CIP 140: Express Entry - What to do if you don't get an ITA?
Mark Holthe: Welcome back to another episode of the Canadian Immigration Podcast. In this episode, we're going to answer the question: What if I'm not invited in an Express Entry draw? How are you today, Alicia?
Alicia Backman-Beharry: I'm doing well, Mark. And I think this is probably a question that is on the minds of many people right now who are looking at the CRS scores. And we just had another general draw. And the points are extremely, extremely high. So what happens if you don't get that ITA?
Mark Holthe: Indeed, and you know, I think some people, we just assume that everybody who's watching and listening to our podcast understands how Express Entry works. And so I thought what I do is do a little bit of an introduction, we'll talk about Express Entry, we'll talk about how challenging it is now to be able to secure one of those precious ITAs. And then we're going to share a little bit of insight into everything from the current state of Express Entry to strategies that you can employ to try to improve your chances of success and alternatives to express entry. And, you know, basically just tried to give you some assistance to figure out where you go from here. And of all the consults that we're doing right now, at least I think ones related to express entry. The fact that work permits are expiring, that people are running out of options. And so I think more and more in our podcasts and on the content that we're going to be releasing, it's really going to be targeting these areas, because that is one area where people are desperately searching for direction and guidance. So to start off with what is express entry, well, express entry started in 2015, January the first and I remember in 2014, I was on one of the working groups, it was properly described as the expression of interest, I think it was working group with the Canadian Bar Association. And the regulations were released as to what this express entry process we're going to look like now we knew it was coming for probably a year two years before, it was patterned after to some extent the Australian and New Zealand models. And so Canada looked at those and said, Hey, we're going to create our own. And we're going to get away from these long lengthy queues of applicants. So the reason we have Express Entry today is because there was a time when it was taking six or almost seven years to process a permanent resident application in some countries. And I remember during during that stretch leading up to it, the government taking some pretty drastic measures to call out all of the backlog. I think there was almost 600,001 Point Alicia, individuals in the queue waiting to be processed. And in the old world. If you were eligible through the Federal Skilled Worker Program or CEC, then you're good to go. You could you know, you could rest assured that your application would be processed not quickly by by all means, but it would be processed unlike today. And so they the government at the time it was the Conservatives I think who were in power at the time thought Man, we got to figure something out because we can't have these lengthy processing times. And the reality is we are only going to take so many applicants. Remember guys, Canada has annual levels plans. And so they will only process a certain number of permanent resident applications that fit within those plans. And so the plans were far lower than they were now I think they're in maybe the high 200s Alicia. And so they reached the stage where they said, look, we got to do something. So by creating Express Entry, they were able to manage the intake. So Express Entry isn't a program, per se, it's more a system of managing the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Canadian Experience Class, the Federal Skilled Trade Program, and some Provincial Nominee programs. And it's designed to be fast for those who get those magical IDs. So to sum it up, every person who is interested, if you're eligible for the Federal Skilled Worker Program, or CEC, you, you prepare a profile you submitted into the express entry pool. And then you're ranked, and Alicia, we'll talk a little bit more about the point system and the ranking. But once you receive your ranking, then every couple of weeks or lately, it's even been almost every week, they'll do a round of invitations, and those who have comprehensive ranking system score above that pass mark will then receive an ITA, and the process is supposed to be expedited Express. And, you know, instead of six years processing times, in some cases, it's it's six months or less, and we've seen it quite a bit less. And during the pandemic, we have seen it climb up above that six months, but six months is the target. So it's fast track for PR for those who get in. But the reality is now that there are so many people in Canada who get those extra Canadian experience points, whether it's steady work or otherwise. And those who have multiple, you know, they speak both languages, English and French, have a huge leg up to the point where it's really hard to qualify if you're outside to Canada. And so with the scores, so so high, very, very few people now are, you know, are able to reach a score high enough to receive an ITA. And so it's left people asking the question, what if I'm not invited in an Express Entry draw. So if we slide over here, Alicia, what I want to, you know what I want to address here, let's just start it off here. So express entry has its challenges. And like we talked about the you know, the CRS scores are so high now that it becomes almost I don't know, it's, it's just really going to be really, really difficult for a lot of people to be able to score high enough in order to, to receive one of those IPAs. And I thought maybe what we do is we would just shift over and just take a look at these rounds of invitations. And maybe you can just offer some thoughts on this, Alicia. So these are the Express Entry rounds of invitations, we just just had one yesterday. And this was a general draw. And as we can see here, the scores are still really high 529.
Alicia Backman-Beharry: And so we can take a look at these previous rounds. And of course, what they did do and Mark was giving us a broad brush overview of what's happened with Express Entry. What they did do recently, of course, is they started doing these category specific drawers. So the general drawers are what they used to call the no program specific drawers, they're now called general drawers. And in order to get an ita under a general draw, you have to have a CRS as of yesterday of 529 points. And that is of course, once you've met that minimum eligibility of the past mark of the 67 points if you were FSW. Or you qualify for CEC, or theoretically, because some people could qualify for federal skilled trades, but there's fewer applicants proportionally who are in the Federal Skilled Trades categories. So when we look at these CRS scores, if you're despairing by looking at the historical figures, right, most people are probably sitting in maybe the high four hundreds, maybe like 480 or so. And I've we've seen a lot of comments when we're on our live Q and A's. A lot of people pop in the chat and they say I have a CRS a 480 What are my chances will I get an ITA. And so the interesting thing about this is that Mark is highlighting what the breakdown is in the pool. So keep in mind, these are applicants who have said that they're eligible. So that means they have to have valid language test scores, and they have to have the education credential assessment or Canadian education. they've submitted their profile. And based on what they've put in there, the system is giving them the scores, they may or may not be correct and how they've claimed their points, but this is what the pool of applicants looks like right now. And so we can see that if somebody is sitting in there at a 480 CRS score, there are 11,495 other applicants as of yesterday. Sitting within that range, and if you look above, who has higher scores? Well, that's a whole bunch of people now who have higher scores, there's at least 7520, that are between 491 and 500. And then there's another over 10,000, people who are above 501. And then, of course, the people above 600, generally are the people that have a provincial nominee, nomination from one of the provinces, and there are over 1000 people. So when they do these drawers, we also know historically, they don't scoop that many people, right, the maximum that they usually pick is around 505,000. The last job that they did yesterday was only 2095, which is a bit of an odd number. But probably that was because of the tie breaking rule. So one thing to keep in mind also is, it matters when you create your profile. If you have eligibility, make sure to submit and have a valid profile in there as early as possible, because in this case, if you had a score of exactly 529, but you only created your profile, let's say in January of 2024, you would have missed out on this draw. So it's really important to know that as soon as you're eligible create that profile that gives you priority ranking in the event of a tie breaking rule. But other than that, what are the ways you can actually increase legitimately your CRS score.
Alicia Backman-Beharry: And Alicia, I thought one thing that would be helpful too, just for those who are maybe listening for the first time or, or just really diving into what this Express Entry is all about. Alicia talked about the fact that, you know, in the past 480 points was a pretty darn good score. And but here's the reality, if we go down here, if you're watching on the, you know, on the video here, of our of our podcast, the vodcast, if you're watching it, you can see between 461 and 470, this range, there's a large group of them. But here's the reality, to get 469 points, you need to have at least a master's degree, you can't be more than 29 years old, you have to have a Canadian language benchmark of at least nine so that on the IELTS, that's eight and listening, and seven and the other abilities, and you have to have at least three years of skilled foreign work experience. So if you have those basic core human capital factors, it's even though that's super, super high, you're still only going to sit at 469. And so Alicia is going to talk about the criteria a little bit more here. So how in the world are people getting up here into these upper ranges, to you know, to hopefully hit the 529 or as we've seen, there have been general drawers, if we go back to the previous rounds, there have been general drawers even before this one, two weeks, while really 13 days before it was 549. So what are your thoughts on that?
Alicia Backman-Beharry: All right, so there's a few ways that people can get, you know, Mark laid out the theoretical candidate, right, somebody who's got fantastic education, fantastic English, and they have work experience foreign work experience. Well, the other ways that you can get higher in your CRS would be looking making those tough choices about whether you're going to separate your spouse's application from your application. Because sometimes what happens in a couple is that the principal applicant actually would score higher if they were just applying on their own. So they have to declare their spouse but they have a non accompanying spouse if the spouse is pulling down their points. So that's a tough choice. That's one strategy is to apply with a principal applicant, declare your spouse but then hopefully, after the principal applicant lands, then they will go ahead and sponsor their spouse. So that's one thing people are doing because they're getting desperate. The other thing people are doing is learning French, this is a huge thing. And something that Mark and I have been talking about over and over again, for I'd say the last four months at least, is these Francophone drawers and the targeted drawers for French speakers. But in addition to that, there's the ability to make sure you get your bonus points because of your French language ability. So marks pulling up. If you go to the express entry criteria, you can see what happens with with additional points for language. And so yes, if you've got a sibling who's in Canada, there's out of a maximum 600 points, there's 15. But if we're looking at French, if people are scoring and NCLC level seven in their TAF for their TCF exam in all four language abilities, so make sure that it's all four of them, then they get a bonus 50 points. So and of course you have to have had at least a CLB five in your English. But that bonus 50 points is really a game changer for a lot of people. So that's one way that people are able to, to bounce up their scores. The next key way and this has been happening more and more recently in business. Immigration is something we'd You often is making sure that you are transitioning from an open work permit to an employer specific closed work permit. And only those people will be able to get arranged employment points. Most people are not going to be in the upper level management, zero. So that 200 points it's it's almost a pie in the sky, right? It's something where only basically, if you're a senior executive as CEO, or a chief operating officer, or financial officer, are you going to get those 200 Most everybody else is looking at the 50 points and those arranged employment points. It's not just if you have any old job offer from a Canadian employer, take a look, I've done a whole video explainer video as well as the blog on this, the scenarios under which you are eligible for arranged employment points, you have to have a closed work permit, it has to be either an LMIA based or LMIA exempt work permit from your employer who's who has already submitted an offer of employment through the employer portal. And those employers have to say that they intend to employ you for a another year after you get PR. And that's normally where the rubber hits the road. And your employer might not want to do that. So take a look at the article that I wrote about. So this is job offers in general, but there's one on specifically CRS points and how you actually get those arranged employment. Can you claim it properly in your Express Entry profile? Because if you think you can claim it, but you're incorrect in drafting your Express Entry profile, you're actually 50 points short of where you think you you would be. So be careful with that. Make sure to read the article. And can I claim CRS points for a job offer in my Express Entry application. Those are the key ways that now people are able to get a leg up. And those are the people who are getting, hopefully about 500 points in their CRS score. But it's always key to make sure you're doing it correctly. Because if you are inflating your score, and unwittingly think that you have points you don't have, you know, they will give you an invitation to apply. You'll submit your APR and you'll have to wait three or four or five months to realize, oh, wait a minute, I didn't meet the criteria that I thought I did.
Mark Holthe: Indeed, so obviously, everyone can see that. And I think a lot of what we're covering here now is, is pretty common knowledge at this stage. There's there's lots of challenges, there are just way too many people. I think, Alicia, the last figure that I saw was that there were over a million international students in Canada last year. And, and obviously, that's at various stages of studies. But that doesn't even count. And I haven't seen any recent figures on how many temporary foreign workers there are in Canada who are trying to transition now before their permits expire. But it is very, very quickly becoming an extremely difficult process for people to the point where they're going to have to start making some tough decisions. Now one of the things that we wanted to just elaborate a little bit more in terms of strategies to improve score, I wanted to just jump back to the, you know, to the, to basically the, the way the points are calculated here. And I know recently I did a YouTube video, like I did a blog on it, we think we just a video on just understanding how the points work. If you're in a situation where you're running out of options in Canada, you're on an open postgrad work permit, but your employer is not willing to apply for a Labor Market Impact Assessment, or maybe you're in an occupation where there really are a lot of Canadians and permanent residents who are available to do the job. And if that's the case, some people come over and don't have any foreign work experience before they come here. And I would just I want to draw people's attention to Yeah, to the fact that foreign work experience has the ability to bump scores up in ways that maybe you haven't maximized them with just Canadian experience. And I'm not going to get into a lot of detail with this. But in some cases, if you don't have foreign work experience, and you're you know, and you say okay, well what would happen if I had to go home and gain one more year of work experience if we just go down here to the skill transfer ability? And then I'll show you what I mean. So when it comes to work experience here, get one go we'll go here I think this is the one Yeah. So when you're balancing foreign work experience, like I said, there's there's up to 50 more points that are available. So if you if you have good language, which everybody should have if you really want to have a legitimate shot at Express Entry, at least to CLB nine, and if you have that you can see with one year, right here one year or two a foreign work experience with one you can potentially get another 25 added on bonus points. I call them bonus points but you If you you know if you are required to go home and work so in some cases and I've never ever will advise anyone to do this unless they've you know if they've actually had a consult with us and let us you know, examine the situation and, and and provide you with some specific legal advice on things that you need to consider. But But returning home may not be the end of the world and it might actually create an opportunity for you to get more points. Now, we don't know what the world's gonna look like Leisha. In fact, we have no clue. You know, what we're talking about today is valid for April the 24th 2024. And it's entirely possible that the government changes and there's program changes, focus changes, category based draws change. And so it's really hard to predict what's going to happen in the future. But we do know as it stands right now, for some people going home when you have no other options. In other words, you don't have any mechanism for extending your work permit. If people are deciding, well, I'm going to just transition to a visitor status and then wait for an ITA and hope that the scores come down Well, that may not be as good of a solution as actually leaving Canada going home securing skilled employment, and and accumulated another year. And I just want to continue down this discussion for individuals that have Canadian work experience. And they have once again, one, right here, at least two years of Canadian work experience, which is many people who are running out of time now, that coupled with once again, that one year foreign work experience can actually in some cases add up to another 50 points, depending upon the scores that you have at this stage. And like I said, every every situation is determinant upon the human capital, all the other factors that an individual has, but I just wanted to point those out, as one of the, you know, one of the ways and strategies that people can consider for improving their their CRS score. And I guess we could just probably just wrap that category up. I know, we talked about French language, we talked about job offers, we talked about, well, obviously improving your English as it is, if you're not hitting that CLB nine, that's something that you absolutely want to do. And, you know, Alicia, they also point out the fact that well, maybe you could continue studying. Well, if you're on a post grad work permit, what is the challenge of switching back to a full time student.
Alicia Backman-Beharry: So one thing that maybe people don't realize is that you can only ever have one post grad work permit. So once you've completed your program of education, whatever it is a one year program to your program, where a bachelor's program, people decide to apply for their post grad work permit after the end of their studies. Your length or validity of your PG WP is tied to the length of your program of studies. So if you've done a minimum eight month program, you can you can only get an eight month PG WP, if it's one year, you get one year if it's two years, two years is the magical number. And a two year post grad work permit eligible program from a designated learning institution will give you a bonus year. So you actually ended up getting three years of work permit on an open T GWP. Which is fantastic. But people don't realize that if they go back to school and do another degree or another one year program or two year program, they're not going to be eligible for a second post grad work permit. Once you've done it, you're done. And it does get confusing because during the pandemic, there were a number of temporary public policy measures were they were giving people extra time who had valid PT WPS. But understand that those were temporary, those were COVID measures. And those are done, those are finished. So make sure that if you are looking to go back to school, you can't get another P GWP. And if you're working, you can't count Canadian work experience if you are on a full time study permit. So that's another thing to be aware of with going back to school.
Mark Holthe: All right. So we've beat this Express Entry thing I think to death, people understand and we're not telling you guys anything that you don't already know. For those who are new, this is going to help you to make decisions going forward. The Golden Age of coming to Canada on a study permit transitioning to a work permit and then PR is definitely not what it used to be. Now it may still be possible for some people, but you have to understand that it's not the sure thing, or at least the perception of a sure thing that it was previously. So now we understand the ins and outs of express entry. Let's talk about the alternative immigration pathways. So people will always book consults with us, and they will say Hey, Mark and Alicia. Okay, my work permits expiring my CRS scores 485 Is there anything else can you offer any other solutions for me? So we'll Give you a little bit of free a free information here on some of the strategies that we, you know, that we bring up for people. So where do you usually go, Alicia? Yeah.
Alicia Backman-Beharry: So normally, I want people to understand that there are two different ways that you can extend your time in Canada, one would be just a temporary work permit, or some other sort of temporary status. Or the other would be, is there another permanent resident pathway available to you. And so sometimes in order to get your CRS points higher under Express Entry, sometimes it's possible, like we talked about, for your employer to go through that LMIA Labor Market Impact Assessment process and start to offer you an employer specific job. That means that they have to test the labor market that they cannot find Canadians to fill your job ESDC Service Canada has to approve that LMIA and only then can you transition to a work permit. That's one thing. The next thing is maybe you happen to be from a country where your visa exempt. So maybe there is some sort of free trade agreement that will help you. But if those things are not going to be giving you extra time in Canada, then you're starting to look at other programs. And this is where people are strategic head of time. And they're looking at provinces that traditionally have fewer applicants. So Ontario is extremely competitive. Ontario has very few spots, they do have their Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program. But it's highly competitive. There are programs Provincial Nominee programs in most of the provinces and the Atlantic provinces as well. And some of those might be a viable alternative. However, there are two things are starting to get full already. We know that in Alberta, they've actually closed down the Alberta opportunity stream, because as of February, they already had enough applicants in their inventory queue from last year, to be able to meet all of their their nomination category targets for this year. So that is a limited option, if you happen to be and this is one of the things that provinces are still looking at. So Alberta opportunity stream is closed. But if you happen to be in one of the rural communities, that might be an option. And so one thing that we're noticing provincially as well as federally are new programs for rural or northern communities. And so that's a new program as well. It was a the AR and IP program, which has now become it was a pilot program, they've made it a permanent program. But we also have in many of the provinces, a rural renewal stream, or a Francophone community or smaller centers. So centers outside of the major population centers who are have populations under 10,000 usually have specific immigration programs, you do have to have the community has to be designated. And they have to have written you a letter of support or a recommendation letter before they will actually allow you to apply through these programs. So keep in mind, there's PNP programs, there's also these federal programs that are targeted towards rural or smaller communities, and the list is growing. And it is something that the federal government is looking at, because they really do want to make sure that people are integrating. And it's difficult in the big cities where we don't have potentially enough housing right now. So one of the ways they're trying to encourage people to, to move to Canada is to get established in these smaller communities and become integrated in the fabric of that community.
Mark Holthe: On I guess it's a couple of weeks Alicia, I am headed to the city of Brooks right here. And they're having a special a special conference on rural immigration. And you can see in the province of Alberta alone. Now, if you look at this whole concept of community based programs, we've got more than in in Winnipeg. So we're more than in Manitoba was one of the first communities that was able to kind of negotiate a little bit of a deal with the Province of Manitoba. And and I think Alberta has learned a lot from that process. And they've really opened it up, like Alicia said, and and so you know, there's very few communities in rural Alberta now that are not included within this. And you know, it's interesting, there's a little bit of a dance that the, you know, that the city of Lethbridge did where I live right here to get them on the list, notwithstanding the fact that they're really at about 100,000, which is kind of the cut off, but a lot of these communities. Yeah, we'll have representation at that Brooks conference, and I can't remember the name of it. But But yeah, I'll definitely, if you haven't subscribed to our newsletter, please do because we're going to be while we do we send out that regularly with additional information and some of the things that we're doing new new podcasts that we've released new videos in case you've missed them new blog posts, we've got a ton of resources for everybody. But But yeah, the world is now shifting at least to rural because of the competition that's in the larger centers and I'll add one other thing to Alicia, we talked about the difficulty sometimes of employer securing Labor Market Impact Assessments. Well, the reality is, it's a whole lot easier to secure an LMIA for a company in, you know, in Grand Prairie, or in Brooks, Alberta, than it is in Calgary, or Edmonton. And so it's just one other reason why it makes sense to consider opportunities in the rural communities. Even if you start on an open work permit, and then the employer falls in love with you, they're in a greater position to support you with an LMIA. And potentially, you know, when if they fit within one of these desert communities in Alberta, and we're gonna see this start to expand out across the country to other provinces, as well, as they figure out, you know, the importance of these programs, there may just be opportunities that don't exist today that will be there, you know, in a couple of weeks or a couple of months, we just have to constantly manage it and watch and see how things are unfolding. So PNPs What else do we have Alicia?
Alicia Backman-Beharry: Well, I mean, this is one thing where it has to be legitimate. But occasionally people will come to Canada, they will study they will meet Mr. or Mrs. Right. And they will have a relationship with a Canadian who says, Yeah, you know what, we want to get married, and we want to do a Family Class sponsorship. So maybe sponsorship, Family Class sponsorship is a pathway to PR?
Mark Holthe: Oh, that's perfect. Sounds perfect. True.
Alicia Backman-Beharry: It has to be true, right? Like there, there's a big Asterix there that it has to be a real relationship, because immigration, for sure, is looking for marriages of convenience. And it's very important to know under regulation for that a marriage is only genuine, it's only bonafide D, they call it if it was entered into not for immigration purposes, and it's genuine. So you could have a genuine relationship. But if you entered into it for immigration purposes, you're done. It's not considered to be real. So be very careful with sponsorships. And most of the time, people will use the economic pathways before they will look at sponsorships, if it happens to be the case that they are married to a Canadian.
Mark Holthe: And one thing I'll add as well, is that there are some other economic PR programs as well, depending upon the occupation that you're working in. So there's the agri Food Program, which we've used for clients who work in agriculture and agri food. And like Alicia said there are, you know, the PNP s have a variety of different programs depending upon at times occupation specific categories. And the government. You know, sometimes individuals are here through the equip program, or open work permits for Iran or Hong Kong and, and sometimes there are, you know, programs like the family reunification for Ukraine. And so you always have to keep watching. And of course, here on the Kenya immigration Institute, we go out of our way to try to let you know the moment we hear of any developments. But one thing is clear. category based draws Alicia are going to be an increasingly important factor in future rounds of invitations. And we kind of glossed over it a little bit. But it probably behooves us to talk about it just so people can understand what is transpiring. And Alicia had previously, you know, in the explanation of Express Entry, she talked about the rounds of invitations and the fact that with these rounds of invitations, I'll just slide over here. So you can see the category based based rounds are. And if we just pull here, let's open it up. And we can look at the various categories. So you can see right here, these are the current categories that will be in place for 2024. Now there's no you know, nothing says that this is the list that's going to be here for years and years to come. But we know for 2024 It is the list. And and Alicia, I remember you and I last year attended kind of a workshop for employers to help them understand how category based drawers worked. I saw some recent tweets with all this, you know, Wow, we got this fancy a tip. Well, they told us this last fall, what they were going to do in their priorities. They had been slightly modified. But we have at least some indication now, to some extent, these these categories, the various percentages and emphasis that they're going to be placing within the bounds of invitation. So So Alicia, what do we know about French language proficiency? Which there's a good reason it's number one on the list. What percentage do we anticipate? Yeah,
Alicia Backman-Beharry: so we know that for 2023. They had said the percentage for Francophone would be 11 to 15%. And the a tip numbers are saying for 2024. That French percentage is going to be 30%. So that is gigantic. It is a huge increase and people who have so keep in mind in order to hit that category based French language proficiency round you have to have NCLC level sevens in everything. Um, so that's important to know. So when you go and you say who's eligible, you can click and it'll give you the eligibility criteria. So for French NCLC level sevens across the board, TAF or TCM, T, F or TCF, when you look at the other categories, they're occupation specific. So it's not all healthcare occupations. It's not all stem, it's not all agrifoods. It is only the specific knocks that are listed when you look at the ministerial instructions, specifically for each of these subcategories, so be careful with this. But it does give you an opportunity that if you have six months of full time, or full time equivalent continuous work experience within the last three years from your application date, you can be eligible for one of these drawers. So this really is a game changer. We know that for healthcare for 2023, it was nine to 12%. For 2024, it seems that the numbers are going to be 15%. For healthcare is going to be coming from those drawers, stem, we had 28 to maybe 31%. And now it looks like they're only going to do about 25% stem drawers, trades. trades were about three to 4%. Now they're saying for 2024, it'll be 5%. Transport was about one to two, and now they're saying transport will be 3% of the drawers. And for egg and of course there's only a few egg. There's only a few transport occupations that are listed as well. But for ag it's one to two for 2023. And it seems like it's going down to 0.5. There's only three occupations there on the NOCs. So what that means in general, then is that most of the rounds of invitation for 2024 will be targeted drawers, they will be category specific, like 78% will be these categories, specific drawers, which is where people will have a better chance of getting an ita when they have lower CRS because if we look at the last stem draw, you could get an ita with a 491. If you had those six months of work experience in that NOC keep in mind that doesn't need to be your primary occupation. It can be any sort of job that you've legitimately worked that you can prove with your pay stubs and your employment letters within the last three years. French is huge. Because if you have French, on a targeted draw in French 388, right, and it's even dipped below that in the past. So 336 for the French draw in February, transport occupations, we're looking at, you know, mid 400. So these categories specific drawers are a huge game changer. So one of the strategies is, let's say I don't know you're a pharmacist, and you decide that when you're going to school in Canada, you can't get your work experience Canadian work experience while you're a full time student. But hey, if you work a part time job throughout your entire program of studies, and it happens to be on one of the current category based lists and you can accumulate six months of full time equivalent experience on a category based NOC you might be able to claim that in your Express Entry profile, and that can make all the difference and making you eligible for your category specific draw, as long as you otherwise meet your Federal Skilled Worker minimum eligibility, for example.
Mark Holthe: And we also we don't want to get into too much creative strategies because there are so many factors that come into play, if one of these strategies are available to you. And when I think about these category based draws Alicia and I think about okay, in order for me to get into transport, alright, which is truck driving, for instance, if I've got a class one and I have the you know, ability to get a job long haul truck driving for a company, but yet I'm working in a different you know, I my education, I was doing some business school or something. There's no necessary restrictions on your ability if you meet the eligibility requirements for to work in this, this particular categories. And I say truck driving, because that's probably what makes up the vast majority of these 975 spots. But one strategy people are considering is okay, do I take a job, right, like you said, in Canada for six months so that I can accumulate this and potentially get drawn into this category, which I'll be honest, the government doesn't have a problem with that, because they want people that work in these industries. There's a reason that they're on the list. But another strategy, let's say stem, for instance, we'll take the stem, this work experience can be accumulated inside Canada and outside Canada. So I'm going to say this with an extreme degree of caution. Try not to horrify Leisha, too much here. We're not telling people to do this. But one thing that some people are looking at and exploring is taking a remote position where they are truly working full time. We're not talking about I work on contract basis, and I'm only putting in three hours a week, or, you know, three hours a day. But you know, I'm saying I'm seven, we're talking about a legitimate job. While you're in Canada, it may be possible to accumulate that six months of experience outside of Canada, working remotely if it if it fits. So I just bring that up. But by no means do we ever want to encourage everybody to rush off and do that, because every person situation is different. And we strongly encourage you to slide over to our website here, I always bring that little triangle and tell people to come and speak to a lawyer, and and book a consult, and we can strategize with you. So I bring those up as as options, Alicia, and when we're factoring in, you know, this whole world of, of Express Entry, people are looking for any avenue they can to try to maximize their points, including these, you know, including these skilled transferability factors, but also to find ways to be able to get into the actual category based drawers, you know, and the last thing I'll finish off with is, is, you know, you, you may right now not qualify for a category, so you make a decision, okay, I'm gonna go work in this occupation, for six months or more to try to meet the category, and then come 2025, the government says, We're not going to do any more transport, we've got enough transport, we're now going to create something for some other industry. And so it's really hard, because when you're making big life decisions, you need to realize that, if you're strategizing to give yourself the best chance for whatever various immigration program, understand that they change.
Alicia Backman-Beharry: And the other thing I'll add to that to mark is, overall, it's extremely, extremely important to remember that you cannot double dip, you cannot claim more than 30 hours of work in two different jobs in the same week. So if you're looking at some of these strategies, you'd have to be very careful to decide which one you're going to claim in your Express Entry profile. And this is where people kind of get headed down the wrong direction, often in what we've seen in consults, is they put everything in their work history. And that's what you then have to justify and provide letters for and pay stubs for and proof that you've done. Whereas some of that should actually be in your personal history. So make sure that when you are drafting your Express Entry profile, you know what you're doing, you've done it properly. And you're only claiming the work experience that you want to get points for it. Because otherwise, you could also be looking at allegations of misrepresentation, if you're claiming things that you can't actually justify and backup.
Mark Holthe: And unfortunately, you guys, we get a lot of consults with people. And we were just talking Alicia and I just just before we started recording this, one of our frustrations is clients who book consults, and then save the unauthorized work or save the failure to disclose something until the very end of the consult. And really, that's what needs to be brought up first. So that is kind of the world that we're dealing with. So those are the the, you know, alternative immigration pathways. I just want to touch briefly on profiles that expire, they're only valid for a year, you can't have more than one profile in the pool at the same time, some people will try to be cute and create a new GC key and then reenter it, don't go down that path, if you see that your profile is going to be expiring. If you you've got options, when it expires, you don't have the ability to just revive it, you actually have to create a new profile. Why they did that, I don't know maybe they're trying to save space because the Express Entry portal hard drive was at 99%, I don't know. But you have to go back in and recreate it. So one tip I'll give you before it expires, make sure that you've taken screenshots of all of the information that you've put in there, you don't want to enter in information in one profile that's different than another. But make sure that you have that keep the screenshots. And I think Alicia when it is, I believe it's canceled, I can't remember if you go back in and view it, I can't remember. But just as a precaution, always keep a copy. So that you can then when you're recreating it, make sure everything is seamless. And, you know, even a day or two before the you know, the profile expires, you could potentially, you know, withdraw it early or cancel it early. But I'll be honest, I don't know if there's any advantage to that, Alicia, what if that one day is the day there's a round of invitation. So there's no harm in allowing your profile to actually hit the one year and then be pulled from the pool and then re re prepare it a new one and submit it immediately after? So yeah, so just keep that in mind when when you're thinking about reapplying consistency is critical. All right. Okay. Oh, let's pull up the last one here, Alicia, and that's how an immigration lawyer can help. So obviously we're here we're sharing info nation we're trying to do all we can to advise you guys, but nothing ever replaces the actual legal advice that we can give in an immigration consultation. Alicia, what would you say for, you know, you know, someone said, Well, how can you help other than, you know, or you know more than all the free information that we find online.
Alicia Backman-Beharry: It, it's a matter of putting it all together and understanding how your unique life circumstances are interacting with all of these factors. And that is very difficult to do unless you have been doing this for a long time, and you understand all the moving parts. And so when you talk with Mark and I, we know where people tend to have points where they veer off course, and they are going down a path where they think they're going to be successful. But there's, there's something that they haven't even realized. And that's where the value comes in, in getting somebody to assess your situation in particular, and give you targeted advice and say, these are your options. These are the risks. And this is a recommendation in terms of what are your Pathways Forward.
Mark Holthe: All right, as we wrap this up, and we want to thank you for watching this video. I also want to point out that we do have even more resources to help you with your Express Entry. So just quickly, I want to draw your attention to our website. So we have a blog that's full of resources on express entry. So it was a little bit fun finding it but the blog, you can go there and check it out. Obviously, you're listening right now the Canadian immigration podcast, as well as watching it on YouTube or wherever you're watching the live feed or the the recording of the video, mostly probably on YouTube. And then remember, we always have the consultations that are available for you to book. In addition to this, I have the the Express Entry accelerator. And so if you go there's a link in the description. Every two weeks I do another live masterclass where you can get any question that you want answered, for those who subscribe to the course. And the course itself. You can see here is it's brand new 2024 it is chock full of everything that you could possibly want for Express Entry, learning the basics, determining your eligibility, and I want to point out that I have a number of lessons here, lesson four, and five are all on case scenarios that talk about real life examples of people how their scores are calculated, you know, and what people can expect based on their CRS scores. You know, we also have a special bonus lesson here from John Kay who is a person that we collaborate with. He's an awesome French teacher who talks about how to improve your T f score. So check that out. But we have you know, everything from improving your like determining your eligibility, completing your profile, every single section, whether it's just a principal applicant or a spouse, all the lessons are broken down. And then once you've got your ita you can see there's I think there's over 60 lessons completing the whole section walkthrough on completing your EAP are, you know information for spouses if you have them for dependent children, and then my favorite module? Yes, the checklist is mastering your documents. So we have a ton of of lessons that cover a wide variety of, of, you know, information on the essential documents that you have to provide to IRCC. And you can see just for records of employment alone, the lesson is 25 minutes. And it's just chock full of information designed to help as well as everything from sample reference letters to information on that you can provide to your employer to help them prepare a reference letter that works. Checklists, there's templates, we use a NOC selection tool to help convince an officer that you've chosen the right NOC code. And just a ton of other things, even what to do if your reference letter isn't perfect, or what you need. So these are all resources that we have available. And you can subscribe at any time and then join me and once you subscribe once you've got access for life, so the first people that subscribed to the course back in 2015. I don't know how many maybe this is the fourth or fifth rendition I've done. They have access to the new one and you can come back as many times as you want for the masterclasses. But as always, if you're in a situation you guys where you really are stuck. And that's the majority of our consults Alicia, we're here to help and all you need to do is book a consult. All right, any last parting words or thoughts Alicia before we wrap up this episode of the Canadian version podcast.
Alicia Backman-Beharry: I think the last thing is just to be informed and be strategic about express entry because this is something where it's no longer something you can kind of do on the side of your desk. It's something where you've got to have a plan in place and implement the plan and make sure that you're giving yourself the best opportunity for getting that ITA and always, always, always be careful about misrepresentation because this is one thing that can tank your application. And there's no ability to reapply if they found that you have misrepresented because you're barred for five years. So when you're doing these things, make sure that you understand the implications of your choices.
Mark Holthe: Indeed. And one last little bonus reminder, and we're actually late for it right now. Our live q&a on our YouTube channel, it's broadcast I think, to Facebook, still LinkedIn X, all those platforms, you it's your opportunity to come and ask us any immigration questions that you want. We don't provide legal advice, but for the most part, we can always find a way to give you more helpful information targeted to the question that you have. So 10am Mountain Time, every Wednesday, Alicia and I join us for our live q&a. All right. Thanks, Alicia. And take care everyone.
