Permanent residency in Canada in six months: the new program
One of Canada's provinces has launched a new fast-track immigration program. Six months is very fast for Canada. For example, my family waited more than five years.
Canada has a huge shortage of workers since the pandemic, so in 2021 the country launched several new immigration programs for in-demand professionals. Most of these were low-skilled occupations for which it is difficult to find locals.
Read more about the new programs in the article with totals of the year.
But as it turns out, skilled workers are in short supply, too. The province of Alberta now has more than 3,000 companies in the technology sector, which has grown by 233% since 2012 and continues to grow, but employers can't find enough staff.
So the provincial government decided to launch a separate immigration stream — Accelerated Technical Program — for those with technical work experience. It's not just IT-related professions, I'll name the professions that can participate later. The government promises that if you apply through the stream, you'll be a Canadian resident in as little as six months.
Requirements in the new program
Streaming works through Express Entry. This means you must qualify for one of the three federal immigration programs and create a profile in the system. You don't need to score a lot of points in Express Entry, 300 points is enough. And the most important thing is to find a job in Alberta in one of the eligible occupations.
In the meantime, let me tell you more about who can apply. There are three federal programs:
The program for working professions on the program is not suitable, for professionals with Canadian experience you need to work for a year in Canada, so I suggest you consider the program for skilled professionals first.
It requires you to have 1 year of work experience over the last 10 years in your country, a minimum of school education, enough money, I'll come back to that later, and knowledge of English or French at IELTS level 6, that's above average.
Most importantly, you must score 67 points in the skilled trades program to be eligible to enroll in Express Entry.
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Wait, I think you are now wondering where the 67 points came from when you have to score a minimum of 300. The fact is that the federal program for immigration to Canada counts points differently than Express Entry. First you have to score 67 out of a possible 100 points in this program, and only then can you register for Express Entry and there count a different score where you have to score a minimum of 300 out of a possible 1200 points.
Check out how scores are calculated in the skilled trades program to figure out the ins and outs.
With a job offer, scoring these points is not that difficult. If you have a year of work experience, a bachelor's degree, an IELTS score of 6, and you are between the ages of 18 and 35, you will get 68 points. If you are older, you can score more points with more work experience.
Let's imagine that you have a low level of language, and there is no way you can get it to 6 in IELTS. Then there is an option to use the program for professionals with Canadian experience. If your profession is working, and they are also on the list, then you can pass IELTS to 5, this is the intermediate level. But to do this you will need on your job offer to get a work visa first, work in Canada for a year, and only then can you apply for permanent residency. Again, this is only for blue-collar jobs, skilled professionals will have to pass IELTS 6 anyway.
If you qualify and register for Express Entry, you need to score 300 points there. As an example, I will take the same candidate as in the skilled trades program: one year of work experience, bachelor's degree, IELTS at 6 points, there is an offer to work in Alberta, the age here should be more precise, let it be 30 years old. Such a candidate scores 369 points, which means you qualify for the Alberta program, and there is still a margin for points if you are over 30.
Suitable occupations
Once you have registered for Express Entry and scored the right score, you can apply for a nomination from Alberta. But there is still a list of eligible professions that can participate in the program.
There are two requirements for a job in the Accelerated Technical Stream at once: the company where you found the job must be engaged in a certain business and your profession must be on the list of suitable ones. Of the companies suitable are manufacturers of various computer and medical equipment, software, telecommunications operators, providers of design, engineering, repair services, and so on.
The list of professions is impressive. There are web designers, software developers, computer engineers, simple managers, analysts, advertising people, electricians, medical technologists, engineers, and so on.
For more information about the Accelerated Technical Program, see our article.
If you meet all the requirements and get a nomination from Alberta, you will have 600 points added to Express Entry, and you can easily get an invitation to the provincial program selections that regularly take place. There, the passing score is usually over 700, but you will have a minimum of 300 plus 600 for the nomination, for a total of 900.
Now let's move on to the money requirements. Since the program works through Express Entry, the financial requirements are the same as the federal immigration programs, which is high. You will have to show more than $13,000 CAD for one person and more than $20,000 CAD for three people.
Alternative Program
To summarize, the program is good only in that it promises an accelerated receipt of permanent residence permit and say that they will consider applications on a priority basis. Otherwise, the requirements are high, and many people will not fit the program.
But there is a similar program in Canada where the requirements are simpler — it is the British Columbia Technical Program. There, too, you need a job offer, 1 year of work experience, but the language requirement is lower — from 4 points on the IELTS. You also don't have to register for Express Entry, and there are likely to be more job openings at BC.
The two disadvantages of the Technical Program are that there are only 29 eligible professions and you have to show more money in the accounts: from $19,000 CAD for one person and from $29,000 for three people. If you have some sort of technical profession or you are a programmer, I recommend considering both programs to see which one suits you best.
Friends, if you want to know more about immigration, be sure to stay tuned to this site for updates. For example, I recently talked about the surest ways to get permanent residency in 2022 and what you can do right now to immigrate.
Alex Pavlenko, founder of Immigrant.Today
