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Music. This episode of the Canadian immigration podcast is sponsored by the Canadian immigration Institute, one of the best sources of video content on Canadian immigration to help you navigate your way through the Canadian immigration process. Head on over to the YouTube channel, where there's tons of video content, and you can join mark yes myself in a number of live video streams, Q and A's all designed to help you navigate your way through this crazy Canadian immigration process. When you're done there, like and subscribe and then head on over to the Canadian Immigration institute.com where you can find all those awesome DIY courses that I've been talking about. Thank you, Canadian immigration Institute. You are the sponsor of this amazing little podcast. You
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the Canadian immigration process can be complex and frustrating with the Canadian Immigration Department making it virtually impossible to speak to an officer. There are few places to turn to for trusted information. The Canadian immigration podcast was created to fill this void by offering the latest on immigration law, policy and practice. Please welcome ex immigration officer and Canadian immigration lawyer Mark Holthe, as he is joined by industry leaders across Canada sharing insight to help you along your way.
Unknown Speaker 1:51
Welcome back to another episode of the Canadian immigration podcast. In today's episode, we're going to talk about the new changes that are coming to the Alberta advantage immigration program. And probably by the time you're listening to this, the new portal will be live, and a new expression of interest system will be implemented by the province of Alberta. I'm here with Alicia, my faithful co pilot. How are you doing? Alicia, I'm okay. Mark, I'm struggling through I've got that fall cold, but it's going to be okay. It's tis the season, I guess. And it's exciting that finally, finally, Alberta has an expression of interest system. This is, I think, hopefully, the way of the future. I think it's a little bit overdue, considering what's been happening with other provinces that's been hopefully working fairly well. So we we would like to think that Alberta is now going to be able to follow in the footsteps of provinces like BC and Ontario, and have a system that's going to be a little bit more transparent and fair, yes, and as some of you have probably watched and followed, there was a time period through the summer where the province realized, Oh, my goodness, we have way, way too many people submitting applications, so we need to do something. So they decided to shift to what we call a race to file system, where individuals have one day out of the month to submit their applications, and they'd maybe accept what was the most like, 454
Unknown Speaker 3:23
40 per stream. And it became quite the debacle. And I had a meeting myself and some other lawyers with some of the head officials with the Alberta advantage immigration program to share our thoughts on how well it was working. And the reality is it was a disaster. And one of the main problems was, you know, well, obviously the logistics of just making it such that the fastest typers win, or those with the fastest internet connection. But there was also stories of individuals kind of locking up the spots in the portal and then trying to sell them online because they were so precious and so difficult to get in, and we could go through a long list of other problems, like the portal opening up during the day when people are at work and just it was, it was, I know they were trying to do something right, Alicia, but at the end of the day,
Unknown Speaker 4:18
I was just grateful that they recognized their mistake, and we recommended they pause it and recommend that they take a look at maybe BC Ontario, see what they're doing, Saskatchewan, even. And they did follow through with that. I think it was a very frustrating summer for many clients. I had a few people who were trying to struggle through the Alberta advantage immigration program when they wanted to get their aos in the summer, and literally taking days off work, being 20,000th in the queue after logging in a few minutes, when the portal opened,
Unknown Speaker 4:53
it just then, the system would crash. There was, there was a lot of problems with that race to file. They used a queue. It system.
Unknown Speaker 5:00
Kind of like trying to race for a camping reservation, and it just did not work. And so yes, I agree with you, Mark. I'm glad that that is done and in the rear view mirror. And as of september 30, 2024 we are going to have a brand new expression of interest system. Yeah, exactly. And I had an opportunity to have a little sneak peek at the portal yesterday, and it looks good. I have a little NDA, so I can't talk too much about it, other than I'm pretty impressed with what the province did in a short period of time, and we know that the federal government has had periods where they announce just on the spur of the moment, a new program like the H, 1b open work permit holder, and they already had somewhat of a system in place. But even that was just, it was just so, so awful. So I'm so grateful. One, that they have put something simple, easy to follow, in place. But two, it's not a race. And there's no fee to submit an expression of interest Alicia, but there's also no rush to get your expression of interest completed on September the 30th. We expect, if I you know, if you look at the at the system right now, they have a lot of people already in the queue, so they're not trying to really at this stage, and you know, we're recording this September 25 they're not trying to quickly pull in a whole bunch of new applications to meet their quota. They have the numbers.
Unknown Speaker 6:33
But the interesting thing is, if you look at the actual
Unknown Speaker 6:38
the targets and where nominations are that have been issued. If I pull it up here, just as we're talking and you look at certain categories, almost every single one is oversubscribed, except the tourism and hospitality stream, which has 392 applications approved right now, out of six, 660
Unknown Speaker 6:58
and it only has eight in the queue. So if I was to envision where they would start, I think it's probably going to be tourism and hospitality, and, you know, the first one, and they're gonna, and they indicated that they're gonna start slow, they're not gonna go fast, and they're gonna test it out make sure it works. We myself and a few other lawyers that attended the call, we pointed out a few, you know, challenging or problem areas, and we'll, we'll talk about some of those today in the podcast. But overall, I think, you know, they're probably looking middle of October,
Unknown Speaker 7:33
probably about two weeks before they would do the first basic round of invitations, if you want to call it that. So well, that's my view. Anyways, as we start off,
Unknown Speaker 7:45
yeah, and it is, it is interesting. And one of the key things, of course, is this new points grid. And so Alberta has never had a points grid in the past. We had these various factors that could help towards getting a nomination or an indication that the province was going to pursue your application, but they had never clearly said, Okay, here's how we're going to lay out these points in a way that's transparent and everybody can understand what they're getting graded against. And so now we have this EOI points grid, which is really important. And we'll probably talk about this afterwards, too, Mark, and I know that Igor has written a really good article. And so, yes, go to our website.
Unknown Speaker 8:28
Yeah, we will have a link to that on the show notes. And also, if you go to our website and you go to the articles, then you'll be able to see his whole article, Alberta, PNP, aaip and the new expression of interest. EOI stream explained so Igor really helps break this down. He's got some visuals on there and key points and takeaways,
Unknown Speaker 8:48
which is really helpful for people so that they can prepare and that they know what they're getting into when they're looking at these this new system. One of the things I like most about Igor article is the fact that he takes us through the journey starting the beginning of the year, when they first suspended it because they had more, almost more quota than they needed for the whole year, in February, and then how it evolved and changed. So they had a pause on the 15th of February, and then they resumed June 11 with that new race to file they did a couple months at that. And then they realized, Oh, we've got issues. And then August 7, you know, they announced a pause on intake until what is now just a few days away, september 30, when the new portal is going to open up. And a couple things just about the new system itself. It's a like Express Entry, a self declaration of information. And what that means is they're not going to ask for any documentation up front. And some people might think, hey, I can just put in whatever I want, and then when I get the invitation, I can then shore it up with documents. And that's not the case. Also a little bit of insight.
Unknown Speaker 10:00
That I can kind of share in my discussions with the province is that they've never really been too fussed about collecting,
Unknown Speaker 10:09
you know, IELTS report numbers and Wes report numbers or expiry dates and things like that. And so that's where some people can potentially trip themselves up, because you will be able to submit your expression of interest.
Unknown Speaker 10:26
You know, theoretically, you could put self declare whatever information you wanted in. And as we get into the actual scoring system, the point system, they don't really care if you have more than the CLB six. They don't really care if you have more than 12 months of work history, you're pretty much maxed out with both of those, and we'll get into why that is in a little bit. But the the individuals who submit them, once you, you know, receive your invitation, then you're going to need to prove that you actually had what you said you had at the time in which you submitted your expression of interest. And when we go through the selection process itself. It's going to be similar to express entry, similar to, you know, Ontario's human capital priority stream. And I think if I was to compare it to one area, it would probably be more similar to the human capital priority stream than than any others, although BC, probably in the same light, has similar, similar things they're focusing on. But the big difference I want to point out to people, and this was made abundantly clear to me by the officers, is that the expression of interest score is not the only thing they're looking at. And we are of the mindset, if you hit the requirements to get into whatever group or cohort that they're going to draw, then it's just automatically going to be the people with the highest score. And I can tell you that that is not necessarily going to be the case. They look at labor market needs, they look at program priorities, and the black box is still alive. And well, Alicia alive. And well, so be ready for that. And so when people are saying, what's the minimum cutoff, what do you think will be the cutoff? And they will last today when we do our live stream after this,
Unknown Speaker 12:05
there will be ranges, but they will be able to pick and choose based on who they really feel are of the best match for the province's needs. And then once the round occurs, the email notification system will be very similar to the Express Entry System, although, in this case, rather than submitting a profile through Express Entry, you're submitting your expression of interest. And then once it's in and you get you will get a notification by email, Hey, we're interested in you submitting application. Submit an application, and I'm not exactly sure how much time you have to respond to the email and actually set up your your portal, but you can do it right now. Go and set up your Alberta account right now. And if you go to the government's website, there are specific announcements. They actually have a pretty good breakdown of,
Unknown Speaker 12:59
well, the things that we're talking about today, but they also have the link, just for those of you who've never done this before, to the alberta.ca account for you to create. So make sure that something you can do now go in and create that.
Unknown Speaker 13:13
And a couple things that I want to highlight from what you were just summarizing there. Mark one is the specter of misrepresentation. And you and I deal with this all the time, because our bread and butter is dealing with Express Entry. And so I can't tell you how many consults that we've had where we have somebody who who didn't retain us, who were doing things on their own, or who had somebody else helping them file their original expression of our sorry, their Express Entry profile, and they had just, oh, you know, they didn't declare this, or they said this. And then by the time that they go to file their eapr, things have changed. They need to correct it. They realize that they picked the wrong knock, or that their employer is not going to write them a letter of support, and they then have to justify and explain what has happened, so that they're not in a position of misrepresentation. And so same thing goes here. When people are creating those Expression of Interest profiles, it is really, really important that they can back up what they're claiming, and it they're going to have a time stamp on when you've submitted that EOI. And so yes, misrep is is still going to be very much of going concern. So make sure that you understand what you're getting into and you're doing this properly. The other thing that I noticed that jumped out at me when I looked at this announcement was
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the government says consider your existing aaip applications or entrepreneur EOIs,
Unknown Speaker 14:43
you can only have one worker EOI. You cannot create a worker EOI if you have an existing worker EOI, or entrepreneur EOI, and this is the big one, or a draft or active aaip application, so any of.
Unknown Speaker 15:00
You who are sitting there who managed to go through that ridiculous Q IT system, who got in your application into this old kind of race to file, but have no feedback back from Ai AIP, you now have a very tough choice, because you don't know what's going to happen with that old application, but you can't create a new expression of interest. If you have an application that's already in the queue, it says existing applications or EOS must be withdrawn prior to creating a worker EOI. And so people are going to have a really tough choice here, and that's going to take some consideration before you decide to go ahead and do a new application through this new expression of interest system. Yeah, that's a really, really good point. Alicia,
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one other thing I'll point out with these, with these expression of interest submissions,
Unknown Speaker 15:53
you know that continues with this thought, is, if you've noticed that you've made a mistake, there isn't a way to edit it. You actually have to cancel it and then resubmit a new one. But as you know, as I looked at it, you know, maybe it would take you about 10 minutes to set up your alberta.ca account. And realistically, if you had all of the information at your disposal and you were ready, I'd say about maybe 1520 minutes to complete the actual expression of interest. But like I said before, there's no rush with this. You want to make sure that everything is correct, because ultimately you will have to prove it when the time comes to submit your application. So All right, let's shift gears now, Alicia, and let's just talk about this points grid, because there's a lot of people that are looking at it and saying, Well, okay, if my industry is not on the list, and you know, it's not a priority for the government, then I'm pretty much done. Then there's, there's no, no hope in actually proceeding. Well, that's not, that's not necessarily the case, and we know that they will, as one of the factors, look at, you know, the needs of the province. They will look at the various industries. They'll look at the labor market, and their priorities will be determined from that. But at the end of the day, this points grid, if you are able to score higher, will give you a little bit of a leg up on on others. They've broken it down into human capital factors. And there are about 69 points out of the total 100 that are human capital factors. The things that we know, you know, are education, language, you know, age, those factors,
Unknown Speaker 17:33
work experience and then the economic factors, which are the kind of like the in the express entry process. They're kind of like the skill transferability bonus points, so which includes things like job offers and and some of the regional aspects of the program. And there is a heavy emphasis Alicia. Of those 31 economic factors, an Alberta job offer will give you 16 points and the location of your job. You know, the Alberta, basically, they're going to look at full time employment in Alberta as well as where your job offer is located. And one of the, well, two of the big losers, I guess, if you will, when it comes to this process, is there's five points on the table for individuals who are working outside of Calgary and Edmonton. And so there's an Alberta job offer location. And if you live in the Calgary census Metro metropolitan area, and they break this down,
Unknown Speaker 18:39
you know, with the subdivisions, etc, and the Edmonton census metropolitan area, if you live in those areas and your job offer is located in those areas, you will get zero points. And basically, if you're going through the real renewal stream, and you've got a designation letter from the community that'll give you the five points, or basically any other community other than calculus Edmonton. So there's a heavy emphasis on rewarding people for living outside of the major centers, and that's something that people need to take into consideration. And like I said, there's, there's a bunch of points up for grabs, a total of 16. And yeah, it's, it'll be interesting to see, ultimately, how important that factor is. Another one when it comes to human capital, if we just shift back to that one. So well, like we said, we talk about education, and they do distinguish doctoral from masters to bachelor. So there is a point differentiation there, and we're not going to spend a lot of time, you know, talking about that. So you've got your highest level. Oh, yeah, please. Alicia, yeah. Other than I found it interesting that they're valuing the trade certificate or diploma exactly the same as a bachelor's degree, so you get seven points for either a bachelor's degree or a trade certificate or diploma. Yes, that's a really good, good point to highlight. And then, of course, the location of the highest level of education completed.
Unknown Speaker 20:00
In Canada. Well, if it was in Alberta, you're going to get all 10 points. You are still going to get six points if you studied outside of Alberta. But the interesting thing Alicia, I had a person say to me, Well, I have a master's degree from India, but then I took a bachelor's degree in Canada. I'm not exactly sure how that played out. And it can be a little bit confusing, because you're wondering, okay, well, how many points would I be awarded? Well, it says the location of highest level of education completed in Canada. Well, in that case, for that person, the highest level completed would be a bachelor's degree, and they did it in Alberta, so they would get the 10 points. But then on the highest level of education, completed overall, they get 10 points out of the 12 for their masters. And so it's a little bit of there's some aspects of this that are a little kind of, a little kind of rough and a little probably more complicated than they need to be,
Unknown Speaker 20:57
but that's okay. We'll see how it all plays out. All right, then language I find is really interesting, Alicia, so general language proficiency, essentially, what they're looking for is the minimum ability. So the minimum score in one in whatever ability you have, that's what they're counting. So if you had a 10 in reading and listening and speaking, but you only had a four in writing, then your CLB would be four for the purposes of this assessment. And there's 10 points up. Well, there's for general language proficiency, there's 10, there's a total of 13, because they also give bonus points, once again, for
Unknown Speaker 21:36
a different language, French. And so French still plays a role. There's three other points here. We have our feelings about that, but it is what it is. And I think the feds have agreements with the provinces that they are going to make French language ability and, you know, embedded within their selection process. So this is just a part of what they needed to do. But it's interesting. Alicia, like I said at the very beginning, six or higher, with your CLB is the same as 10, or, you know, maximum, they give you 10 for English proficiency and and that's, yeah, it's interesting to Alicia, when I look at this, you can see French proficiency. They have eight. So you actually, if French is your first language, and this is, I had to look at this and read it carefully, but if French is your first language,
Unknown Speaker 22:29
and you score a six in French or higher, you're only getting eight points. So they say, Well, we're an English speaking province, and so you know, yes, we'll give you points for your French proficiency, but not as much as English. However, if you have English and you max out at six or higher, which is not difficult to achieve,
Unknown Speaker 22:49
and you're bilingual, you will be able to get an extra three points if you speak both. So this is something I only realized just recently when I was looking at it, and we'll be able to pull out some other stuff as this starts to roll out and the realities of the situation start to come into play. But for language, yeah, once you hit six and people will ask, why is that? Well, the reason is because we have
Unknown Speaker 23:16
programs that you still have to be eligible for, and the province says we don't want to create more burdens. We want to keep the the funnel of people as broad as possible, because we don't want people who would otherwise be able to qualify be excluded. And so the point system is meant to be very, very broad and very generous. And so we know that some programs you could have as low as a CL before in your language abilities and still be eligible depending upon your, you know, your tier of work experience. So that is the low you can't you're not going to give me any points for lower than CL before. And then ultimately, six is, you know, on the high end, is all that they're really concerned about. So that's why they've kind of stuck to that, yeah, and I think the other thing to note here, and they've not explicitly said Mark, but because they're referencing go to the IRCC website for converting your language test results into your clbs. We're assuming that they're also going to be following similar to express entry rules with respect to language test validity, right? Like so make sure that the language tests that you're taking are, you know, in English, you've got the IELTS, the CELPIP or the Pearson Test. In French, you've got TCF or TEF exams. Most of the time according to express entry rules. Those tests, the date that you took the test is what starts the clock ticking and that has had that test still has to be valid. And so usually there's only a two year validity date from the date you took the test, not from the test result. And so make sure that if you're interested in doing an AIP worker expression of interest, that you have a valid language test that's no old.
Unknown Speaker 25:00
Than two years old, yeah. So if we shift now to work experience, there's 21 points up for grabs. And when it comes to, you know, work experience accumulated in Canada and abroad, there's about 11 points available. And once again, once you hit 12 or more months, you have work experience. So one year, you've maxed out your points for the overall general work experience, and once again, that you can count your Canadian and work experience abroad to meet that first 11 points. Some people asked, in just doing a live stream yesterday on this they said, Well, what? What's the point of six months, or less than six months? Why? Why are they giving points for that? Well, there are some programs that do not require a minimum Canadian work experience, like we think about the accelerated tech pathway, the real renewal stream. Technically, individuals can be outside of Canada and qualify through those or in a different province. So, you know, someone might just come and start working for an employer and be able to be eligible through one of those programs,
Unknown Speaker 26:03
even after just getting started with one month of work experience. But you know, if you have, you can see it's interesting, includes all experience accumulated in Canada and abroad, and this is where I'm not quite sure if they understood what they were doing, because it says here less than six months. So if you have no work experience. Are you still getting three points? And I know that this is just kind of a typo on their page, but it probably should be maybe one, you know, to six months or something like that. I'm going to actually send the the Alberta advantage immigration program a little, a little notification about that, because it can be kind of confusing. And then from six to 11 months. Well, the Albert opportunity stream allows for points for post grad work permit holders who have up to six months, they're then eligible. So, you know. So that's kind of the seven point breakdown, yeah. And some of the things that would be good for them to issue in fine print, and this might be coming out when they actually have, like, their actual document checklists. But what period of time are we looking at? Right? Like most of the time, for express entry, you can only count your work experience in the last 10 years. Is that the case here? I would assume so. But they haven't said, yeah, yeah, exactly. And like they reiterated to us, you know, this document that we're looking at is dated September 20. They had a very short time frame to get this rolled out and get it moving forward. They indicated this is a minimum viable product, so it's going to expand and grow, and the feedback we provide to them, they will incorporate and try to make it better.
Unknown Speaker 27:37
Yeah, but there were, there's going to be some uncertainties here. At the end of the day, you're just putting your information in, ultimately, how they assess, they'll assess. And that's a good point, and I should have probably addressed this before. When you start the process, you express kind of a desire, I guess we could call it for which program you intend to apply through. But that doesn't mean anything. They can choose whichever program they feel you best fit, and then issue the nomination under that program. So it's an interesting thing. You can choose multiple you know, you have choices, like when you apply, but like they say in their instructions, they will determine which program you are going through, which is quite interesting. And in fairness, I guess it's not that much different than the, you know, the express entry process. They, you know, they indicate which programs you're eligible for, and they have their ranking of CEC first and kind of FST, second. All right, okay, within the work experience, obviously, general work experience. 10. There's 11 points up for grabs out of the 21 so where's the other 10? Well, the other 10 points comes from, of course, work experience in Canada, and just like education, 10 points if you've got six months or more in Alberta, and six points if it's in another province or territory in Canada, but not Alberta. And so once again, Alberta centric experience is a really, really important factor. And again, the devil's in the details, right? So Alberta has always been very sticky on what qualifies as valid work experience in Alberta. And so for certain programs, at certain times, they wouldn't allow certain types of work permits or implied status or maintained status. And so, again, we don't know. Are they looking at the last three years? Are they looking at maintained or implied status? Will they accept, you know, certain types of like coet work permits, or is it only certain closed work permits that they're looking at they've not said so we'll have to see how it plays out. Yes, all right, next factor is age. There's only five points, and Alberta has never really been worked up over age, and it hasn't really changed substantially here. And one positive thing Alicia is that even if you're 99 years old.
Unknown Speaker 30:00
You can still get three points. So myself and the 99 year olds, 50 years and older, get three points, and then their sweet spot. Excuse me, the sweet spot for the province of Alberta is 21 to 34 years of age, so you're getting maximum five points if you're in that range.
Unknown Speaker 30:19
They've also added in the family connection, which has been a part that they've said is a factor they look at now, what is family, their Canadian citizen or permanent resident living in Alberta, 18 years of age or older, and it includes parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, sibling. And this is the this is the extension aunt, uncle, niece or even nephew, you can get those points. And it's just, it's a yes or no. If you have one Max, eight points are awarded. But remember, it's got to be a blood relative. And so these are, they say specifically. These are not in laws. Yeah, yes, exactly. Good, good point. Yeah, they're not in laws. And I know some of you have a lot of air quotes, cousins out there that are close, close family, friends that are just like family. Unfortunately, the cousins don't fit. They don't meet the requirements. Okay? So that's kind of a quick, quick overview of the of the human capital point 69 up for grabs. And so now we're going to shift to just this simple, simple factors. The economic factors are not there's not a ton of them, but they're worth a heavy, heavy weighting of 31 so an Alberta job offer, an LMIA, is not specifically required. So we know that. So they I have to assume Alicia, and I'm going to just go with an assumption that quit, if it was fine before it'll still be fine. So job offer for permanent full time employment in Alberta, I have to assume as well that the employer declaration form that was causing fits for so many people with the employer signing off and agreeing to be examined themselves for genuineness, that that's still going to be in place. I can't say going anywhere, yeah, because when you look at the website, the whole web page on the job offer and employer requirements is still there, still there. It's still linking to the employer declaration. And so make sure, like this is something if you are thinking about claiming job offer points, before you claim those, make sure that you have gone to the AIP website, you've gone to job offer and employer requirements, and you have had your employer go through that carefully with you, and they are in agreement that they are willing to support your application and that they will be signing that employer declaration, because you don't, Again, don't want to be in a situation where they say misrep, where you've claimed these points, and your employer's not on board. Yes. And then, as we look at so, there's 10 points for that, and then there's a maximum of six points awarded for a job offer to work in select Alberta rural communities or sectors. And so what are those? Well, if you've got an endorsement letter, like I talked about before, through the real renewal stream, if your job offer, you know, for tourism and hospitality is from an employer who's a member of a required sector Association under the tourism and hospitality stream job offer in a law enforcement occupation, I'd love to see that that's such a really strange program. But anyways, law enforcement occupation from an employer who is a member of the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police. And so those are kind of some nuanced little, you know, additional points, but really rural renewal stream is kind of where that's that's driven. And then if you could look at the Alberta job offer location, once again, like we talked about, if the job offer that you have, generally speaking, is is through a rural renewal stream, there's five points or the Alberta, you know, any other community outside of Edmonton and Calgary, you can also get that additional five. So that's a quick little overview. And there is one last little part I'll end with, which is points for regulated occupations. So Alberta is really big on trade certification and professional association,
Unknown Speaker 34:13
the you know, having having licensing to work in those occupations. And so there's 10 whopping points available for someone who has the, you know, the required license or trade certification to work in their profession or trade, and only those who have an Alberta job offer in a regulated occupation and who meet the requirements set up by the professional regulatory body. And I think of like nurses, for instance, or like a welder or electrician, so the right professional regulatory body or the apprenticeship and industry training to practice in that occupation, Alberta will be awarded points. So lots more to flush out. But these are the high points, and we definitely, I know our our time is very.
Unknown Speaker 35:00
Quickly passing here. But you know, the most important thing, I think, at this stage, is people are trying to make sense of all of this. Is one, get your Alberta account set up, get it ready. And then on September the 30th,
Unknown Speaker 35:14
take your time when you when you're completing it. You do not have to rush. Be honest, you know, make sure that you have your employer, like Alicia said that if you're claiming job offer points or alleging you have them, that your employer is on board and that they're willing to support you in what they need to do to support that job offer. And ultimately, you need to watch your emails. We'll see how things come out. But when the government announces that they've done a round of invitations, they'll explain what the factors were that they were looking for, and then it's a matter of carefully monitoring your your email to see if you received one. Now, Alicia all also identified that you need to watch your test state, like the scores and the expiry dates on your documents. One thing they did confirm is that, if there's a language test that kind of expires in the in the interim between submitting your Express Entry that in, then you quickly go and do another one that they will entertain. You know, adding the new language scores in, which is nice. They're not just going to shut things down,
Unknown Speaker 36:21
but yeah, just make sure that your documents you're relying upon are not expiring, and remember that some of these, like, you know, depending on the direction you go, this is just think of the expression of interest as just a kind of a gatekeeper process, and everything else within the programs, I have To assume, and that's what we've been led to believe, will remain the same. So eligibility requirements will still be the still be there. If you are someone who, who lives outside of the province of Alberta, and you're applying and and you know you you don't have any Alberta experience, well, the Alberta opportunity stream is not going to work for you, right? And so remember, as you're going through that you still need to look at the programs and determine that you are eligible. But the reality is, it sure looks like there's not going to be any restrictions on people submitting expressions of interest, even if their CRS scores are really low, like for the purposes of express entry, and even if you know their language, you know their language scores, if they answer and say, Well, my scores are lower than four, I don't think it then is smart enough to block and say, well, you're no longer eligible. So be aware of that. And the other question I have too is, will it automatically block you if you already identify that you have an existing AIP application in the queue, maybe, maybe not, maybe duplicates. Hopefully, I know that it will, you'll get a warning, yeah, you won't get a warning, and it'll say you already have one. And it and it's based on your Alberta account, so it recognizes it so. And then the other question I had, too was, will this EOI profile expire? Does it have an automatic expiry date? Doesn't say so we don't know about that yet, either. No. But anyways, so this is a little bit of an overview for everyone. Hopefully this was helpful. We will definitely have more to say as things roll out on September the 30th but good luck everyone in this new world of expressions of interest for Alberta. Thanks, Alicia, thanks Mark.
Unknown Speaker 38:30
Thank you for listening to the Canadian immigration podcast. Your trusted source for information on Canadian immigration law, policy and practice. If you would like to book a legal consultation, please visit www.holthelaw.com
Unknown Speaker 38:46
you can also find lots more helpful information on our Canadian immigration Institute YouTube channel, where you can join mark on one of his many Canadian immigration live Q and A's. See you soon, and all the best as you navigate this crazy world we call Canadian immigration and.
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