Canada Express Entry Details Announced: Good News for Highly Skilled Migrants

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has announced Express Entry points system details giving a glimpse of how the program will work. Canada will start accepting applications from January 1, 2015, and successful candidates will receive a response within 6 months. Unlike Federal Skilled Migration Program in which skills are calculated on a scale of 100, a total of 1,200 points will be allotted in the Express Entry  program. There won't be any minimum point requirement, but only the ones who score the highest will be offered permanent residency to Canada. The points will be allotted as follows:

• A maximum of 500 points for human capital factors like age, education, experience, and language will be awarded; 40 points will come from if an applicant has an accompanying spouse or common-law partner, and up to 80 points if the candidate holds at least one year of experience in Canada
• Transferrable skills will add another 100 points. Skills that can be used across different jobs and industries in technical and non-technical areas are usually referred to as transferrable skills
• 600 points will be awarded if the applicant has a job offer in Canada or have received nomination certificate from any of Canadian provinces

Canada currently has three immigration programs to attract skilled migrants to its shores:

• Federal Skilled Worker Program
• Canadian Experience Class
• Federal Skilled Trades Program

However, the Express Entry program will enable Canadian employers to recruit their choice of candidates through a newly launched Job Bank. For more details on this program, please read Express Entry Immigration to Canada.