New Economic Immigration System: Express Entry

• Starting January 2015: Express Entry

The New Two-Step Application Process

Text version: The New Two-Step Application Process

How Express Entry Will Work

Text version: How Express Entry Will Work

Moving from the old system…

• Recruitment of global talent at employer time and expense
• Difficult to navigate the immigration system due to multiple players
• First applicant in, first to be processed
• Average of 12-14 months to process an application

… to Express Entry

• Government of Canada, provinces and territories (P/Ts) and Employers will have a direct role in economic immigration
• New and improved Job Bank will connect Canadian employers with a comprehensive pool of candidates if they can't find Canadians or permanent residents to do the job
• Express Entry candidates with a valid job offer or P/T nomination will quickly be invited to apply for permanent residence
• CIC will be able to select candidates that are most likely to succeed in Canada, rather than the first in line
• Express Entry candidates will benefit from processing times of six months or less Footnote2

Step 1: Express Entry profile

• Potential candidates will submit an online Express Entry profile.
• They will be assessed according to a skills based ranking system that looks at:
  • Language proficiency
  • Education
  • Canadian work experience
  • Other factors that lead to success in Canada

  
• At this stage, skills will be self-declared based on appropriate test results.
• Candidates who meet the criteria of one of the federal economic immigration programs subject to Express Entry will be placed in the Express Entry pool.
  
• Candidates will need to promote themselves:
  • Registration with Job Bank will be required
  • They will be encouraged to signal their presence in the Express Entry pool to recruiters, on private sector job boards  etc.

Step 2: Invitation to Apply (ITA)

Text version: Invitation to Apply (ITA)

When an employer offers a job to a candidate:

• They will quickly be offered an ITA for permanent residence (PR);
• Express Entry candidates will benefit from processing times of six months or lessFootnote2.
• Candidates with an ITA will have 60 days to apply for permanent residence through one of four existing economic immigration programs:
  • Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP)
  • Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP)
  • Canadian Experience Class (CEC)
  • Provincial Nominee Program (PNP)Footnote3
• Applicants will need to meet the criteria set out in the immigration program which applies to them

Provinces and Territories = Key Partners

1. Provincial and territorial (P/T) nominations will continue and grow under the new system.
2. P/Ts will be able to nominate candidates who meet their unique regional labour market needs.
3. When an Express Entry candidate is identified through a PNP, they can be handpicked and quickly invited to apply for permanent residence.
4. CIC will process applications in six months or less.Footnote2

Summary

• The changes to economic immigration will benefit employers by:
  • Making it easier to find the candidates they need to fill available positions
  • Linking LMIA and Job Bank will simplify employer's LMIA advertising requirements
  • Allowing for greater flexibility
  • Eliminating backlogs and introducing 6-month processing timesFootnote2

Next Steps:

• The modernized Job Bank will be launched in late 2014 for Canadian citizens and permanent residents.
• The Express Entry system will be launched in January 2015.
  • At that time, the modernized Job Bank will be accessible to Express Entry candidates.
• CIC will continue to engage employers after launch to get feedback on the system and work on continuous improvements.

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The new Canada immigration system: this is how it works

From January 2015 Canada will apply the Express Entry system

By 

Majorie van Leijen

Published Thursday, July 31, 2014

[Image via Shutterstock]

From January next year Canada will transform its immigration policy. Where those interested in migration to Canada would currently select one of the many streams to submit an application, from next year onwards there will be one list to be sure to put your name on.

The new system has been named the Express Entry, indicating the aim of the Canadian government to actively recruit, assess and select skilled immigrants. The list will function as a job bank, where the government as well as employers will be able to select the candidates that are most likely to succeed.

Selected candidates will be invited to apply through three of Canada’s existing economic immigration programs: the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Federal Skilled Trades Program, and the Canadian Experience Class.

Some of the Provincial Nominee Programs will also be open for selected candidates of the Express Entry list, while other provincial programs will continue to exist on its own.

The new system is believed to lead to reduced processing times, with the majority of applications processed within 6 months.

With the launch date approaching, a lot of questions about the new system still remain. However, little by little the process is starting to become clearer. Here is what we know so far.

The first step: putting your name on the list

The first step towards migration to Canada under the new system will be to create an Express Entry profile. Applicants will have to provide information about their skills, work experience, language ability, education, and other details.

Once on the list, applicants will be ranked against each other. Although the criteria for gaining points has not been made clear, a successful candidate has been described as ‘those who deem to have the best chance of economic success’.

When the applicant has a valid job offer the invitation to apply for permanent residency is guaranteed. A job offer can be obtained once an employer has expressed interest in hiring a particular candidate. To increase the chances of being matched, applicants can submit their file on the Government of Canada's Job Bank.

What comes next?

Once the profile has been made the applicant will have to wait, while the government or province is assessing the many candidates. If no invitation has been after 12 months of being on the list, the applicant should submit a new application. If successful, the candidate will receive an invitation to apply for permanent residency.

When an invitation to apply has been sent, the applicant has 60 days to apply for permanent residency under one of the three programs, or listed provincial nominee programs.

The Federal Skilled Worker Program is currently the most popular program and will continue to exist. This program selects qualified skilled applicants from across the world based on factors like their education, work experience, language proficiency.

On the contrary, the Federal Skilled Trades Program targets those applicants that are valuable for their practical skills rather than educational credentials. This program was launched beginning 2013 and will be available for candidates selected by the Express Entry system.

The third program that will remain available is the Canadian Experience Class. This program was created for individuals who already gained skilled work experience in Canada.

Almost all provinces offer Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP), accepting applicants based on the labour demand in that province. Provinces will choose to list some of these programs under the Express Entry system. In any regard, assessing the opportunities in the provinces is recommended, because a job offer will enable the applicant to apply for residency, also when the program was not under the Express Entry list.

Although most of these programs currently have occupation lists and intake caps, the Express Entry system is said to have neither of these thresholds. It is unclear what the existing programs will look like once the new system is in place.

What are the changes?

One of the most prominent programs that will be discontinued is the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), which currently aims to help workers come to Canada to fill jobs in sectors where the local workforce does not provide with the required expertise. These workers come to Canada on a temporary basis, and are able to apply for permanent residency under one of the existing programs when in the country.

The temporary nature of a job position will be no more, made the government clear. Whereas employers will still be able to select employees based on their needs, these employees will come to Canada as fulltime residents and without uncertainty, was the argument.

Furthermore, law firms have applauded the abolishment of the occupation list and intake cap, arguing that it is now free for anybody to apply regardless of the profession executed or time of application. However, as a counter argument it has been stressed that this principle itself is likely to lead to uncertainty, as applicants can do little more than waiting for an invitation to apply.

With 5 more months to go before the system is in place, applicants still have the chance to be assessed under the current criteria, as the application will be reviewed based on the criteria that were in place when the application was submitted.

Source: http://www.emirates247.com/news/the-new-canada-immigration-system-this-is-how-it-works-2014-07-31-1.558037

(Image courtesy www.shutterstock.com)

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Networking is the Most Important Skill for New Canadians

by Priya Ramanujam (@SincerelyPriya) in Toronto

Only eight per cent of the jobs in Canada are advertised. An astounding 76 per cent of the jobs are hidden or created. New Canadians packed into a Metro Toronto Convention Centre conference room to gain this type of insight about the Canadian job market from human resources professional, Sujay Vardhmane. 

Vardhmane’s presentation, Winning Ways – The Formula to Your Job Search Success, is just one of nine interactive speaker sessions part of a free, day-long Career, Education & Settlement Fair presented by Canadian Immigrant Magazine in partnership with Scotiabank and Centennial College. The annual fair, which also includes a trade show, resume clinic and speed mentoring sessions, is in its fourth year. Gautam Sharma, Publisher of Canadian Immigrant, says its goal is to provide real advice to newcomers. “The idea was to have a very sort of holistic opportunity for everyone to listen to,” he says.

Vardhmane’s main message during an hour-long presentation is that sitting behind a computer sending resumes all day long will rarely lead to securing a job. He gives newcomers a challenge: for six months, give yourselves points for every job-related action they take – 500 for an interview, 250 for an information meeting, 100 for making a phone call and 50 for applying for a job via the internet. If someone achieves 3,000 or more points weekly for six months he is confident they will land their ideal job.

But many of the attendees, who face barriers such as not knowing the language, not knowing anyone in Canada, and not having any Canadian work experience, may find his challenge daunting. Having immigrated to Canada in 2002 from India himself, Vardhmane can empathize with these struggles.

“[New Canadians often] develop a very negative mindset very early on that I’m a loser, I’m a victim and everyone is treating me badly,” he explains. “What you may find surprising is this, every person at every stage in life has challenges in a job search, I could be a white male who is 45, I will have some challenges in my job search, I could be a 60-year-old, I could be a 20-year-old I could be having challenges, whether I’m born here or not born here. But what tends to happen is we tend to look at it this way, I’m new in this country and I’m being penalized because of that.”

[New Canadians often] develop a very negative mindset very early on that I’m a loser, I’m a victim and everyone is treating me badly.”

During his workshop, Vardhmane shares that he has never been hired in Canada for a job that he has applied to in the traditional way of e-mailing a resume and cover letter. Rather, the opportunities that have come his way (he is also a part-time professor at Centennial, Seneca and George Brown colleges and the University of Toronto), have been because of relationships he’s built over time and networking.

“I think listening to people and positioning myself professionally with people [is why] people were willing to help me,” he shares, reminiscing about his early days in Canada. “Consistency of behaviour is very critical for people to be comfortable to refer you.”

Networking was stressed throughout the day as the number one most important thing newcomers must do to achieve whatever success they are pursuing. Corporate trainer, career specialist and workplace coach, Colleen Clarke, emphasizes this in her workshop, Networking How To Build Relationships That Count. She says newcomers should start the process even before they set foot on Canadian soil.

“I had a client a few years ago, he’s become a huge success here. Before he came to Canada – he knew he was immigrating here – we worked together long distance,” she shares. “He came here with the names of 20 people to contact of people back in Mumbai who knew people in Toronto. So when he came to Toronto he already had 20 phone numbers from the people in Mumbai who had family or relatives here.”

“Consistency of behaviour is very critical for people to be comfortable to refer you.”

Upon arriving in Canada, continue connecting with the people who you know from your day-to-day life, she adds. “Try to start with people that you know. Your bank teller, your hair dresser, the people within your own ethnic community, your children go to school, you must know some of the parents of the children.”

She closes by reminding attendees that it isn’t the first person they network with that will give them a job, but by building strong, positive relationships with several people, through the ideology of “six degrees of separation” where someone knows someone who knows someone, job referrals can and will happen. 

This content was developed exclusively for New Canadian Media and can be freely re-published, with appropriate attribution, please.