I need to thanks all the friends who helped me in the process, in particular P.W. and G.L. for their numerous advices and the time they spend answering my never ending questions :-)
- Comprehensive Ranking System
- Know your CRS points
- Know the current CRS "cut-off"
- Organize yourself / project management
- Task organisation (how I did it with Trello)
- Consideration on document format and signatures
- Jobs
- NOC NOC what am I even doing ?
- Job offer
- Proof past jobs
- Proof of job experience -- template
- Planning : a good timing is important
- Timing considerations
- Know your CRS points
- Know the current CRS "cut-off"
- Task organisation (how I did it with Trello)
- Consideration on document format and signatures
- Jobs
- NOC NOC what am I even doing ?
- Job offer
- Proof past jobs
- Proof of job experience -- template
- Planning : a good timing is important
Comprehensive Ranking System
Know your CRS points (Comprehensive Ranking System)
Use the online calculation tool to evaluate the number of points you can claim.- CRS / SGC calculation tool, the interactive version :
- https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/crs-tool.asp (English)
- https://www.cic.gc.ca/francais/immigrer/qualifie/scg-outil.asp (Français)
- CRS / SGC same data without the calculation tool good to understand the repartition of points :
- https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/eligibility/criteria-comprehensive-ranking-system/grid.html (English)
- https://www.canada.ca/fr/immigration-refugies-citoyennete/services/immigrer-canada/entree-express/admissibilite/criteres-systeme-classement-global/grille.html (French)
As you'll notice the CRS calculation tool doesn't need any registration so you can play with it to evaluate different hypothesis (you'll find other ressources online with advices on how to enhance your score, I didn't need it but it usually varies between completing some Canadian experience either working or studying, finishing and validating a degree, enhancing your language skills, getting a job offer letter...)
Note on Language skills
You should pass your exam before sending your file since you'll need the actual results to prove the claimed points, but for the initial CRS calculations just start by assessing yourself what you think your level is worth in either language.
- (FR) https://www.canada.ca/fr/immigration-refugies-citoyennete/services/immigrer-canada/entree-express/documents/exigences-linguistiques/evaluation-competences-linguistiques.html
- (EN) https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/documents/language-requirements/language-testing.html
Know the current CRS "cut-off"
There are various pages with historical data, follow the newsletters, and keep an eye on the current tendency. This is important to understand if you qualify for the express entry programs and what are your chances to be invited to submit a demand.- Official CRS cut-off : https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/submit-profile/rounds-invitations.html
- CRS score distribution of candidates in the Express Entry pool : https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/submit-profile/rounds-invitations.html
Organize yourself
Task organisation (how I did it with Trello)
Personally, I used a Trello board with the following columns, since I'm familiar with the tool.- Todo
- Waiting External
- Added to the File
- Done !
- (not applicable)
Consideration on document, document formats, and handwritten signatures
Jobs
NOC NOC what am I even doing ? - Job reference
- NOC (EN) https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/eligibility/find-national-occupation-code.html
- CNP (FR) https://www.canada.ca/fr/immigration-refugies-citoyennete/services/immigrer-canada/entree-express/admissibilite/trouver-classification-nationale-professions.html
Job offer
- you might need an LMIA (Labor Market Impact Assessment), in this case it's a bit more tricky: it takes time and requires your employer to pay some fees, do some administrative tasks properly and be willing to wait for your work-permit. Most of them will rather go for a closed work permit in this case. Also, note that employers in Canada are used to have a higher turnover than in France (it's a suggested 2 weeks resignation notice for example; they're usually filling the gaps ASAP, so waiting a few months to a year is not always
- so if you claim points with a job offer, try to find a "LMIA exempt" case.
Proof of past jobs
- You'll need to ask each of your former and current employers a certificate with the following details in mind :
- The immigration agents will evaluate your job history, but they do not know your jobs. They will try to compare your job certificates with the NOC descriptions, that's the administrative tool they've got on hand.
- Your past/current employers do not know the NOC (usually) but know what you've been doing, for how long, and how much you were paid, so of course, they can validate this and sign some certificates about this, but they'll most likely have other most urgent task than writing this => do you work and ask them to validate what you need on the proof of employement.
- => You are the one who understands both your jobs at the time, the NOC and the immigration process.
- for Canadian employers it even makes sense to write the NOC reference explicitly
- for foreign employers, it does not makes sense to write the NOC ref, but you can nevertheless still describe your jobs duties to be as close as possible to the NOC tasks descriptions you found and are claiming points for !
- one NOC reference per job. That's it. Even if it would matches 2 of them. Pick the closest match.
- Send exactly what you need on the documents to your employers. It'll be their responsibility to check before they sign of course, but you'll save a lot of time in the process.
example in French of employment attestation. This was actually a copy-paste from a previous e-mail. |
- Scan all your pay-slips, contracts, contract modifications, etc. those also are proof of employment (the more, the merrier).
- Send a template already filled with what you would like to see on the certificate to your past employers : As a minimum, you should include in your template the following informations and requests :
- This certificate should be written on an official letterhead paper of your employer.
- Precise start date, precise end date (or stating that this is your current employer).
- Number of hours worked per week.
- Positions occupied, and precise start date and end date for each position.
- For each position, tasks that you handled.
- Note : that's where the NOC tasks descriptions is important...
- Annual salary, including benefits if any.
- Employer contact
- address
- phone number
- e-mail)
- Official HANDWRITTEN signature of your direct manager, or the official HR person in charge, with their name written clearly in capital letters. Let me insist on the handwritten : Canadian immigration do not like seeing a numerically copy-pasted signature, even if you are primarily sending your documents in PDF make sure to receive the paper version for your archives (just in case), and if in a hurry ask for the scanned PDF version right away.
- Date of the signature
- Note : the date should be as close as possible to the date when you'll be sending your file after your invitation, even better if this was written after your invitation.
- Up to date certificate (with all the details mentioned before)
- ALL my payslips scanned
- ALL my contracts scanned, including revisions
Planning : a good timing is important
- Language exam (takes ~ 2.5 months): finding the proper exam took 1h, booking it was online in the city where I was living at the time, and the closest date was ... 1 month later ! it then took ~ 1.5 month to get the result
- Make sure to select a Language exam that matches the Canadian Immigration criteria
- Passing 2 different languages will not give you much points as you'll see in the CRS calculation link.
- French test gives a few more points than English (7 if I recall correctly).
- List all your residencies adresses
- List all your travels
- List all your education
- List all jobs / employers and prepare to reach them : make sure you've got the proper contacts up to date, prepare the requests you'll send them... (More on this topic on the previous section... )
Note Since 18th birthday: For each of the lists with dates (residencies, educations, employers, travels), even if you're more than 28 and can theoretically declare only the last 10 years, but you can/should gather and declare everything since you were 18.
- Education assessment (2 to 6 months) : this depends on your institution(s), my university didn't sent the proper files so I had to do a back and forth that cost me a few extra months.
- You need to do an education assessments for the diplomas if you are claiming some points. I used "WES", which at the time seemed the be the fastest one, other options are listed on the Canadian immigration website :
- https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/documents/education-assessed/how.html
- For each of your past and current jobs find the appropriate National Occupational Classification or NOC ( https://noc.esdc.gc.ca/ ) reference.
Indeed, this is what will be used by the immigration agents to assess if your job matches the points you are claiming.
Timing considerations
- In parallel, before formerly applying :
- 2.5 months for the Language Exam
- 6 months for the Education Assessment
- some time to prepare the employment proofs certificates
- some time to prepare all the data for the residencies, education, travels (!), etc.
- < 1 week between my application and being drawn from the PR pool
- ~ 40 days to gather all my employers certificates, pass the medical exam and put all the data on the website.
- ~ 4 months to get the "invitation to become PR". This is the invitation to present at the immigration agents to actually become PR. If you're already in Canada you'll need to exit the country and re-enter, aka. flagpole turn. You will need a safe mailing address in Canada to receive your car afterward.
- ~ 1 month to get the PR card by mail