Apply Now: Canadian Experience Class (Express Entry)
All the information you need to know about the Canadian Experience Class immigration to Canada!
The Canadian Experience Class (CEC) allows people who have worked in Canada for at least a year to enter the country permanently. Canada’s Express Entry immigration program includes CEC.
The Canadian government recognizes the large number of outstanding people who already work there and encourages them to apply for permanent residency. These are individuals and families who have rooted themselves in Canada and have developed long-term intentions.
What is Express Entry Canada?
Using Express Entry, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) can invite qualified candidates to submit a permanent residency application.
These applicants have all formally expressed their desire to immigrate to Canada by setting up an Express Entry profile online. The Express Entry pool accepts the profiles of eligible candidates, who are then scored and rated according to the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) based on the personal data they provided.
The pool also includes applicants for the Federal Skilled Worker Class (FSWC) and Federal Skilled Trades Class (FSTC), in addition to the Canadian Experience Class. IRCC then extends invites to applicants during its Express Entry draws.
CEC Canada advantages
Under Express Entry, candidates for the Canadian Experience Class have three major benefits and one possible drawback.
Advantages:
A minimum of one year of work permit in Canada is required for applicants to the Canadian Experience Class. Because Canadian experience is a highly regarded component of the CRS, these applicants are eligible to obtain CRS points for it.
Because there is little paperwork required, applications for the Canadian Experience Class are often completed in three to four months.
Canadian Experience Class applicants are exempt from providing documentation of settlement payments, unlike FSWC and FSTC candidates.
Potential Advantages:
There is no assurance that you will be invited to apply, even if you are qualified to apply under the Canadian Experience Class. If your CRS score is below the minimum required to be invited, review our tutorial on how to boost it.
Let’s go over the prerequisites for the Canadian Experience Class, because having only one year of job experience in Canada isn’t enough.
Eligibility Criteria – Apply for the Canadian Experience Class
Candidates for the Canadian Experience Class must:
- Possess at least 12 months of recent full-time (or comparable part-time) skilled job experience in Canada. This experience must have been acquired while holding a valid work permit and must have been gained in at least one of the TEER categories 0, 1, and 3 of the National Occupational Classification (NOC). As long as they are skilled positions and the work experience was obtained legally, the one year of experience can be obtained in two distinct NOC codes;
- Consider relocating to a province other than Quebec.
- Meet the language proficiency standards for the position for speaking, reading, listening, and writing. The levels are listed in the table below, and you must pass an accepted language test to demonstrate your proficiency.
Notably, the Canadian Experience Class does not accept work experience obtained through self-employment or while enrolled in a full-time educational program.
Candidates for the Canadian Experience Class may take any of the following language exams that the IRCC has approved:
- CELPIP-General (English)
- IELTS-General (English)
- TEF (French)
- TCF (French)
Candidates can earn more points under the CRS if they can demonstrate fluency in both English and French.
Find out if you’re eligible for CEC
Candidates can earn more points under the CRS if they can demonstrate fluency in both English and French. If you want to find out if you might be eligible for the Canadian Experience Class, use our Express Entry CRS Calculator. You’ll find out if you qualify for any of the three federal economic immigration programs managed by Express Entry, including CEC, and you’ll get an idea of your potential CRS score and Express Entry competitiveness.
CEC – How to apply
Let’s examine the procedure, starting with entering Canada as a worker and ending with receiving your Permanent Resident (PR) card.
Step 1. Obtain a Canadian work permit.
Having legal authorization to work in Canada is a requirement for this program. Some people, such as those who fall under the International Experience Canada (IEC) program or the spouse or common-law partner of an international student or foreign worker in Canada, may be eligible for an open work visa. An employer-specific (‘closed’) work permit might be granted to others. Closed work permits include those issued following a favourable Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) and those issued for transfers inside the same business.
Step 2: Complete a year of work in Canada
Eleven and a half months won’t cut it; to qualify for the Canadian Experience Class, you must have at least a year of work experience (or more, if you work part-time).
Step 3: Confirm that you have met all of the other requirements
Complete your language exam. For English, candidates can take the IELTS or CELPIP test. There are now two options for learning French: TEF and TCF. Candidates may be given bonus points for their second language ability if they are able to communicate in both French and English.
Step 4: Create an Express Entry profile
The IRCC website is used to complete this stage. Your personal information will be requested, some of which is self-declared (like your employment history) and some of which requires supporting documents (like your confirmation of language proficiency).
Use our Express Entry CRS Calculator to find out if you qualify for the Canadian Experience Class and how many CRS points you may have earned.
Step 5: Improve your CRS profile and ranking.
Consult our tutorial on how to improve your CRS score if it is below the minimum required to be invited to apply.
Candidates for the Canadian Experience Class frequently don’t be invited to apply because they don’t go the extra mile and provide documentation of their educational attainment. applicants for the Federal Skilled Worker Class must produce documentation of their schooling, whereas applicants for the Canadian Experience Class are exempt from this requirement.
However, by failing to do so, CEC candidates risk losing as much as 250 CRS points, including up to 150 points for the education level alone and an additional 100 points for a combination of Canadian work experience and/or language proficiency.
These points may be given to applicants who finished their studies outside of Canada by means of an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA). To increase their chances of being invited to submit an application for permanent residence, Canadian Experience Class applicants should get an ECA or upload documentation of their Canadian educational credentials.
There are other possible ways to raise your rating, such as accruing more work experience or checking to see if you qualify for one of the Provincial Nominee Program streams connected with Express Entry, particularly those in the province where you are employed. If the province can use your knowledge and skills, you could receive a 600-point boost.
Step 6: Receive an invitation to apply
This stage may be the most exciting because you get to petition for permanent residence with your family, if applicable. The application must then be finished and submitted within 60 days. ITAs are distributed when the IRCC conducts one of its draws from the Express Entry pool.
However, your work permit application can only be submitted after you’ve submitted your permanent residence application for CEC. If your work permit is about to expire within the next four months, you can apply for a Bridging Open Work Permit to continue working for the duration of the process.
Step 7: Submit an e-application, a medical exam, and security background checks.
All Canadian Experience Class candidates are screened for potential medical and criminal grounds for exclusion. With your application, you must provide documents proving the completion of a medical examination with an IRCC-approved panel doctor.
A police background check (often referred to as a clearance certificate) from each country where you have lived for at least six months since turning 18 is also necessary. The e-application also requires comprehensive work reference letters from previous employers, which must be submitted within 60 days of receiving an ITA.
Because of the short turnaround time, it is a good idea to gather the background checks and work reference letters before obtaining an ITA.
Step 8: Your e-application is reviewed
A Canadian immigration official will notify you of any further needs after assessing your electronic application.
Step 9: Obtain permanent residency status and complete your landing.
In fewer than six months, 80% of applications made under the Canadian Experience Class are processed. A confirmation of permanent residence (COPR) document is sent to the person once their application has been accepted. When permanent residency is granted, an official at a Canadian port of entry or an IRCC office signs and dates this papers.
Step 10: Get your PR card
Following receipt of your status confirmation, you can apply for your PR card. When leaving Canada, you may present this card as proof of your Canadian residency.
Get help with your application
The Express Entry Roadmap was established as a free service to educate you about the Express Entry procedure and provide you with the information you need to make the best immigration decisions. Express Entry is used to process Canadian Experience Class applications. Register here for the Express Entry Roadmap.
Do you require help creating an application for permanent residency in Canada? If so, visit our Book an Immigration Consultant page to discover a list of suggested, qualified representatives from Quick Visa Solutions who can help you achieve your objectives.
