06.01.2023
It is now time to complete your Express Entry profile and submit your application.
This process occurs in 3 stages.
Please remember that your application quiz may have a couple of extra questions depending on which answers you give, as everyone’s situation is different. For example, if you have a job offer you will be asked for a LMIA number for the role (this will be provided by your employer), if you don’t have a job offer you won’t be asked this question.
Make sure the results you enter are accurate. As you are answering the questions, the system is assessing your eligibility. The calculations the system makes to ensure you meet the eligibility criteria are based on the information you provide.
If you have never worked in Canada, you select None. If you have, then you select either less than one year or one year or more, whichever is appropriate.
If you have worked in Canada, you would then select which occupation NOC code you worked under. If you have never worked in Canada, you will select none of the above.
You will be asked how many years of skilled work experience you have in that occupation. Again, your work experience must be paid, and it must be calculated as full-time equivalent experience.
Which work experience counts and which does not, has some complexities in terms of which occupation the experience falls under, so please read our chapter on work experience to get clear on this if you are someone who has worked in a number of different occupations over the past 10 years.
Make sure you select the required amount for your application or more, otherwise the system will state you are not eligible for Express Entry at this time. Also note that CEC class applicants and applicants with job offers are exempt from needing to prove funds, yet still the system asks the question.
If you have a spouse you will now be asked a series of questions about:
You have now completed your eligibility quiz. Click Next to see your results
This page will state that you are either eligible or not eligible at this time for Express Entry.
If you are eligible, the system will state which program you are eligible for.
You will be asked if you want to continue – click Continue.
If you don’t reach the eligibility criteria it will say that it does not appear that you are eligible at this time, however, it will still allow you to continue to create an Express Entry Profile.
This is useful if you know you will shortly be eligible, as you can update the profile once the extra qualifying criteria are met. So, you can also go ahead and click “Continue” and create your profile.
This profile will not be able to enter the Express Entry pool of candidates and therefore will not be able to receive an Invitation to Apply until you update your information showing you now meet the eligibility criteria.
If you made an error in your answers to the quiz, simply click continue and you can correct the information once you have your profile created.
Once you have clicked continue, you will be taken to a page where you will be asked specific personal information about yourself, as well as some repeated questions from the quiz. Go ahead and fill in this information.
Once you have completed all the required information, each section on the page will state that it is “complete”.
At that point you will provide your digital signature by approving the terms and conditions of the application.
Congratulations, you are now in the Express Entry Pool of Candidates who can receive an Invitation to Apply to Canada as a permanent resident.
What happens now is that your Express Entry application has it’s CRS or Comprehensive Ranking System score calculated. This is the number that will be used to rank you in the Express Entry Pool against other applicants in your Express Entry Class. This information will appear on your Express Entry Profile when you log back in.
You will now wait to receive an ITA or Invitation to Apply, form the Government of Canada.
This invitation means that, based on the information you provided in your Express Entry profile, the Government would like to offer you the opportunity to submit a full application for Permanent Residency.
Invitations to Apply (ITA’s) are sent out via email and will appear as a notification in your Express Entry Profile. Therefore, do make sure that your contact details in your Express Entry Profile are current and correct.
The best thing you can do while waiting for an ITA is to gather all the documents you will need for the next stage of the application process.
Once you receive an ITA, you will have only 60 days to provide all the information they require. You will have to provide scans of a number of documents. Some of these documents require time to obtain and many can be gathered before you receive your ITA.
If you can’t provide the required documents within the 60 days between when you receive your ITA and when it must be submitted, your invitation will expire. You will then have to wait to receive another Invitation to Apply at a later date. Don’t miss your opportunity through not being prepared.
This is a very difficult question to answer, as it depends on a number of factors, such as which program you are applying for, how many points you have on your CRS Comprehensive Ranking Score, and how many places the Canadian Government would like to fill at any given time.
Some applicants receive invitations within 10 days and some take many months to receive an invitation. Occasionally, some applicants do not receive an invitation, and once their Express Entry expires they submit again as a fresh Express Entry application and work on increasing their CRS score.
The simple answer is that it is impossible to tell. Usually, the higher the CRS score the sooner you will receive an invitation to apply.
There have been times where Canada offers many invitations and times where they offer fewer. Canada has a very large target in terms of numbers of newcomers they are hoping to attract, so there will be many hundreds of thousands of invitations being made over the next couple of years. Many applicants will realize their dream of moving to Canada.
As mentioned above, simply resubmit a fresh express entry application as shown above and keep working on increasing your CRS score. Your Express Entry profile will be valid for one year.
If you have not yet received an ITA, simply wait until your Express Entry profile expires and submit a new one. Don’t create a new profile until your old one expires.
Many applicants have received invitations on their second profile, so don’t take not receiving an ITA as a failure, it could simply mean there were more applicant’s during that time, or that Canada made less offers.
Always be on the lookout for ways to increase your Comprehensive Ranking System score to increase your chances. Most importantly – if you don’t have a profile in Express Entry you can’t receive your invitation, so keep your profile live and submitted.
To make changes you simply log in and change your information. You click on the relevant section and then click on the edit option. You change your information and click save and update. It is that simple.
There are many situations where you might need to make changes, such as moving address or even moving to another country, a new job or having a new passport issued, the birth of a child or completing a higher degree.
It is common that people need to update their profile, it is a very simple process. The most important thing is that you do indeed update your profile as your invitation to apply is based on the information you have on your Express Entry profile. If it is incorrect you run the risk of your invitation being withdrawn.