Tag Archives: Canadian Experience Class

Express Entry Update: First non-LMIA/LMO, non-PNP Nomination Invitations have been Released

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Express-Entry-2015-Canada-CICS

Close to three months after the new Express Entry system started, and after four invitations, the first set of instructions have been released, where some of the invitees did not have LMIA/LMO’s or PNP nominations.

On March 20th, 2015, Express Entry system, round #5 was released. The number of invitees totalled 1620. The minimum score of those invited is 481.

This is great news for the majority of applicants in the Express Entry pool as many have started to feel discouraged by the high number of points in the previous four invitations.

What do the Experts think?

As licensed immigration consultant Alex Khadempour points out, there is no need to panic: “This is just the start. Immigration Canada did not want to open the floodgates by inviting a high number of people at the beginning. This is why only those with PNP nominations or LMOs/LIMAs were invited at first to make sure the system works. You will now see the minimum score start to go down.”

Immigration Canada accepts over 160,000 applicants a year under the economic programs such as Federal Skilled Worker, Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Trades and some PNP programs. Only a small fraction of these applicants have LMOs/LMIAs or PNP nominations.

Tips for Applicants

Alex Khadempour adds: “Calculated patience is always necessary when it comes to dealing with immigration, especially when a new program or system is launched. You should keep your eyes on the minimum scores and see how close you are. At the same time, if there is an opportunity for you to receive a provincial nomination or an LMIA, which guarantee that you will be selected and invited, you should take advantage of that opportunity.It’s also very important to approach this process with caution and precision. One tiny mistake in one of the steps can ruin your chances in the future.”

Be sure to go over all the guidelines, regulations and seek professional help, if necessary, to make sure you don’t make any errors in how you submit your information and approach the multi-step application process.

The Canadian Experience Class program sees its first major changes

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The Canadian Experience Class (CEC) has been one of the most popular economic Canadian immigration programs in the past 2 years. As of today, significant changes have been made to the program.

Canadian Experience Class continues to gain momentum as the most popular economic immigration program

Canadian Experience Class continues to gain momentum as the most popular economic immigration program

Since the Conservative government came to power, Canadian immigration regulations have gone through many changes. These changes have received a mixed reaction from all sides. The government has been loud and clear that it prefers to have its new immigrants with Canadian work experience, as this would make it easier for newcomers who will likely make the most of their abilities while undergoing a more seamless social and economic transition to Canada. So far, over 25,000 have become permanent residents since the CEC program initiated in late 2008. The number of applicants becoming permanent resident through this program continues to climb every year.

Immigration Minister, Chris Alexander announced a few major changes to the program as a measure to make to make the program more ‘efficient’:

“The government is taking concrete action to reduce backlogs and processing times. By making these changes to the Canadian Experience Class, we are moving toward a more effective and efficient immigration system.”

The changes that have been published are:

Between November 9, 2013 to October 31, 2014, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) will accept a maximum of 12,000 new applications under the CEC.

Because of an overrepresentation in the CEC applications received to date, the following six occupations will no longer be eligible for the CEC starting November 9, 2013:

  • cooks (NOC code 6322);
  • food service supervisors (NOC 6311);
  • administrative officers (NOC 1221);
  • administrative assistants (NOC 1241);
  • accounting technicians and bookkeepers (NOC 1311); and
  • retail sales supervisors (NOC 6211).

CIC already has a large inventory of applications in these occupations and will continue processing them to a final decision.

In addition, CIC will establish sub-caps of 200 applications each for National Occupational Classification (NOC) B occupations. These are mostly technical and administrative jobs or those in the skilled trades. NOC 0 and A (managerial and professional) occupations will not be sub-capped, but they will be subject to the overall cap of 12,000 applications.

Finally, CIC will maintain the same language criteria for applicants but will verify them upfront as of November 9, 2013. The current language requirements are Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 7 for NOC 0 and A occupations, and CLB 5 for NOC B occupations. This new measure will ensure that applicants who do not meet the minimum language requirements are screened out earlier and processing resources can be concentrated on those who are more likely to qualify.

At the same time, this is more client-friendly, as applicants who do not have the required language proficiency will have their applications returned to them along with the processing fee.

Montreal Tops List of Best Cities for International Students

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Cultural attractions like the iconic Montreal Museum of Fine Arts helped give Montreal the top spot in the ‘social experience’ sub-index of the Sea Turtle Index

An index commissioned by the Bank of Communications (BoCom), one of the largest banks in China, places Montreal, Canada as the best city in the world for international students.

Other Canadian cities that ranked well include Toronto (4th) and Vancouver (15th).

Created by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) with design input from BoCom management, the Sea Turtle Index (a name referring to Chinese students who study abroad only to return, like sea turtles, to their country of origin) ranks foreign student destinations according to five sub-indices:

  • Educational returns: the international value of the education provided in the city relative to its cost
  • Financial returns: the openness of the investment environment to foreign nationals and the amount of volatility risk that could effect investment returns
  • Real estate returns: the return on investment in the local real estate market
  • Work experience: the local job market for foreign students and graduates in terms of availability of jobs, wages and low-taxes
  • Social experience: the city’s level of culture, worldliness and multi-culturalism

Of the 80 cities included in the index, Montreal came in 6th place in the ‘educational returns’ sub-index, behind only Cambridge (1st), Oxford (2nd), London (3rd), Seoul (4th), and Beijing (5th).

Montreal benefited from having comparatively affordable universities and cost of living while providing high quality tertiary education. Vancouver and Toronto also had their score helped by their low cost of living, although not as much as Montreal which was found to be a more affordable place to live.

None of the American cities included in the study made the top 10 in the educational returns category, despite several being home to some of the best educational institutions in the world. The poor showing was largely due to the high cost of tuition for their undergraduate programs.

Some cities, including Singapore, Hong Kong and New York, saw their educational returns ranking pushed down due to a high cost of living.

The EIU included a ‘financial returns’ sub-index owing to the fact that the parents of international students and often international students themselves like to make investments in the city where the students live.

None of the North American cities included in the study made the top 30 in this sub-index, due in Canada to relatively high taxes and in the United States to excessive “money laundering regulations and terrorism legislation” stifling financial freedom.

Hong Kong placed first in this ranking, followed by Auckland, New Zealand (2nd) and Santiago, Chile (3rd), which benefited from having comparatively few regulations on finance and banking that restrict international capital flows.

Three Canadian cities made the top 30 in the ‘real-estate returns’ sub-index: Toronto (4th), Montreal (12th), and Vancouver (13th), while Hong Kong took the top spot thanks to its hot real estate market.

Canadian cities did well due to a combination of well-performing real-estate markets and avoidance of the boom-busts that affected many other world cities in the period leading up to and following the global mortgage crisis.

Canada’s openness to foreign investment also helped push its cities above those in countries with real-estate markets that have seen substantial gains in recent years but which have more restrictions on foreign property ownership, like Shanghai, Bangkok, Mumbai and Seoul.

Immigration rules benefit Canada

Canadian cities took the top five spots in the work experience sub-index due to immigration laws that allow foreign students, upon completion of their study programs, to obtain post-graduate work permits that are valid for durations equaling the length of their study in Canada.

This contrasts with the U.S. where international students have few options to stay and work in the United States upon completing their studies.

Edmonton’s combination of a hot labour market and low provincial taxes gave it an edge over its Canadian counterparts and earned it the top spot in the ranking, followed by Hamilton (2nd), Toronto (3rd), Vancouver (4th) and Montreal (5th).

Montreal managed to also share the top spot in the ‘social experience’ sub-index with London, England, thanks to its low rates of violent crime, high cultural diversity and its world renowned cultural attractions.

Canada’s high levels of multiculturalism and low crime rates helped three other Canadian cities: Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton, make the top 30 in this ranking.

As incomes in China rapidly grow, parents in the country’s large and education-minded population are increasingly able to afford a foreign university education for their children.

Therefore the good showing of Canadian cities in the Sea Turtle Index, which caters mostly to Chinese students seeking to study abroad, portends well for Canadian efforts to make the country a top destination for international students.

With the federal government having committed itself to making it easier for international students to stay and work in Canada and become permanent residents through programs like the Canadian Experience Class, Canada’s appeal to international students could increase even more in coming years.

Immigration Department: 1 Year Canadian Experience Class Launching Jan 2013

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Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney tweeted more details in recent days about coming changes to the Canadian Experience Class and Federal Skilled Worker programs

The length of time that a temporary foreign worker needs to have worked full-time in the Canada to qualify for permanent residence under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) immigration program will be reduced from 24 months to 12 months in January 2013, according to a tweet by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

The long expected change in the CEC program’s work experience requirement is intended to increase the share of immigrants that come through the program, as Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) considers immigrants with Canadian work experience as more likely to be successful in integrating into Canada’s labour market than those who are admitted under more traditional routes like the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program.

The announcement on the date of the CEC program rule change was made in a response to a tweet directed to Kenney, who is quite active on the micro-blogging site, on November 5th:

@KaushikJay The new 1 year threshold for high-skilled temporary foreign workers to qualify for CDN Experience Class will start January, 2013

In a series of tweets on November 4th, Kenney also described when and in what form the revamped FSW program will be launched.

He posted that the final details for the relaunched program would be released in the “1st half of 2013” and that there would only be “a very limited number of new applications” accepted in 2013, to help CIC “asses [sic] the new grid & educational evaluation”.

He also posted that CIC’s goal was to launch the new Expression of Interest model for the FSW program “around late 2014 / early 2015”.

CIC placed a moratorium on accepting new applications through the FSW program in July 2012, to give it time to deal with the program’s pending application backlog and to design new selection rules and assessment procedures that it says will make the program more economically beneficial for Canada and its application review process faster.

Canadian Immigration Minister Suggests Popular ‘Working Holiday Visa’ to be Extended to Two Years, to Visit London Next Week

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Graduates of British post-secondary institutions like University College London are struggling to find jobs in the UK's stagnant economy, and the Canadian immigration ministry wants them to consider immigrating to Canada to fill the country's labour shortages.

Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney will visit London next week in order to promote Canada as a destination for educated young Britons struggling in the UK’s job market.

In an interview with the British newspaper, the Telegraph, Kenney said that Canada wants to compete with Australia for young skilled British expats. He is scheduled to meet UK Immigration Minister Mark Harper during his London visit to market the economic opportunities that exist for young Britons in Canada.

In the interview, he said that to attract young expats, the length of time foreign workers need to work in Canada to qualify for permanent residence is being reduced from 24 months to one year, a reference to coming changes to the Canadian Experience Class immigration program.

Kenney also said that the length of time young foreign workers, aged 18-35, can stay in Canada on temporary work permits will be doubled to two years from the current one.

The International Experience Canada (IEC) program, under which 18-35 year non-Canadians from qualifying countries can receive one year Canadian work permits, or ‘working holiday visas’, is the only Canadian immigration program targeting the 18-35 demographic, so Kenney was apparently referring to the work permits issued under this program being extended to two years.

The purpose of the IEC program is to allow young visitors to Canada to work during their extended holiday, for the purpose of funding their stay in Canada. Canada has reciprocal working holiday agreements with most developed countries, including Australia, the UK, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland and Japan.

Immigration Canada Indicates Growing Importance of Canadian Experience Class to Canadian Immigration

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Immigration Minister Jason Kenney appears with Gaurav Gore, the 20,000th permanent resident admitted under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), in a news conference on September 14th. CIC wants temporary foreign workers and graduates of Canadian post-secondary institutions like Mr. Gore to make up a greater proportion of Canadian immigrants. (Citizenship and Immigration Canada)

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CEC) announced on Friday that the 20,000th permanent resident under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) program has recently been admitted. The announcement signals CIC’s intent to make the CEC a bigger part of Canadian immigration, in an effort to improve the long-term labour market integration of the typical Canadian immigrant.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was joined by a Mr. Gaurav Gore, the 20,000th CEC permanent resident, at a news conference celebrating the program’s milestone. Mr. Kenney held Mr. Gore, a native of India who recently earned a master’s in business administration from the University of Toronto, and currently works at BMO Financial Group, as an exemplary immigrant of the type that the Department of Citizenship and Immigration wants to attract through the CEC program.

The CEC program allows temporary residents, either foreign graduates of Canadian post-secondary institutions or temporary foreign workers, to apply for Canadian permanent residence if they meet the program’s educational and work experience requirements.

CIC has said that programs like the CEC attract immigrants who are more likely to succeed because they require applicants to have Canadian work experience to qualify, which is a strong predictor of economic success in Canada.

Immigration authorities also prefer the CEC to more traditional immigration programs like the Federal Skilled Worker Program because individuals who apply under the post-graduate stream of the CEC have Canadian educational credentials, which provide more employability than many foreign credentials.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney noted this perceived advantage of post-graduate CEC applicants, saying “international student graduates have educational credentials that are recognized by Canadian employers as well as official language skills that are important factors for success.”

Getting Canadian Permanent Residence Could Get Easier For Temporary Foreign Workers

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Immigration Minister Jason Kenney at a press conference discussing planned changes to Canada's immigration program that the government believes will make it better meet Canada's economic needs

Under current rules, a temporary foreign worker must have worked full-time for 24 of the last 36 months to qualify for permanent residence under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) program. Under proposed changes, the required months of full time work would be reduced to 12.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, speaking about the proposed change, said that “thousands of highly-skilled foreign nationals are working successfully in Canada on a temporary basis”, and his department wanted to expedite their transition to permanent residence as they have Canadian work experience and are proficient in English or French, and so “are set for success”.

The Canadian government has sought to transform the country’s immigration program in recent years to make it more focused on admitting immigrants that contribute to the Canadian economy, as data has emerged suggesting the country has not been doing a job in this regard, with a growing gap between the average incomes and unemployment rates of newly arrived immigrants and native-born Canadians and longer-term immigrants.

Canadian work experience and job offers from Canadian employers are seen as key indicators of an applicant’s prospects for economic integration in Canada, and the government has been looking to expand those programs, like the temporary foreign worker stream of the Canadian Experience Class program, that assess applicants according to these criteria.