Express Entry And LMIA Requirements

From January 1, 2015, the Citizenship and Immigration Canada launched a new permanent residence program to handle the huge number of existing economic immigration programs (Federal Skilled Worker Program, Federal Skilled Trades Program, Canadian Experience Class) applications, called Express Entry.

In order to comply with the local labour market requirements, all the provinces and territories will also be choosing candidates in conjunction with the Express Entry program.

Canadian employers first have to find a Canadian or permanent resident to fill the available job vacancy. If the employer cannot find any Canadian or permanent resident for that particular job then he or she can choose candidates from available express entry pools who meet the job terms.

The Express Entry and the Government of Canada’s Job Bank will help to connect qualified employers and foreign nationals and make them to integrate quickly after arriving in Canada.

The Invitation to Apply (ITA) will be issued to those candidates who have the highest scores in the pool.

The candidates will obtain points on the basis of:

• A valid job offer and/or
• A provincial/territorial nomination and/or
• Skills and experience- any essential element or skill that prove success in Canada

The Canadian employer has to advertise the available job position on the National /Provincial Job Bank for at least one month and it should be there until the employer receives a positive LMIA. The employer also needs to use two other sources to advertise that job position. One of them should be national in scope.

The Canadian employer also has to submit his or her Transition Plan with the application of Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). The purpose of the Transition Plan is that the Canadian employer ensures that he or she is taking necessary step to reduce their reliance on the temporary foreign workers.

This is for stream for high-skilled occupations – high-wage workers and stream for high-skilled occupations – low-wage workers are exempt from the Transition Plan. There is a cap on low-wage temporary foreign workers

The Province of Quebec does not have Express Entry and they choose their own skilled workers separately.

This new Express Entry program may seem overwhelming and many of the old rules are now changing. If you require any additional assistance, feel free to contact us and we would be happy to assist you achieve your immigration goals.