programs.

If you do not already have a Canadian job offer or a nomination from a province/territory, you must register with the Government of Canada’s Job Bank. Job Bank is an easy, online search tool that will help to get matched with jobs in Canada based on your skills, knowledge and experience.

You will be given a score to determine your place in the Express Entry pool using a Comprehensive Ranking System that includes factors known to contribute to economic success (such as language, education, and work experience).

There will be regular draws of Candidates from the Express Entry pool, inviting them to apply for permanent residence. Candidates with the highest scores, including those who have a valid job offer or a provincial/territorial nomination, will be invited to apply.

Your Express Entry profile will be valid for 12 months. During that time, you will need to update your profile if circumstances change, such as your level of education or language test results.

Important: Filling out an online Express Entry profile is not a guarantee that you will qualify for permanent residence. If you are invited to apply for permanent residence, information provided in your Express Entry profile will be verified at that time.

Selected candidates are invited to submit an electronic application for permanent residence:

You will receive an Invitation to Apply for permanent residence if you:

  • have a valid job offer from an employer in Canada (subject to the Labour Market Impact Assessment process in place at that time); or
  • have been nominated by a province or territory; or
  • are among the top ranked in the pool based on your skills and experience.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada will process the majority of complete permanent residence applications received within six months or less.

Candidates in the Express Entry pool who do not receive an Invitation to Apply for permanent residence after 12 months can resubmit their profile and re-enter the pool if they still meet the criteria.

Invitation to Apply for Canadian Permanent Residency:

An Invitation to Apply is offered to any candidate in the Express Entry pool who has been selected to apply for immigration to Canada by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) through the Express Entry immigration selection system. Invitations to Apply are issued on a priority basis when IRCC performs a draw from the Express Entry pool, which is made up of candidates who have made an expression of interest in immigrating to Canada.

An Invitation to Apply should not be confused with initial eligibility to enter the Express Entry pool, nor should it be confused with a job offer from a Canadian employer or a provincial nomination certificate. The Invitation to Apply is an auto-generated letter issued to Express Entry candidates through their Express Entry profiles.

How to obtain an Invitation to Apply (ITA):

Only candidates eligible to immigrate to Canada by meeting the minimum entry criteria of a federal economic immigration program may enter the Express Entry pool, where they are ranked according to the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). The CRS ranks candidates under the following components:

There are a total of 1,200 points available under the Comprehensive Ranking System, up to 600 of which are awarded for either a provincial nomination or for qualifying under any of the additional points factors and up to 600 of which are awarded for core human capital factors and skill transferability factors.

The government of Canada issues Invitations to Apply to certain candidates in the Express Entry pool according to their ranking by publishing a minimum CRS cut-off score at the time of the draw and notifying those candidates who have been invited to apply for permanent residence.

Documentation required to submit an online PR Application after receiving the ITA:

All candidates who receive an Invitation to Apply are currently required to submit the following supporting documents along with their application, along with government processing fees:

  • Valid passport
  • Birth certificate
  • Language test results
  • Documentation attesting to work experience
  • Police clearance certificate(s)
  • Upfront medical receipt
  • Photographs of principal applicant and family members

Depending on the program under which a candidate was issued an Invitation to Apply and the information provided in his or her Express Entry profile, additional documentation may be required.

Language Tests:

Double check that the Language test results will be valid on the date you plan to apply for permanent residence. In case your results expire before, then you should:

  • Be tested again
  • Apply before your test results expire, or
  • Decline the invitation and go back into the pool to be considered in the future.

If you apply for permanent residence with a language test result that has expired, IRCC will refuse your application.

Police Certificates:

You will need to get police certificates for you and each of your family member applying with you, who are over 18 years of age. You must get a police certificate from each country or territory where you have lived for more than six or more consecutive months since the age of 18.

In some countries, it can take a long time to get police certificates (best example is United States of America, it takes a minimum of 2 months for them to process the police certificate.

The 90 day deadline:

It is important to note that from the date the ITA is issued there is only a 90-day period in which to apply and submit all supporting documents. IRCC has indicated that no extensions will be granted.

Because of this limited time period, candidates are encouraged to begin collecting these documents and ensuring they are in good order before an Invitation to Apply for Canadian permanent residence is issued. If a candidate misses the 90-day deadline, the Invitation to Apply for permanent residence that was issued to him or her is no longer valid and he or she will have to re-enter the Express Entry pool.

Misrepresentation:

If the information provided by the potential candidate turns out to be false, this is known as misrepresentation and, depending on the nature and severity of the false claim, carries penalties. The purpose of the misrepresentation provisions is to ensure that applicants provide complete, honest, and truthful information in every manner when applying for entry into Canada, and to ensure the integrity of Canadian immigration programs.

A potential candidate who has been found to have provided false information going into the Express Entry pool can be banned from re-entering the pool for five years. Therefore, it is hugely important to provide accurate and correct information always.

An applicant may be found inadmissible to Canada due to misrepresentation for directly or indirectly misrepresenting or withholding material facts relating to a relevant matter that induces or could induce an error in the processing of his or her application. The applicant is responsible for ensuring that the application is truthful and that the supporting documents are genuine, and he or she may be found to have misrepresented him or herself whether or not that misrepresentation was intentional.

The scope of misrepresentation is not limited to such cases. In cases of possible misrepresentation, the applicant may be given the opportunity to respond to concerns raised about his or her application.

Acceptance of an Invitation to Apply:

The original profile information will remain for 90 days after the Invitation to Apply is issued. Candidates will have this length of time to submit a complete and accurate application along with all supporting documents. The submission of the complete application is considered the acceptance.

Once all portions of the document checklist are uploaded and complete, applicants are given the option to submit an application. The option to submit is not available until after all fields are accounted for. An Acknowledgment of Receipt (AOR) will be automatically issued once the file is submitted. IRCC will review the application and determine whether or not it is both complete and eligible. IRCC aims to complete this process within six months of the applicant having submitted his or her application.

Expiration of an Invitation to Apply:

If no application is made by that time, it will be deleted. Candidates who do not decline an Invitation to Apply and who do not apply within 90 days will see that the Invitation to Apply will expire. At this point, candidates who still wish to immigrate to Canada through Express Entry will have to complete and submit a new Express Entry profile and be accepted to the pool again in order to be considered in future rounds of invitations. To re-enter the pool, candidates will have to still meet the minimum criteria.

Declining an Invitation to Apply:

Candidates who decide to decline an Invitation to Apply will have their profiles placed back into the Express Entry pool to be considered in future rounds of invitations, as long as they still meet the minimum criteria of a federal economic immigration program.

There is no guarantee that candidates will receive another Invitation to Apply at a later date. Declining an invitation, however, will not have a negative effect on whether or not candidates could be invited to apply at a later date..

Sponsorship Applications

If you are a citizen or permanent resident of Canada and at least 18 years old, you can sponsor certain relatives to come to Canada. Your relatives can live, study and work in Canada if they become permanent residents.

If you sponsor a family member to immigrate to Canada, you must provide proof that you can:

  • meet basic needs—such as food, clothing and shelter—for yourself and your family,
  • support your relative financially and
  • make sure your spouse or relative does not need to ask for financial help from the government.

Find out if you are eligible to sponsor your family member, contact Juthika Rajwade for further information.