Persons wanting to immigrate to Canada as permanent residents have the option of applying under one of the immigration streams managed through the Express Entry System. The Express Entry System is merely a tool used by the Federal Government to choose eligible candidates who have scored a certain level of points and invite them to apply for Canadian permanent residency.
Express Entry System
Generally, the Express Entry System allows you to earn a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) Score depending on certain factors. Some of the factors include your performance in an English or French language test, your age, your years of qualified work experience and your post-secondary education level. The younger you are the more advantageous it will be for you. Particularly, if you fall within the ages of 22 and 33, it will be more favourable.
Based on these factors, points are allocated to you in the system. The Government goes into the pool of eligible candidates under the Express Entry System to allocate points every two to three weeks. Persons who have met the basic qualifying criteria are put into the Express Entry Pool of eligible candidates.
CRS Score
The Government chooses candidates who have the highest scores to invite them to apply for Canadian permanent residency. Only those persons scoring at the highest level are likely to be selected. The score is what is known as your Comprehensive Ranking System score also known as your CRS score.
Based on general observation, high level scores are around 470 points and above. If you have such a score or above, you are likely to be receiving an invitation to apply for Canadian permanent residency. If your overall score falls below 470, there is still a likelihood that even with a lower score, you may receive an invitation to apply for permanent residency if you are applying from outside Canada. If you are applying from inside Canada and your score is lower than 470, you may still have a significant chance of being invited to apply.
Improving Your Overall CRS Score
There are a number of ways to boost your overall Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score. These include but are not limited to:
- Language Proficiency
Your CRS score might have been affected by your performance in your English or French language test. It could be that you took the IELTS English language test and you did not get the maximum score. Hence, your first option can be opting to resit the test and performing better thereby increasing your overall CRS score.
- Canadian Work Experience
Another way of improving your CRS score is by getting Canadian experience if you have had none before. If you are inside Canada and you have not worked, you have the option of trying to get some Canadian experience to boost your CRS score.
If you are outside Canada, you have the option of obtaining a Canadian work permit that would allow you to temporarily immigrate to Canada and acquire some Canadian work experience hence improving your CRS score. This would then potentially enable you transition to Canadian permanent residency.
- Work Experience From Outside Canada
The third option is increasing your years of work experience from outside Canada. If your work experience from outside Canada is less than 3 years, it would be advisable for you to first increase the number of years of work experience that you have outside Canada before applying for permanent residency. Doing so would positively impact your overall CRS score.
- Education Level
Another way in which you can impact your overall CRS score is returning to school to improve your current education level. For instance, if you have a Bachelor’s degree in a certain field, you have the option of pursuing a postgraduate course such as a Master’s degree. Improving your education level will definitely increase your overall CRS score.
- Accompanying Spouse/Partner
If you have a partner who would be accompanying you to Canada, it is important for you to ensure that your partner has also sat the language test and has scored as highly as they possibly can. If they did not get the maximum score, they should consider resitting the language test and aim higher so that they increase your CRS score based on both your accumulated points.
- Job Offer From A Canadian Employer
One last way that you can increase your overall CRS score is by securing a job offer from a Canadian employer. If you are able to secure and receive an eligible job offer with very specific requirements around the eligibility criteria for the job, it would be favourable for you.
The job offer has to be supported by a positive Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) which allows the Canadian employer to recruit from outside the Canadian labour market. As such, if a Canadian employer has already gone through the LMIA process and obtained the approval upon which they made the job offer to you, it would give you an additional 50 points over and above the points you already have hence increasing your overall CRS score.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, these are some of the ways in which you may be able to increase your overall CRS score to increase your chances of being invited to apply for a Canadian permanent residency from the pool of eligible applicants on the Express Entry Pool.
Let Us Help
Should you need any professional advice on how to improve your CRS score in order to increase your chances of being invited to apply for Canadian permanent residency, please feel free to reach out to us.
We are happy and available to guide you through the best options for you to boost your CRS score. Book a call with us today!
