The Canadian Experience Class facilitates foreign workers who have gained work experience in Canada obtain Permanent Residence status based on a skilled occupation. There are a few basic requirements:
- Plan to live outside the province of Quebec
- Have at least 12 months of full-time (or an equal amount in part-time) skilled work experience in Canada in the three years before you apply,
- Have gained your experience in Canada with the proper authorization
- Meet the required language levels needed for your job for each language ability: speaking, reading, writing, and listening.
In addition to these basic requirements, there are factors that you should also consider in addition to the above should you wish to be successful in applying through the Canadian Experience Class.
Skilled Work
In order to ensure that you have been working in a skilled profession, the Canadian Experience Class application requires that your position be classified with the National Occupational Classification. This is a database of occupations based on duties and skill level.
Follow these steps to determine if your work experience is in an occupation that meets the minimum requirement to apply under the Canadian Experience Class:
- Go to the National Occupational Classification website
- Search for your occupation. You can search based on title, key words, subject etc.
- If you have work experience in occupations that meet the minimum requirements for workers with Skill Type 0, or Skill Level A or B of the National Occupational Classification, you are eligible to apply under the Canadian Experience Class.
Combined work experience in several different occupations may also count towards meeting the work experience requirement, provided all occupations are at the NOC skill levels noted above.
Work Experience Requirements
In order to have your work experience qualify for the Canadian Experience Class, you must have obtained this experience for at least 12 months on a fulltime or equivalent part time basis. The work experience will also need to be classified as either:
- NOC 0 – Managerial
- NOC A – Professional
- NOC B – High Skilled
The work experience will need to have been obtained at least 36 months preceding the date you properly completed application is received however, you do not have to be employed at the time of your application.
Any periods of self-employment, unauthorized work, or periods of employment during which you were engaged in full-time study (e.g. work experience gained on a co-op, off-campus or on-campus work permit) will not be considered when calculating the timeframe of your work experience.