Express Entry

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As of January 2015, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has a new electronic system called Express Entry to manage applications for permanent residence under certain economic immigration programs. Canada has changed its economic immigration programs to give more opportunities to prospective skilled immigrants.

The Express Entry system is the first step to immigrate to Canada under these programs. Potential candidates can complete an Express Entry profile at any time. Note that there is no deadline to complete a profile and there are no caps on the number of candidates that will be accepted to the pool.

Anyone who is accepted into the Express Entry pool could get an Invitation to Apply for permanent residence. Rounds of invitations to invite candidates to apply will take place regularly over the course of each year. Only the top-ranking candidates will be picked no matter when they were accepted into the pool.

If you are invited to apply, you will have 60 days to submit a complete Application for Permanent Residence.

Express entry is used to manage the following economic programs:

• Federal Skilled Worker Program
  
• Federal Skilled Trades Program
  
• Canadian Experience Class 
  

A portion of Provincial Nominee Programs

How does it work?​​

Step 1
Potential candidates create an online Express Entry profile

Step 2
Selected candidates are invited to submit an electronic application for permanent residence

Completing an Express Entry profile does not guarantee that you will receive an Invitation to Apply for permanent residence. If you misrepresented yourself (gave false information or left out important details),  your application will be refused. In that case:

• your application could be refused,
  
• you could be found inadmissible, and
  
• you could be barred for five years from applying for permanent resident status.