Federal Skilled Workers

It is overwhelming for most applicants to check their eligibility for every single program available for Canadian skilled immigration. Consider this as a beginner’s guide to federal and provincial skilled immigration programs in Canada:

Federal skilled immigration is based on a points matrix that allocates the greatest number of points based on criteria such as age, education, language proficiency in English and/or French, work experience inside Canada and overseas work experience.

Each applicant’s profile is allocated points based on various criteria. Although many profiles can become eligible under the Federal skilled immigration program called “Express Entry”, most applicants will obtain enough points under this system to be selected and invited to apply for permanent residency to Canada.

Just to give a perspective on this Express Entry immigration program, there are over 134,000 eligible applicants in the pool at any given time, and only 3000 to 4000 top ranking profiles are selected each month. Since 2008 more than 70,000 candidates in the Express Entry pool have been invited to apply for permanent residency to Canada.

This figure is expected to increase per year over the next 3-4 years. Under the Federal Express Entry program, all applicants are checked for eligibility under three main streams: Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Worker, and Federal Skilled Trades.