Express Entry in a nutshell

rajkamalm / September 22, 2015

I wanted to write this post for people who are planning to apply for
Permanent Residence in Canada through the Express Entry system.
This post would serve as a guide and explain what the process is like,
what to expect and what NOT to do when you apply.

I shall update this post from time to time to keep up with the updates
that CIC would be throwing at us! I will do my best to keep this post up
to date and to keep all the information in this post valid and correct.
This post is intended for anyone who wants to get a glimpse of how the
process works.

This is basically a 2 step process. You first submit an online Express

Entry profile and you receive an ITA and after that you apply for
permanent residence.

So, lets get started. I shall explain the process in 3 parts: Pre-
Application, Pre-ITA and Post-ITA. (Dont worry, youll soon find out
what an ITA is).

Ill give you guys a brief description of the 3 parts I have mentioned
above.

Pre-application phase A phase where you have NOT created an

online Express Entry (hereafter referred to as EE) profile. You do not
have a profile number.

Pre-ITA phase A phase where you have created an online profile and

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 you are waiting to get your Invitation to Apply (hereafter referred to as
ITA).

Post-ITA phase A phase where you have received an ITA and you are
all set to submit your Permanent Resident (hereafter referred to as PR)
application to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (hereafter referred
to as CIC).

PRE-APPLICATION PHASE

You will go through the following in the pre-application phase:

1. Deciding to come to Canada

Take a piece of paper and write down why you want to come to
Canada. Outline your settlement plan; try to research how you would
support yourself and the job prospects in Canada. Please do not paint
a rosy picture, dont think Canada will be a land of milk and honey right
after you land here. You have to build a life for yourself so DO NOT plan
to relax as soon as you get here.

If you are determined to work smart and put in sincere efforts once you
get here, you will be a successful immigrant in your new home
Canada.

2. Checking if you are eligible

To apply to Express Entry, you must satisfy certain criteria. We shall

discuss this below.

You should be eligible under one of the Economic Immigration

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 programs (Federal Skilled Worker Program [ hereafter referred to as
FSW/FSWP], Federal Skilled Trades [hereafter referred to as FST] or
Canadian Experience Class [hereafter referred to as CEC].

Eligibility criteria for FSWP

Eligibility criteria for FST

Eligibility criteria for CEC stream

From this point on, I will limit the information to FSW program
alone.

For FSWP, you need to score at least 67 points out of 100 to be eligible.
You can manually calculate your points based on the criteria outlined in
the CIC webpage (on the link that is provided).

So, are you eligible? Do you score at least 67/100 points? If no, Im very
sorry, you are not eligible to apply under the FSWP. If yes, keep your
fingers crossed, you have another set of criteria to satisfy to be eligible
for Express Entry.

You must use the Come to Canada tool to check if you are eligible
under Express Entry.

Provide answers to the questions and the tool will tell you if you are
eligible or not. The basic eligibility criteria are as follows :

1. A) You need to have your language test results ready (English or

French I shall write a separate post about this later).
2. B) You need to have an ECA report for your academic
degrees/diplomas if they were not obtained from Canada. You can

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 learn about the ECA process here
3. C) You need to have at least one year continuous, full-time (at
least 30 hours per week/1560 hours per year) or equivalent part-
time experience in an occupation that is categorized under NOC 0,
A or B in the past 10 years.
4. D) You need to have unfettered access to sufficient funds (that are
unencumbered) depending on your family size (for the case in
point here, dependents include your spouse and your dependent
children). This money may not be borrowed from another
person. You can check how much funds you need here.

So, what does the tool say? Are you eligible? No? Im sorry, you can
check if you are eligible under any other immigration program. If yes,
congratulations, you have cleared one hurdle on your path to attaining
your Permanent Residence. You will receive a code that is called the
Personal Reference Code. You need this to create your online EE
profile.

3. Creating your online Express Entry profile:

Congratulations! You are eligible and all set to create your online
Express Entry profile. To proceed you will need a couple of things:

A) As mentioned before, you would need the Personal Reference code.

B) You need to create a myCIC account, if you do not have one

already.

C) You will need your language tests Test Report Form (hereafter
referred to as TRF) number AND your ECA report number to create
and submit a complete profile.

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 D) You need to register with Canadas Job Bank for CIC to deem
your application as complete. The only people who are exempted from
this requirement are the ones who have a job offer endorsed with a
positive Labor Market Impact Assessment (hereafter referred to as
LMIA) or people who are already working in Canada.

Please note that you need a login credential to create a myCIC account;
you can login through a sign-in partner or by creating a GC key. I will
discuss, in pristine detail, the end to end process involved in creating
an EE profile (with screenshots) in a separate post since the scope of
this post is only to provide some basic insight on how the EE system
works.

You will have created your profile by now. Now you have to sit down
patiently and wait for your ITA. The odds of getting an ITA are directly
proportional to your CRS. Higher your CRS, higher the chances of
getting invited. This is the end of the pre-application phase.

Please find the step-by-step details here

PRE-ITA PHASE

As I have already mentioned before, this phase requires you to wait and
have patience. Roughly speaking, CIC conducts draws twice a month.
The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration decides the cut-off score
for the particular draw. You can see the rounds of invitation here. If your
score is greater than or equal to the cut-off score selected by CIC, you
will get an ITA.

One thing that youll have to do here is keep an eye on the draws and

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 your CRS. You have to see how close you are to the previous/recent
draws. I must admit that CIC is extremely unpredictable in this regard;
the draws are random and the CRS cannot be predicted in advance, so
to speak. So, depending on your CRS, you might want to consider
applying for Provincial Nomination, which has been discussed at the
end of this section.

In the pre-ITA phase, you can start collecting the documents that you
are expected to submit once you get an ITA. Some of the documents
that you can prioritize on getting are Police Clearance Certificates and
your Employer reference letters. I will be discussing this in detail below.

A) Police Clearance Certificates or PCC are they are known as are

required for the PA, spouse and children over 18 years of age from their
country of residence AND all other countries where they have been for
a continuous period of 6 months or more. Getting a foreign PCC can be
a tedious and a painstakingly long process so it is imperative to be
proactive to avoid delays and get things done on time. PCC issued by a
foreign county is valid indefinitely if it was issued during or after your
last visit to that country. Please note that local PCCs can be obtained
after you receive the ITA because it usually takes less time.

B) Employer Reference letters are required for the PA. The reference
letter must be as specified by CIC. You can find the details of what the
reference letters should be like in the link provided at the end of this
section.

Depending on where the applicant works, the time taken for employers
to issue these reference letters vary. So, it is important to be prepared
and apply for the reference letter at the earliest. Please note that

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 reference letters issued by employers while you quit the job is valid
indefinitely while the reference letter issued by your current employer is
generally valid for one year.

C) Proof of funds (POF) is a very important part of your

documentation. While you are awaiting your ITA, you can prepare to
show your funds. You DO NOT need to get any bank letter/document at
this stage but if you need to arrange funds (like selling a car or
liquidating assets like selling gold etc.) you have to start planning on
how you are going to show your funds. CIC requires that the funds be
unencumbered by any debt or obligation to re-pay. These funds must
be liquid (You should be able to convert it to hard cash whenever
required). You can see what CIC allows you to show as POF in the link
provided at the end of the section.

D) Provincial Nominee Program (hereafter referred to as PNP) can be

put to use if you think your CRS is not up to the mark. PNP are
immigration schemes of the provincial/territorial governments by which
they pick applicants who they think are suitable to fulfill the demand in
their province. Some provinces require a full-time job offer from a
Canadian Employer and some dont. Some provinces process the
applications electronically and some provinces still use the old-school
snail mail method. Some provinces prefer applicants whose job falls
under a particular NOC. There is variety. You can check the website of
the province that you are interested in to learn more. If you get a
provincial nomination, it will add 600 points to your CRS which means,
in most cases, you will get an ITA in the very next draw.

Alright! So you have certain documents ready and Voila! You received
an ITA. Great! Your next step is to accept the ITA and file your PR

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 application electronically (e-APR).

Please note that if you will not be able to submit any of the
necessary documents, you must consider declining the ITA and re-
enter the pool to get another ITA.

We have now come to the end of the pre-ITA section.

For the complete EE Checklist, click here.

POST-ITA PHASE

This is a very important phase and this is where your application will
either be accepted or rejected. Once you get an ITA, you have 60 days
to file a complete application e-APR (electronic Application for
Permanent Residence). You need to gather all the required documents.
You need to undergo a medical test (The details of the test are outlined
later in the section). Once you submit a complete application, CIC will
determine if you will receive a visa or not within a period of 6 months or
less.

POF/Reference letters can be obtained post-ITA too (depending on

your personal circumstance).

A) Medical examination is, by far, one of the most important post-ITA

processes. The medical test is to ensure that you or your
dependents do not have any serious/contagious diseases AND you will
not be a burden to the Canadian healthcare system initially. You and all
your dependents (whether accompanying or not) MUST undergo a
medical test. Please note that this medical test must be performed by a

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 doctor who is a CIC designated panel physician. Pregnant applicants or
applicants can choose to complete their medical exam after the baby is
born (since chest X-ray is a part of the tests) OR can choose to go
ahead with the tests by wearing a lead apron. After the tests are done,
you will get an upfront medical form. You will upload this form along
with the other documents on the checklist.

B) Passports/Travel Documents must be submitted for the PA,

spouse and for dependent children.

These two, along with other documents mentioned above (and in

the checklist) must be submitted as a part of your post-ITA
documentation.

Alright! So now you have all the documents available in the checklist.
You are now all set to submit your application. Please follow the
instructions given by CIC very carefully and fill the online application.
Upload all the required documents. When you feel the need to explain
something to CIC (like large recent deposits on your account or any
other unusual circumstance), PLEASE submit a Letter of Explanation
(LOE) along with the documents so that the officer who is assessing
your case understands why you have not submitted the document in
the prescribed format/why you are submitting an alternate document.
Remember, you only have 60 days to submit your application. If you do
not submit a complete application within this period, the validity of your
ITA will lapse. You would then need to re-enter the pool and wait for a
brand new ITA and have to start your e-APR from scratch.

Any changes to your personal circumstance (like the pregnancy of

self/spouse, birth of a child, death/divorce etc.) MUST be reported to

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 the VO at the earliest. If you DO NOT report these changes, it amounts
to misrepresentation and your application will be rejected and you will
be barred from re-applying again for 5 years.

After you submit your application, your medical records are checked. If
everything is fine, your application goes into processing. At this stage,
the background checks are performed. CIC might sometimes choose
to call your employer to verify your employment history if they feel they
need to verify. If the VO feels he/she needs more information, then you
will be asked to upload further documents. You *might* be asked to
attend an interview if the need be. If everything goes fine, you will get a
Passport Request (PPR) and a Decision Made (DM) within 6 months of
submission of complete application.

You can submit your passport (along with dependents passport, if they
are accompanying you to Canada) at the nearest VFS. They will send
your passport to the embassy and deliver your passport back to you
after the stamping is done. You will get a Confirmation of Permanent
Residence (COPR) letter along with your passport that is stamped with
the Maple Leaf Visa

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 . You need to carry BOTH your passport(with the stamped visa) and the
COPR when you are travelling to Canada.

Please ensure that you verify all the details on your Visa and COPR. If
there are any discrepancies, report it to your VO at once.

Please note that you and your dependents MUST land in

Canada before your (and their) medical test expires (The validity of the

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 medical test is 1 year from the date of the test) OR before your current
passport expires, WHICHEVER COMES FIRST. Also, please note that
the dependents can either land ALONG with the PA or at a later date
after the PA has landed BUT UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE CAN THE
DEPENDENTS LAND BEFORE THE PA LANDS.

I hope, as a reader, you will be satisfied with the information on this

blog post. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. Feel
free to share your suggestions about this post. Also, if you want me to
add something to this post/write a post on other related topics, please
ask. Thanks!

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