The Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) is the main program for skilled immigrants to immigrate to Canada for economic reasons. It selects applicants by focusing on their objective factors such as age, education, language skills, work experience, arranged employment, adoptability and settlement funds. To be selected, the applicants need to accumulate 67/100 points on the FSWP selection grid.

As of 2015, the in-take for the FSWP is managed by the Express Entry (EE). Together with the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), they are 2 major economic streams to immigrate to Canada. The FSWP, EE and PNP are also connected at a decision/selection stage because at some point the EE/PNP selection grid is transfigured and equated to the FSWP selection grid to select successful applicants.

The Express Entry manages three federal programs, called, Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP), and it also manages aligned or  enhanced PNP programs.

The Canadian provinces and territories manage the PNP stream that includes multiple sub-programs that are either aligned with the Express Entry in-take system (enhanced system) or are managed directly by the provinces and territories.

The advantage of PNPs is that they are considered to be alternative ways of immigrating to Canada. If you do not qualify for a federal immigration program because you do not have the right skills or experience, then you can still qualify under a provincial program. For example, most federal programs do not recognize “self-employment” as the work experience, but the Ontario PNP under its Human Capital Priorities Stream recognizes the self-employment as the legitimate work experience.

The first step is to schedule a consultation with us and figure out for what stream you may qualify the most, and from where you should be filing your documents? If you currently live in Canada, then most likely the CEC is the appropriate program for you. Depending on the province you live in, a PNP sub-program also could be appropriate for you. However, if you live overseas, then most likely you qualify for the FSWP, FSTP or PNP (enhanced or direct in-take), depending on your education, experience, knowledge of English and where you want to live in Canada, etc.

Confused? Do not worry because Arcadia Immigration Consulting Inc will guide you through the whole application process.

We will help you to collect appropriate documents, write on your behalf a convincing and persuasive Legal Submission in which we will outline the legal grounds that make you eligible and admissible to Canada, and finally we will submit the application on your behalf.

Every two weeks we will monitor your application for you and if necessary, make inquiries regarding the application with the Ministry of Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Once you agree to be represented by us, we will also support you in finding an employer for you in Canada and review your resume to make sure it meets Canadian standards.

The second step is to work with Arcadia Immigration Consulting Inc to create an appropriate profile for the program for which you qualify the most. This will require that you submit all necessary documents or commit to obtaining them while you are waiting for a decision on your case. This means that not all documents need to be present at the time of creating the profile. Nevertheless, the documents would need to be verified by the government at the time of the decision regarding your file.

Your profile will be graded based on the objective factors already mentioned above. This means that Canada has very competitive immigration programs where only the highest-scoring candidates are selected. Below are provided the categories against which you will be graded.

Step 3 is to wait for the government to get back to you with a decision on your file. The decision comes in the form of Invitation to Apply (ITA) for permanent residence, with which the government is inviting you to move forward in the process by submitting yet another but final  application for the permanent residence.

At Arcadia Immigration Consulting Inc, we recommend to go ahead with the immigration process once we confirm to you that you are eligible for the EE. Indeed, there are several benefits to starting the process sooner rather than later.

Firstly, you give yourself a chance to receive an ITA faster by being in the EE system. Put another way, your chance of getting the ITA when you are not in the system is zero.

Secondly, being in the EE system gives you a chance to receive a PNP nomination which will give you 600 extra points on the EE selection grid, and effectively guarantee you an ITA because the passing score for the EE is roughly +/- 440 points.

Thirdly, being in the system gives you an advantage vis-à-vis the Canadian labour market. It can help you obtain pre-arranged employment, potentially resulting from 50 to 200 more points on the EE selection grid.

A final consideration is your age. Depending on your age, it might be better to enter the pool without delay. You get maximum EE points for age between the ages of 20-29. You start to see your points decline from 30 and onward. At 35+, the FSWP system begins to show signs of discrepancy with the EE system, where it is possible to qualify for the FSWP, but still come short on the EE selection grid.

Fortunately, at Arcadia Immigration Consulting Inc, we always cover all bases because in this way we can hedge your application and expedite its processing. Therefore, we are prepared to submit your application through the EE or PNP streams, if it is necessary. We can also submit both applications simultaneously if you want to even further hedge and expedite your application.

For example, if we apply directly to a PNP sub-program and you obtain a provincial nomination certificate, then you can submit the final application for permanent residency right away, or you can apply for the Express Entry and add 600 points for the nomination to your EE profile. Both ways will lead to permanent residency.

Pilot Programs:

If you cannot immigrate through the regular immigration programs, then you may immigrate through the Canadian temporary pilot programs.

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) lets the Government of Canada to run various pilot programs of temporary nature.

Currently, Canada runs 4 pilot programs: Atlantic Immigration Pilot, Agri-food Pilot, Rural and Norther Immigration Pilot, and Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker Pilot.

The pilots are the “real deal” programs; many individuals have successfully immigrated to Canada through them. These programs are temporary and have limited capacity for in-take applications, so rush to give us a call to guide you through the various requirements.