Canadian Experience Class Program

What is the Canadian Experience Class?

The Canadian Experience Class (CEC) is a Category under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program. The Temporary Foreign Worker’s Program (TFWP) is a program the Canadian government offers to allow Canadian employers to hire foreign nationals. The goal of the TFWP is to help fill genuine and acute labour needs. The program is always reviewed in order to guarantee that the goal is fulfilled and that Canadians never feel and are never displaced.

Requirements of CEC:

• the applicant must plan to live outside of Quebec
• the applicant must have at least 12 months of full-time experience or the equivalent in part-time experience in Canada with the proper authorization in the three years prior to submitting an application
• the applicant must also meet a specific language requirement which either a Canadian Language Benchmark threshold of 5 or more depending on the job

Occupations that are not eligible:

• Administrative officers
• Administrative assistants
• Accounting technicians and bookkeepers
• Retail sales supervisors
• Food service supervisors
• Cooks

If the individual is eligible, he or she may then enter the Express Entry Pool.

What is Express Entry?

Express Entry is a very new way to obtain Permanent Residence in Canada. The complete name of this is Express Entry to manage applications for Permanent Residence under certain economic programs. If you are a potential candidate, you can complete an Express Entry profile at any time. There isn’t any deadline on completing a profile and there will be no caps as to how many people will be accepted into the pool. From this pool of candidates, you may be chosen (only the top candidates are chosen). If you are chosen, you will be invited to apply for Permanent Residence. If you are invited, you have a 60 day deadline to complete and submit an Application for Permanent Residence online. This application will be processed within 6 months or less.

There are two steps when applying for Express Entry:

Potential candidates must complete an online Express Entry profile:

• you will use a secure form that will provide information about your:
• skills
• work experience
• language ability
• education
• other details that will help the immigration officer assess you

Only the highest-ranking candidates will be invited to apply for Permanent Residence

The highest-ranking will be determined on a points based system, called the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). Points will be awarded based on the information provided in ones online profile. Points will be awarded for things such as:

• a job offer
• a nomination from a province or territory (can receive additional points for this)
• skills and experience factors
• a job offer supported by LMIA (additional points)

Under the CRS, points are awarded for core human capital, skill transferability, and a qualifying a job offer from a Canadian employer or a nomination from a Canadian province or territory.

If you are one of the highest-ranking candidates, you will be invited to apply for Permanent Residence. When you receive this invitation, you will have a limited time of 60 days to complete and submit the application online with all the necessary documents. Due to the fact that this is Express Entry, applications will be processed within 6 months or less.

If you have questions about how you would rank, contact us for further details and we would be happy to assist you further.