You must know:
- have at least 1 year of skilled work experience in Canada (or an equal amount of part-time work experience) in the 3 years before you apply;
- have gained your work experience by working in Canada while authorized to work under temporary resident status;
- show that you performed the duties listed in the lead statement of the occupational description in the National Occupational Classification (NOC), including all the essential duties most of the main duties.
- Skilled work experience means that you’ve worked in 1 or more of these NOC training, education, experience and responsibilities (TEER) categories: TEER 0, TEER 1, TEER 2, TEER 3.
- Your skilled work experience must be paid work, including paid wages or earned commission. We don’t count volunteer work or unpaid internships.
You’re not eligible for the Canadian Experience Class if:
- you’re a refugee claimant in Canada
- you’re working without authorization
- your work experience was gained without temporary resident status in Canada
You must prove your language skills by taking an approved language test. To do this you must schedule your test with an agency approved by IRCC and pay the costs enter the test results into your Express Entry profile (and the language test result form or certificate number and test PIN, if the system asks for it).
There is no education requirement for the Canadian Experience Class.
If you want to improve your rank in the Express Entry pool, there are 2 ways you can do this.
- If you went to school in Canada, you can get points for a certificate, diploma or degree from a Canadian: secondary institution (high school) or post-secondary institution;
- If you have foreign education, you can get points if you have both of these a completed educational credential an educational credential assessment report for immigration purposes that is from a designated organization shows your education is equal to a completed certificate,
- diploma or degree from a Canadian secondary institution (high school) or post-secondary institution.
- You may also need:
- provincial nomination (if you have one)
- written job offer from an employer in Canada (if you have one)
- proof of work experience
- certificate of qualification in a trade occupation issued by a Canadian province or territory (if you have one)
- Proof of funds is how you show us that you have enough money to settle in Canada. If we invite you to apply, you must give written proof that you have this money.
- An immigration medical exam (IME) from a panel physician is a requirement for permanent residence. Your family members must also have a medical exam, even if they aren’t coming with you.
You must include police certificates when you apply for permanent residence. Online system will ask for a police certificate for: you and your family members who are 18 years or older and every country you (or a family member) stayed in during the last 10 years for 6 months or more in a row. You don’t need to give us police certificates for any period of time before you were 18 years old or for time spent in Canada.
Other additional documents:
- birth certificate, if you’re declaring dependent children
- Use of a Representative form (PDF, 137 KB), if you’ve hired a representative common-law union form (PDF, 2.22 MB), if you’ve declared your marital status as “common-law”
- marriage certificate, if you’ve declared your marital status as “married”
- divorce certificate and legal separation agreement, if you’ve declared your marital status as “divorced”
- death certificate, if you’ve declared your marital status as “widowed”
- adoption certificate, when a dependent child is listed as “adopted” proof of relationship to a relative in Canada
- digital photos to confirm your identity
- other name to confirm aliases authority to release personal information to a designated individual form (PDF, 1.74 MB)
- any other documents that you feel are relevant to your application.