What is Express Entry
On January 1st, 2015, a new immigration system named Express Entry was developed by the Canadian government for highly skilled workers and employees in and outside of Canada. This new immigration system will manage permanent residence applications for qualified and skilled workers/immigrants. An important part of this process is selecting qualified foreign workers and employees and putting them in a position to immigrate and fill in work positions as soon as possible, based on their skills and strengths. Moreover, if you have the requirements to qualify for this system you and your family can start a new life full of opportunities and a bright future in Canada. We at TCA can help you achieve this by evaluating your eligibility for Express Entry.

Express Entry procedure
Step 1: Create your profile
Providing information and creating a profile is the first step of expressing your interest in coming to Canada. Skilled workers are required to provide information about their work experience, strengths, language ability, education level, skills and any detail related to this process. Individuals will be ranked based on qualifications for the federal economic immigration programs, they will be ranked according to their economic success, and individuals who place high ranking and those who qualified will receive an invitation to apply for their permanent residency.
The reason why Canada chooses this method of ranking is to find out who will be the most successful among others economically. Therefore, there is no guarantee that every candidate will be chosen and invited for permanent residency, it will be mainly depended on their ranking and qualifications.
To see if you are qualified for the Express Entry system you must at least have one of the three federal economic immigration programs which are:
• Federal Skilled Worker Program
• Federal Skilled Trades Program
• Canadian Experience Class
Furthermore, when you submitted your profile, you will get a score based on your work experience, strengths, language ability, education level, skills, and other criteria. This score will determine your place in the Express Entry pool based on your score and qualifications.
Step 2: invitation to apply
You will be invited to apply if you are either nominated by a province or your score is among higher ranks in the Express Entry pool. If you are invited to apply you will have an opportunity to get your permanent residence by submitting an online application in one of these programs:
• Federal Skilled Worker Program
• Federal Skilled Trades Program
• Canadian Experience Class
• Express Entry streams of the Provincial Nominee Program
Those who want to apply will have 60 days to apply for their permanent residency via ITA (invitation to apply). Those who are not picked among top ranks to apply got permanent residency after one year may re-submit their online profile and enter the Express Entry pool again (if they are still eligible and can meet the criteria).

Express Entry process
After creating your profile and submitting it conforming you are qualified and eligible for the process immigrants would have to wait to receive their ITA. The Express Entry process will give you scores based on your applications and it will inform individuals of their ranking and invite them to apply for permanent residency in Canada. This invitation lasts 60 days and you must have all the documents relating to becoming a permanent resident ready. Contact our team for more information!

Express Entry qualification
Before going over this process and applying individuals need to make sure that they are qualified for this procedure. To qualify you need a score of 67 points out of 100 points and by obtaining this you can apply for the process.
• Language skills (28 points)
Communication is the most important, whether you know French or English which are Canada’s two official languages. This will help you get the highest point on the list, and it will help you with your working environment.
• Education (25 points)
If you went to school in Canada for a period of time you must provide documentation such as a degree, diploma, or a certificate from a Canadian school.
• Work experience (15 points)
You can get points if you’ve worked full time (at least 30 hours per week) for a period of time. This applies to part time if it is 15 hours per week in a span of 24 months).
• Age (12 points)
You will earn points based on your age.
• Job offers in Canada (10 points)
If you have a job offer or arranged employment in Canada for 1 year from a Canadian business or employer.
• Adaptability (10 points)
You or your partner by immigrating to Canada you can earn points by adapting to the new environment.

Express Entry eligibility
Express entry requires at least one of the following federal economic immigration programs. This also depends on the class you wish to apply to, but for all the programs you must be committed to living in one of Canada’s provinces (other than Quebec).
The information below will present some of the more important requirements for each federal economic program:
Federal Skilled Worker Program:
This program’s minimum requirements focus on:
• skilled work experience
• education
• language ability.
You must meet all these requirements to be eligible for this program. And once the requirements are met, they will analyze your application based on:
• age
• education
• job offers
• work experience and skill
• language (English or French)
You will earn points for each of these requirements, and the points will be out of 100 making the passing mark 67. Lastly, individuals need to prove that they have enough funds to support themselves and their family unless they have a valid job offer from someone in Canada.
Federal Skilled Trades Program:
Work experience:
Skilled workers for this program must meet the language and work experience. Work experience means at least two years of work experience (or an equal amount of part time) within five years. In this period of time your work experience must be for paid work (unpaid/volunteer work does not count)
Language ability:
For this section you need a score of Canadian Language Benchmark 5 for speaking and listening, and Canadian Language Benchmark 4 for reading and writing. After taking the test keep in mind that the score will be valid for 2 years.
Proof of funds:
Lastly, proof of funds is required in order to apply for this program. Unless you have a valid job offer in Canada or you are working legally in Canada you must have enough funds to be able to support yourself and your family in Canada.

Canadian Experience Class
Minimum requirements:
Minimum requirements for Canadian Experience class includes the following
Language and work experience:
You need the required language levels for the job you are interested in for each language ability.

• Writing
• Reading
• Listening
• Speaking
  You must have at least one year of work experience in Canada (in the last three years before you apply). Either full time one year or the same amount in part-time work.
  You will NOT be eligible for the Canadian experience class if you obtain any of the following:
• working without authorization
• refugee claimant in Canada
• gaining work experience without temporary resident status in Canada
  Express Entry recent changes
  These changes were made recently on October 20th, 2020:
  You can now earn additional and extra points for advanced and good French skills.
  Scoring NCLC 7 or higher on the skills required for French (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) will result in:
  • 25 extra points if you scored CLB 4 or lower in the English test (or if you did not take the English test)
  OR
  • 50 extra points if you scored CLB 5 or higher in the English test (listening, speaking, reading, and writing)
  These are additional points you get for official languages.
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Express Entry eligibility
After you get invited to apply for Express Entry, you are required to have a written statement that you possess the money required in order for you and your family members to come to Canada.
For this statement you require official letters from the bank or the institution where you are keeping the money.
The letter must include their contact information, your name, any debts or loans, balance for the account, the date the account was opened, account number, the average balance for the past 6 months, and all of this information need to be printed bank’s letterhead.
After submitting your documents, you will get the information about the fees you need to pay, and it will be listed what each fee is for. This list includes:
• Biometric fees
• You and your family’s processing fee (for each family member you are required to pay $3,492)
• Permanent residence fee

Refunds
In any case if an application is not complete the system will inform you of this and it will refund you the processing fee, and your permanent residence fee.
Biometrics fee
Biometrics simply includes fingerprints and photographs. Keep in mind this is required for any type of visa you are applying to if you are from certain countries.
Fees for Biometrics are listed below:
• 1 person $85 (CAN)
• Family $170 (CAN)
• Group (3 or more) $225 (CAN)

Express Entry CRS score improvement
The comprehensive ranking system is only allowed to rank eligible individuals for Express Entry to Canada. You are required to calculate your score before applying for Express Entry to discover if you are eligible to apply or not. Moreover, individuals need to keep in mind that the most important way of improving your application or your score is to provide accurate documents which will include specific and certain information required for your application.
Categories below can help you improve these scores:
• Work experience
Express entry applications are involved with economic immigration streams, work experience (years you have spent working) is very important. However, misrepresenting your experience or inaccurate experience will prevent you from applying to permanent residency
• Job offers
An acceptable job offer that can help you improve your score. This job offer needs to be form a Canadian employer. If you have trouble finding a job offer you can search in Canada’s job bank to connect with Canadian employers.
• Language (English and French)
IELTS score has an impact on your application for Express Entry. A good IELTS score and results can get you up to 160 points. You can take IELTS as many times as you would like, the system allows you to update your score even after you submitted your application to the pool.
• Studying in Canada/ Education level (degrees and certificate)
Having a post-secondary certificate from Canada can impact your score significantly. Though if you already have one it can give you up to 120 points.
• Spouse
This may not apply to all individuals but having spouse can get you some points depending on you and your spouse’s situation.
• Provincial Nominee
If you have a provincial nomination you can obtain up to 600 points. Though, applying to a provincial nomination is completely a different process.

Can you apply to Express Entry twice?

Keep in mind no one is allowed to apply for Express entry twice. Under some circumstances, however, you can apply under your spouse IF they are an eligible candidate, and there are some families who can have two profiles depending on the situation.