Canada’s Express Entry Process: Everything You Need to Know About

Express entry is the fastest and efficient route to get a Canadian permanent residence. The Express entry draw is helping the eligible candidates to speed up their PR application.

This Express entry pool is a score based system which ranks the candidates by analysing their overall profile. Your Age, language ability, work experience and educational background are major contributors to your profile.

If your profile gets the maximum score, you will be receiving an invitation (ITA) to further proceed with your PR. If you are seeking a new life in Canada, this is your way to go.

The Canadian government introduced the express entry system to streamline its PR process on 1 January 2015. The major objective of this system is to develop the economic condition of the country by picking skilled category people.

To put it in simple terms, it helps in filtering out skilled PR applicants from the rest. These applicants should possess valuable skill sets and also be able to live financially independent.

If a candidate has proven efficiency, they can expect a PR offer as early as 6 to 8 months from the date of application. As mentioned earlier, this is a method of filtration and not a process of selection.

The candidates should fill an online express entry form. Details about your Age, education, language ability and work experience should be clear.

Following this, you have to meet the criteria of at least one federal economic immigration program. The system will analyse the profile of all the candidates and rank them based on their probability of success.

The highest-ranking profiles will receive a formal invitation. Using this invitation, referred to as ITA, you can proceed with your PR application. You have to act really fast as you’d only get 90 days to complete the process.

The first step in the express entry is to submit your profile for assessment. In order for your profile to be valid, it must have the following documents. Your language test results prove that you are comfortable in English

An educational credential assessment report to categorize you based on your level of education. You should also have a passport/travel document ready.

Only then will you be able to complete your profile. If you think this is too easy, brace yourself. The real process of PR begins only after you receive an ITA followed by this.

If your age, education, experience and language proficiency meets the minimum requirement of Canada’s eligibility criteria, your profile stands out.

But this doesn’t mean you don’t stand a chance without a job. If the Immigration council thinks that you can add value to Canada’s economy, you are in a good place.

However, based on the skills that you have, there are three sections under which you could end up.

They are,

Federal Skilled Worker (FSW)

Federal Skilled Trades (FST)

Canadian Experience Class (CEC)

You can describe the express entry process with a lot of words but “cheap” is not one of them. There’s no fee for the initial express entry application.

The expense includes the cost of language tests, Education credential assessment, biometrics, government fee, medical exam, police clearance etc., No need to submit proof of fund if you fall under Canadian Experience Class (or) you’re authorized to work in Canada and you have a valid job offer.

Even though most people still believe that they need a job in order to apply for the express entry, it isn’t actually true. As a matter of fact, most selected candidates don’t actually have a valid job. But having one can really give a huge boost to your profile.

If you have secured a job in Canada for a full-time role, 50 to 200 points automatically get added to your application. An invalid job doesn’t add any value to your application and you also should not be mentioning it.

The express entry process is not a sprint but a marathon. From your initial application to issuance of a permanent resident visa, it might take somewhere around six months to get processed.

Your profile will stay active for up to 12 months amongst all the other express entry profiles.

If you still don’t seem to be receiving an invitation, you can try applying again. But upon receiving the ITA, you’ll only have 90 days left to file your application.

It is time you make yourself familiar with the CRS or Comprehensive Ranking System. If you are planning on getting selected in an express entry draw, your scores should at least be above the minimum CRS score limit.

The more CRS score you have, the more competitive your profile becomes. No lawyer will be able to assure you whether or not you’ll be receiving a PR through the express entry system.

The process of application is not just complex and lengthy, but it is also constantly changing.

There’s no “one step” to improving your CRS score. Instead, there is a sequence of steps that one must follow. If your IELTS score is low, try retaking it again since it can single-handedly add maximum 136 points.

One must at least manage to get a band 7 in order to be eligible for the program. But it is not mandatory for everyone because IELTS score also depends upon your profile.

Having a job offer from a Canadian company or having a Canadian education will help to boost your score. Spousal points are another significant score booster.

Above all, a provincial nomination can add a whopping 600 points to your profile. But have in mind that this isn’t going to be easy. Applying for a provincial nomination is a whole different process on its own.

The express draw system does not necessarily favour a particular age group. And there are also no minimum or maximum age criteria that you must adhere to.

But applicants who fall between 20 to 29 years of age will receive the highest points. If you are an applicant who’s more than 35 but has a really good educational background, you can easily make up for the points you lost.

If you have a spouse who’s applying for the express entry, only then will you be able to submit an application under them.

If you don’t seem to be getting an invitation within 12 months, you can choose to resubmit your application.

This way, your stay in the express entry pool will extend for another 12 months. You can repeat this process as many times you want.

Yes, of course, you can. If you’ve submitted your profile but haven’t received your ITA yet, you are eligible to make changes to your profile.

You can either edit individual details in your profile or replace the supporting documents that you have submitted earlier. For example, your new IELTS score card.

You can find a button that reads “Update form” inside your express entry profile. After you’ve made all necessary changes, you can scroll to the bottom and press “Save & Exit”.

Once you’re here, you can resubmit the modified version of your express entry profile for evaluation.

If your express entry profile has not met the standards, you may not be able to modify it anymore. Instead, you can create new express entry profile.

Once you’ve logged onto your Express entry profile and cannot find the option “Update form”, your profile has most probably been reviewed.

You also cannot modify your profile after you receive your ITA (Invitation to Apply). This means that you are now eligible to proceed with your PR application. If you are here, every detail in your profile gets locked into place and you cannot modify them anymore.

Have in mind that you must start the process long before you actually begin to fill the application form.

The express entry profile filing is a long and lengthy process which might take weeks, or even months if you are about to start from scratch.

Depending on the amount of time you’re willing to invest, the quality of your profile and your CRS scores can go up. Remember that even if you are lucky enough to receive an ITA invite, you still have a lot of steps to climb.

You have to keep your proof of funds and all the other supporting documents prepped and ready in order to secure your permanent residence.