Express Entry Visa

The Express Entry is one of the newest electronic systems that has been initiated by the Citizenship and Immigration Canada or CIC. It is a point-based immigration program meant for professionals who are interested in settling down in Canada.

According to the program, professionals receive points based on their experience, skills, provincial or territory nomination, and Canadian employment status.

Express Entry program was to help CIC deal with various applications for permanent residence under three federal economic immigration programs.

These include:

Different provinces and territories are also allowed to recruit candidates from the pool of Express Entry visa applications through their respective Provincial Nominee Programs to help them fulfill their local labor market requirements.

Filling Up the Online Form

If you wish to enter Canada as a skilled immigrant, the first step you need to take is to submit your profile to the Express Entry pool. If you found to be eligible, you will be:

  1. Placed in a pool with other qualified candidates
  2. Given a score and ranked based upon multiple factors
  3. Invited to apply for permanent residency in Canada (if you one of the top-ranked candidates)

You need to note that merely completing the Express Entry profile or entering the pool does not mean an automatic guarantee of an invitation to apply for permanent residence. You can only apply after you have received an invitation.

Create Your Express Entry Profile

After answering some eligibility questions, if you find out that you are indeed eligible for an Express Entry visa, you will have to fill up an Express Entry profile online. To complete this profile, you will require:

  • Information from different documents
  • Your NOC or National Occupational Classification job title and code.

You are allowed to exit the profile at any time. All the information that you have already typed in will be saved in your account, and you will get 60 days to complete the Express Entry profile and submit it. If you cross these 60 days, you will have to start all over again.

Things to Do While You Wait In the Pool

You can prepare yourself to accept an invitation to apply while you spend days waiting in the pool. If you receive an invitation, you will have 60 days to complete and submit your application.

Get All Your Documents Ready

If you can get all your necessary documents ready, it will make it easier for you to apply within this time limit of 60 days.

Documents Required

You do not have to upload any documents when you submit your profile. However, you may have to provide information from some or all of the below-mentioned documents.

  1. Passport or a travel document
  2. Language test results
  3. Educational credential assessment report if you are applying through the Federal Skilled Program or you wish to get extra points for any education that you go outside the country
  4. Provincial nomination if you have one
  5. Written job offer from a Canadian employer

Language Test

Make sure that the results of your language tests are valid. These results are generally valid for 2 years from the date of the result. These results need to be valid on the day you apply for permanent residence. If the language test results have expired, then you will have to:

  1. Get tested again or
  2. Apply before the results expire or
  3. Reject the invitation and return to the pool for future considerations

Police Certificates

You will require police certificates for you and your family members who are minimum 18 years old. If it takes a long time for you to get police certificates in your country, you can ask them for the documents when you are in the Express Entry pool. This will allow you to submit them before the time limit of 60 days gets over.

Find a Job with Job Match

You are allowed to start looking for a job by creating a Job Match account with Job Bank. You will require your Job Seeker validation code to do this. You may keep using Job Bank even after you reach Canada.

Look For Ways to Improve Your Score

While you wait in the Express Entry pool, you can surely try and increase your chances of getting an invitation to apply by improving your score. This is possible by:

  1. Securing a valid job using Job Bank or promoting yourself to Canadian employers using private-sector job boards
  2. Getting in touch with different territories and provinces to consider you for their respective PNPs or Provincial Nominee Programs
  3. Improving your education
  4. Improving your language test score
  5. Gaining more useful and relevant work experience

Always Keep Your Profile Up-To-Date

It is your responsibility to ensure that all the information in your profile stays up-to-date and accurate. You will have to update your profile if anything significant changes in your life, such as:

  • You commence a new career
  • Lose or even gain a job offer
  • Obtain a new language test score
  • Get married or get divorced
  • Have or adopt a child

If your profile is not found to be accurate and updated, then:

  • Your application may get rejected
  • You may be categorized as inadmissible
  • You may be barred from applying to enter Canada for any reason for the next 5 years

Rounds of Invitation

All the candidates in the Express Entry pool are ranked with the help of a points-based system called the Comprehensive Ranking System or CRS. Based on this system, all the candidates who receive the highest ranks are selected and sent an invitation to apply for permanent residence. Each invitation round has a specific set of instructions, which are:

  • Used by the Express Entry system to invite the chosen candidates from the pool
  • Posted online during the invitation round

These instructions include:

  1. The exact date and time for the invitation round
  2. The total number of candidates scheduled to receive an invitation to apply
  3. The immigration program(s) that are included in the round

Respond To the Invitation to Apply

Once you receive an invitation to apply for permanent residence, you will get a message in your account asking you:

  1. The name of the program you have been invited for
  2. The following steps for you to take

You will have to provide sufficient proof of all the information that you provided in your Express Entry profile. These will be thoroughly assessed to check their authenticity. If there is a mismatch of information or if you fail to provide essential details in your profile:

  • Your application may get refused
  • You may be categorized as inadmissible
  • You may be barred from applying to enter Canada for the next 5 years irrespective of the reason for entry

Changes to Your Personal Situation

If there is a change in your partner’s or spouse’s situation, you will have to re-calculate your score before applying online for permanent residence. If the re-calculated score is lower than the lowest in your round of invitations, you will have to decline your invitation. Instead, if you apply, then:

  1. Your application may get refused
  2. Your application fee may not be refunded

Changes that may lower your score:

  1. You do not have a valid job offer anymore
  2. You do not have a provincial nomination anymore
  3. Your language test scores have either expired or are lower after getting re-tested

Decline an Invitation to Apply

Once you decline your invitation to apply, your name will be pushed back to the Express Entry pool. If you fulfill the eligibility criteria, you will be considered in future rounds of invitations. The cut-off score differs from one round to another. If your score is not found to be high enough, you may miss out the chance of getting invited once again. There are some cases, wherein you may be asked to take steps to get the invitation to apply again. You may need to:

  • Improve your score
  • Update your Express Entry profile

It is important for you to note that there is no guarantee that you will receive an invitation to apply once again. Nonetheless, if you still wish to re-enter the pool, declining an invitation will not affect the fact whether or not you are invited later.

Refraining from declining and failing to apply within 60 days will automatically render the invitation expired, and your profile will be removed from the Express Entry pool. To be considered in future rounds of invitation, you will have to:

  • Fill up and submit the Express Entry profile
  • Fulfill the eligibility
  • Be accepted in the Express Entry pool again

What to Do If You Do Not Get Invited?

If you fail to receive any invitation to apply within 12 months from the date of submission of the profile, it will expire automatically. Once this happens, it will be removed from the database and you will receive a message in your account. However, you can create a new profile.

You need to note that you should not create a new profile before the existing one expires. If you do, you will have to withdraw the existing profile first. If you fail to submit a new profile you cannot mention Express Entry in your profiles on any of the job boards.

Once you submit a new profile, you will receive:

  • A new Express Entry profile number
  • A new job seeker validation code to be used at the Job Ban site

How Can We Assist You In Securing An Express Entry Visa?

Our team of professionals at Rose Valley Immigration Consultant is knowledgeable enough to help you with the entire process of Express Entry and guide you with the documents needed for the procedure.

Frequently Asked Questions

You will have to create and submit an eligible Express Entry profile to become one of the candidates for the pool. However, before that you will have to make sure that you are eligible for one of the three Express Entry Immigration Programs: the Federal Skilled Worker, the Federal Skilled Trades, and Canadian Experience Class. You will also require all the necessary documents while creating your profile.

You will require a confirmed job offer under the Federal Skilled Trades program. However, there is no need for you to have any confirmed job offer under the Canadian Experience Class Program and the Federal Skilled Worker Program.

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