Federal Skilled Worker candidates received majority of Express Entry ITAs in 2018

(Check out our complete overview of the official 2018 Express Entry Report here.)

The Federal Skilled Worker Class, also known as the Federal Skilled Worker Program, is a points-based program through which skilled workers from around the world and their families may immigrate to Canada quickly.

The process of immigrating to Canada as a federal skilled worker may be considered in two steps. First, candidates are assessed according to the FSW points system. You must score at least 67 points (out of 100) on this grid in order to be eligible.

In addition, you must:

• Have at least one year of continuous full-time or equivalent paid work experience in the past 10 years in a skilled occupation (National Occupational Classification skill level 0, A or B); and
• Prove language ability in English and/or French by taking a standardized language test recognized by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

If eligible, you may create an Express Entry profile and enter the Express Entry pool, where you are assigned a points total under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS)and ranked against other candidates in the pool. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) conducts draws from the Express Entry pool, where the highest-ranked candidates will each be sent an invitation to apply (ITA). With an ITA, you have 60 days to submit a complete application for permanent residence.

The Federal Skilled Worker Class is one of three federal economic immigration programs aligned with Express Entry, the other two bring the Federal Skilled Trades Class (FSTC) and the Canadian Experience Class (CEC).

For candidates without experience in a trades occupation and without at least one year of skilled Canadian work experience, the Federal Skilled Worker Class remains the only Express Entry program available.

It should be noted that 10,802 invited candidates in 2018 were provincial nominees; that is to say, they were nominated by a Canadian province or territory under an Express Entry-aligned Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) stream. Such a nomination results in an additional 600 Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) points, effectively guaranteeing an ITA soon after.

Provincial nominees need to be eligible under one of the FSW, FST, or CEC programs in order to enter the pool in the first place. Therefore, the true share of FSW-eligible candidates invited may be even higher than 53 percent.

Express Entry invitations issued in 2018 by immigration program

The information in this article is from the year-end 2018 Express Entry report, which was published by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in early July 2019.

See our other summaries from the 2018 Express Entry Year-End Report, including:

• Where invited candidates are living when they are invited
• The most popular destinations in Canada for Express Entry applicants
• Invitations by occupation
• Invitations by country of citizenship
• Updated processing times for Express Entry applications