How you can immigrate to Canada, how to protect yourself from fraud and what to expect after you arrive in Canada.

Immigrate as a Express Entry: The application process for skilled immigrants who want to settle in Canada permanently and take part in our economy.

How Express Entry works

Express Entry is an online system that we use to manage immigration applications from skilled workers.

Eligibility to apply as a Federal Skilled Worker (Express Entry)

The Federal Skilled Worker Program is for skilled workers who have work experience and want to become permanent residents.

Minimum requirements

To be eligible, you must meet all the minimum requirements for:

  • skilled work experience
  • language ability
  • education

If you meet all the minimum requirements, we’ll assess your application based on additional selection factors.

Skilled work experience

Skilled work experience means that you’ve worked in 1 of these National Occupational Classification (NOC) TEER categories:

  • TEER 0
  • TEER 1
  • TEER 2
  • TEER 3

You must show that while working in your primary occupation, you performed the duties set out in the lead statement of the occupational description in the NOC. This includes all the essential duties and most of the main duties listed.

Your skilled work experience must

  • be in the same type of job (have the same NOC) as the job you want to use for your immigration application (called your primary occupation)
  • have been obtained within the last 10 years, in Canada or abroad
  • be paid work (you must have been paid wages or earned commission—volunteer work or unpaid internships don’t count)
  • be at least 1 year of continuous work or 1,560 hours total (30 hours per week)
    • You can meet this in a few different ways:
      • full time at 1 job: 30 hours/week for 12 months = 1 year full time (1,560 hours)
      • equal amount in part-time work: for example 15 hours/week for 24 months = 1 year full time (1,560 hours)
        • You can work as many part-time jobs as you need to meet this requirement.
      • full time at more than 1 job: 30 hours/week for 12 months at more than 1 job = 1 year full time (1,560 hours)

Part-time work experience

Your skilled work experience must be paid work including paid wages or earned commission. We don’t count volunteer work or unpaid internships.

For part-time work, you can work more or less than 15 hours/week as long as it adds up to 1,560 hours. You can work more than 1 part-time job to get the hours you need to apply.

We don’t count any hours you work above 30 hours/week.

Student work experience

Work experience gained while you were studying may count towards your minimum requirements if the work: