Check your work experience eligibility for Express Entry Program

Your work experience need to be listed in the Canada’s occupation classification system, to get eligible for  Express Entry Program.

IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada), analyzes every profile and checks the educational qualification is suitable for the job you applied for. In general, the more education and work experience, it takes to the higher occupational skill levels.

Currently IRCC follows the job’s skill level using the 2016 National Occupational Classification (NOC). If the candidate immigrates through economic-class immigration, IRCC uses the NOC to evaluate the work experience mentioned by the candidate. This will support the mandate of the immigration program for which the candidate applied for.

*Check your eligibility for free

You can check the eligibility instantly through Y-Axis Canada Skilled Immigration Points Calculator.

Economic-class immigration programs

These programs are designed to fill the job vacancies with foreign nationals to support the Canada's labor market need and long-term prosperity.

Express Entry does not consider the specific occupation, as much as the skill level. IRCC matches the job duties with the NOC description to compare whether it matches with the skill level.

List of NOC skill levels

The below are the five NOC skill levels listed in the Canadian Government website:

NOC Skill Levels	Occupation
Skill Type 0 (zero)	Management jobs, such as: restaurant managers, mine managers, and shore captains (fishing).
Skill Level A	Professional jobs that usually call for a degree from a university, such as: doctors, dentists, and architects.
Skill Level B	Technical jobs and skilled trades that usually call for a college diploma or training as an apprentice, such as: chefs, plumbers, and electricians
Skill Level C	Intermediate jobs that usually call for high school and/or job-specific training, such as: industrial butchers, long-haul truck drivers, food and beverage servers.
Skill Level D	Labor jobs that usually give on-the-job training, such as: fruit pickers, cleaning staff, and oil field workers.

In this list the skill types 0, A, and B are considered as “skilled.” The candidates should have skilled work experience to get eligible for the three Express Entry-managed immigration programs.

The work experience differs for every program, so it is better if you go through the details before applying.

IRCC 30 hours per week as full time and for an year it will be 1,560 hours. You can meet this in different ways by working full-time. The hours for part-time includes  more or less than 15 hours per week as long as it adds up to 1,560 hours. IRCC will never consider the working hours above 30 hours per week.

It is not possible to become eligible faster for working more hours.

Work experience requirements for Federal Skilled Worker Program

The basic eligibility criteria for the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) are listed below:

• Work experience
• Language proficiency
• Education requirements

You need to have atleast one year skilled work experience within the past 10 years. The previous work experience should match with the primary occupation in your immigration application

After meeting the eligibility criteria, IRCC assesses your application on a points system which is specific to the program. The applicant need to score atleast 67 points out of 100 to get a pass percentage. Out of these 15 points are allotted for the work experience.

To score points in work experience you need to have experience one year related to the full-time job in a skilled occupation. The working hours should make up to 1560 hours per year. While  part-time job is considered it adds up to the minimum number of hours within the 10 years before the candidate applies.

The work experience will be counted if it is Canada or abroad, or  self-employed outside of Canada or if the candidate completes their education within Canada.

*Note: Self-employment in Canada does not count

To score the full points, the candidate needs to have atleast  six years of eligible work experience. If the candidate possesses only one year of work experience, then you will get 9 points. If the applicant has 2-3 years of work experience they will score 11 points, and if they have 4 to 5 years of experience then they can score 13 points.

Experience	Work experience points (out of 15)
1 year	9
2-3 years	11
4-5 years	13
6 or more years	15

The candidate can score 10 points for “adaptability”, if they have at least one year of full-time, skilled work experience in Canada.

Work experience requirements for Canadian Experience Class (CEC)

The CEC is for people who have work experience in Canada. To meet the work experience requirement, you need to have at least one year in Canada in a skilled occupation. This experience may have been completed anytime within the three years before the candidate applies for permanent residency through the CEC.

*Note: CEC does not consider self-employed work and work that you did while studying in Canada.

While you apply for CEC, you also need to demonstrate minimum language proficiency in English or French and other eligibility criteria.

Work experience requirements for Federal Skilled Trades Program

This program is for skilled trades workers. In order to fulfill the work experience requirement, the candidate needs to have at least two years of full-time work experience in a skilled trade within five years before you apply for. The same working hours for a part-time job is also considered only if it is paid.

In this stream you also need to meet the eligibility criteria for the skilled trade on your application as per the NOC, except for needing a certificate of qualification. The candidate also needs to have a valid job offer of full-time employment for at least one year or a certificate of qualification in your skilled trade issued by a Canadian provincial, territorial, or federal authority.

In addition to this, the FSTP candidates should also meet the minimum language proficiency, among other requirements.

NOC will be replaced with TEER next year

For every ten years, Canada's occupation classification system gets an overhaul. The next biggest change can be seen in late 2022, in which the NOC will be replaced with TEER (Training, Education, Experience, and Responsibilities) categories.

Along with this the Canadian Government website offers a new list of NOC codes, which will be effective from next year.

In the new system, the five levels will be changed to six levels, and instead of Alphabets, they will be numerical. For instance, the skill levels 0, A, B, C, and D will be replaced with 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Each occupation, each occupation code will have five digits rather than four, but the majority of them will be changed by name but not by description. A total of 516 occupations were there in the new classification system, which is up from the present 500 counts.

The new occupations will get reflected in the emerging fields in data science, cyber security, and others. The NOC is seen by the Employment and Social Development Canada and Statistics Canada. The upcoming new system will be the most extensive revised one since 2011.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest, or Migrate to Canada, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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