Eligibility criteria for federal skilled worker applications as of July 1, 2011

Under changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, federal skilled worker applications are assessed for eligibility according to the criteria listed below. Note: This does not apply to applicants intending to live in the province of Quebec.

These criteria affect you only if you applied on or after July 1, 2011. If your application was received before July 1, 2011, it will be processed according to the rules that were in effect at that time.

Note: If you are applying under one of the 29 eligible occupations, as of July 1, 2011, a maximum of 10,000 Federal Skilled Worker applications will be considered for processing in the following 12 months. Within the 10,000 cap, a maximum of 500 federal skilled worker applications per eligible occupation will be considered for processing each year.

These limits do not apply to applications with an offer of arranged employment.

Is my application eligible for processing?

For your application to be eligible for processing, you must include the results of your official language proficiency test, and fall into one of these three categories:

1. Skilled workers with a valid offer of arranged employment.
2. International students enrolled in a PhD program at a provincially or territorially recognized private or public post-secondary educational institution in Canada who:
   
   • have completed at least two years of study towards a PhD
   • are in good academic standing at the time they apply
   • are not recipients of an award requiring them to return to their home country to apply their knowledge and skills, OR
   International students who graduated from a PhDprogram at a provincially or territorially recognized private or public post-secondary educational institution in Canada who:
   
   • graduated no more than 12 months before the date their application is received
   • did not receive an award which required them to return to their home country to apply their knowledge and skills (or did, but have satisfied the terms of the award).
   (A maximum of 1,000 applications from this category will be considered for processing each year. This will not be included in the total for any other cap. Applications will be considered in order they are received. The first cap year for the PhD stream begins on November 5, 2011.)
3. Skilled workers with one year of continuous full-time or equivalent part-time paid work experience in at least one of the following eligible occupations within the last ten years:
   • 0631 Restaurant and Food Service Managers
   • 0811 Primary Production Managers (Except Agriculture)
   • 1122 Professional Occupations in Business Services to Management (Cap reached)
   • 1233 Insurance Adjusters and Claims Examiners
   • 2121 Biologists and Related Scientists
   • 2151 Architects
   • 3111 Specialist Physicians
   • 3112 General Practitioners and Family Physicians
   • 3113 Dentists
   • 3131 Pharmacists
   • 3142 Physiotherapists
   • 3152 Registered Nurses (Cap reached)
   • 3215 Medical Radiation Technologists
   • 3222 Dental Hygienists & Dental Therapists
   • 3233 Licensed Practical Nurses
   • 4151 Psychologists
   • 4152 Social Workers
   • 6241 Chefs
   • 6242 Cooks
   • 7215 Contractors and Supervisors, Carpentry Trades
   • 7216 Contractors and Supervisors, Mechanic Trades
   • 7241 Electricians (Except Industrial & Power System)
   • 7242 Industrial Electricians
   • 7251 Plumbers
   • 7265 Welders & Related Machine Operators
   • 7312 Heavy-Duty Equipment Mechanics
   • 7371 Crane Operators
   • 7372 Drillers & Blasters - Surface Mining, Quarrying & Construction
   • 8222 Supervisors, Oil and Gas Drilling and Service

NOTE: the occupations above are all Skill Type 0 (managerial occupations) or Skill Level A (professional occupations) or B (technical occupations and skilled trades) on the Canadian National Occupational Classification list.

If you are not sure if you should apply as a skilled worker, you can use the Come to Canada Wizard to get an idea of whether your application would be eligible for processing.

If you apply and do not meet the above criteria, you will be informed of this and  your processing fee will be refunded.

There are many ways to immigrate to Canada. If you don’t meet the criteria to apply under the Federal Skilled Worker Program, you may qualify under another category. Learn more about your options.


Source: CIC, Canada