Step 1: Take a Language Test

Overall, Express Entry system requires applicants to prove their knowledge in at least one of Canada’s two official languages, English or French.

Applicants must therefore complete a government approved language test and include the test results in their profile.

Step 2: Assess Your Foreign Education Credentials

If you had your education outside of Canada, have your diploma assessed to a similar Canadian education.

Obtaining a credential assessment is mandatory for anyone who wants to immigrate to Canada under the Federal Skilled Worker Program.

The assessment is NOT mandatory if the applicant is applying under the Federal Skilled Trade Program or the Canadian Experience Class.

While a credential assessment is not mandatory for all Express Entry programs, assessment can greatly increase an applicant’s chances of success.

For example, CEC candidates may enter the pool without an ECA or Canadian credential.  As a result some CEC candidates might enter the pool (without ECA assessment of course), sit back, and wait for an ITA

They could be waiting a long time, however, and in vain.  Instead, they should be boosting their score by having their level(s) of education assessed.

Doing so can bring up to 200 points—150 for human capital, with a bonus 50 in combination with Canadian work experience and/or language ability.

Step 3: Determine Your National Occupation Classification (NOC)

All applicants must show that their work experience meets the definition of an occupation in Canada’s National Occupation Classification database.

Note: Only applicants with the following types of work experience may apply for immigration under the Express Entry System.

1. Skill Type 0 (Management Jobs)

2. Skill Level A (Professional Jobs)

3. Level B (Technical Jobs and Skilled Trades)

Step 4: Determine Your Eligibility for Express Entry Immigration

IRCC’s website contains an online tool to help applicants determine whether or not they are eligible to use the Express Entry system. You must use this tool before you create your Express Entry profile.

Note: In order to use the tool, applicants must:

• Already have taken a language test
• Identify the National Occupation Classification (NOC) skill type or level under which they will be applying.

Step 5: Build your Express Entry profile

If the online tool determines that you are eligible to apply for Express Entry immigration, you can begin building your Express Entry profile. Go to Create your Express Entry profile on Canada government website.

Overall, applicants must provide the following information in their Express Entry profiles

• Identity and age
• Contact Information
• A detailed account of their educational history
• A detailed account of their work experience
• Language proficiency
• Factors that facilitate their adaptability to life in Canada
• Family composition
• Information on their spouse or common-law partner, if applicable

In order to successfully complete your Express Entry profile, you must also have in hand:

• Their passport or travel document
• The title and code of the occupation that best describes their work experience as stated in the National Occupation Classification Database.
• Language test results.
• Foreign Educational Credential assessment result, if necessary.
• A copy of a written job offer from a Canadian employer (if the applicant has been offered a job).
• Proof of provincial nomination for permanent residence (if the candidate has received a provincial nomination).
• Personal reference code from IRCC’s online eligibility verification tool (see step 4 above). All applicants will receive a reference code upon the successful use of the online tool.

Step 6: Submit Your Express Entry Profile

After you created the profile you will see the button to submit it to IRCC.

Thereafter, IRCCO will send you

• An Express Entry profile number, and
• A job seeker validation code

Applicants will need these numbers if:

• They will be registering for the Job Bank (see below)
• They have received nominations for permanent residence from a provincial or territorial government.

If your profile fulfills all criteria for any of the Express Entry, IRCC places into the Express Entry candidate pool.

Most importantly, placement into the pool does not mean that you will automatically be invited to apply for permanent residence.

Canada’s Express Entry immigration system is competitive. IRCC issues Invitations to Apply for PR to only a limited number of candidates with the highest CRS points in the pool.

IRCC assesses applicants in the pool based on their score using the Comprehensive Ranking System.

You get an invitation only if your CRS score meets the lowest score that IRCC sets for any particular Express Entry draw.

Step 7: Update Your Information regularly

You must update your Express Entry profile in order to keep it accurate. By doing so you avoid disqualification due to misrepresentation.

You also get more points on your factors that have improved.

Your Express Entry profile remains valid for one year. However, an Express Entry profile could become invalid before one year passes if you no longer meet relevant Express Entry criteria

You must certainly update if for instance

• The nature of your work experience changes
• You receive new language test results
• You obtain a new educational diploma
• There is a change in your family composition. For example birth, death, marriage, divorce, a child in the family is no longer a dependent

An Express Entry profile remains valid even if a candidate updates the information on the profile.

If one year passes without a candidate receiving an invitation to apply for permanent residence, IRCC will delete the profile from the pool.

Note. Applicants who decline an invitation to apply for permanent residence will see their profiles become valid again