Whenever someone plans to immigrate to Canada, the first and foremost term which everyone comes across is “Express Entry”. There are several sub-programs under “Express Entry” through which an applicant evaluates himself and applies for immigration. I have come across various explanations. Lets go through the Express Entry program in a little detail and understand every piece of it.

Eligibility

This is the first step which where each applicant should check whether he/she is eligible to apply for any of the Express Entry programs for Permanent Resident or not. Being the most important and first step to immigration, the details entered here can be used further to create your Express Entry Profile.

Six Selection Factors (Federal Skilled Worker)

These factors decide whether you can create your profile in Express Entry system. You should be able to score 67 points or higher to qualify.


CRS Score

Moving on to Comprehensive Ranking System Score, this is what gives each applicant a clearer picture about their stance in Express Entry System. CRS score is calculated with various factors. Age, Education, Work Experience, language proficiency, Job offer and relative. There are more factors which are applicable for different situations. A total of 1200 CRS points are available out of which first 600 are for Core and rest 600 additional points are for Canadian Education, Canadian Work Experience, Sibling living in Canada, Job Offer and PNP nomination.


Round of Invitations (aka Draw)

IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) conducts biweekly an invitation of round during which a CRS number is released and those applicants who have CRS greater than or equal to, gets invitations to apply for Permanent Resident Application.  The Invitation rounds are conducted throughout the year. Generally its every secnd Wednesday. However, I have seen various invitation rounds conducted on Mondays as well. I call them “Surprise round” also known as Back-to-Back invitation rounds.

Its funny though many applicants call this process as a DRAW. However, this is not the correct word to define since in a draw, only Lucky applicants get invitations while in “Round of Invitations” those applicants who have a higher score will be invited and every applicant is already aware of CRS before hand.


Permanent Resident Application

The next obvious step after receiving invitation as submitting Permanent Resident application and relevant documents to support your application. This is where each applicant is given 60 days to submit. This is also considered the most important step where even a minor mistake can jeopardize your application. I have seen many applicants submitting wrong documents and being refused for PR. In most cases, IRCC requests for an ADR (Additional Document Request) however this increases the processing time which nobody wants. Each applicant requires different set of documents yet there are some similar.

No link here, since I said, each applicant may need different set of documents.

PR Approved

After submission, it takes from 6-8 months on average to process and approve. During this period, re-search about which city to land and prepare for Job interviews. Trust me, its a big deal to choose your destination city and then hunt for a job. So its better to plan and be ready to experience. Canada is altogether a different world, if you are coming from Asia. Once passports are stamped with a Visa and COPR (Confirmation of Permanent Resident) document is with you, you are ready to land.

Landing and Settlement

Long flights are not everyone’s cup of tea. I have traveled various countries for several years and all I hate is long fly time. Though I loved flights from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. So basically, post landing you have to go through immigration and submit COPR documents. On which the Officers write and confirm that you are now a Permanent Resident and they will welcome you as well. Yes, this is correct, COPR is not your PR confirmation. After getting Visa Stamping, until you land in Canada, you are not a Permanent Resident yet. 

So, post landing you are own your own to settle and find a job. Although, people think its difficult to immigration but Canada is one such country which provides various settlement services. Even the service centers help in finding a job, co-sign lease agreements if you do not have a guarantee and many more such services.

The information provided in this blog is not so much detailed, as I am planning to write each topic separately. This is very much the overall process which everyone has to undergo to be a Canadian Permanent Resident.

I will end my blog here…