Application Criteria: Work Experience (21 points)

by | Apr 12, 2011 | Canada, Federal Skilled Worker | 4 comments

Work Experience

Work experience credit depends on the number of years you have a performed specifically for a National Occupation Code (NOC).

The work experience must be:

  • For at least one year, continuous, and paid (full-time or the equivalent in part-time), AND
  • Skill Type 0 (managerial occupations) or Skill Level A (professional occupations) or B (technical occupations and skilled trades) on the Canadian National Occupational Classification (NOC) list, AND
  • Within the last 10 years.

The NOC is the authoritative resource on occupational information in Canada. It is used daily by thousands of people to understand the jobs found throughout Canada’s labour market.

The first thing you need to do is to map out your work experience with the existing  NOC.

Important: The Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) Permanent Residence Program changes from time to time. Currently, applicants can be categorized as follows:

  • Pre-Feb 2008 Applicants. Those who applied during this period have no NOC restrictions. This means that if an applicant can categorize his work with the NOC then he/she can apply for a FSW PR.
  • Feb 2008 – June 25, 2010 Applicants. Individuals who applied during this period must comply with the 38 listed skills set by the Federal Government.
  • Post June 26, 2010 Applicants. Those who applied during this period must have at least one year experience on the 29 listed skills set by the Federal Government. A cap of 20,000 FSW applicants per year was implemented only 1,000 applications will be considered per occupation type. The updated occupation list can be found on here. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/apply-who-instructions.asp#list

If your occupation qualifies then the number of years of work experience for that NOC will dictate the points that you can have. The longer your work experience, the higher points that you may get. A maximum of 21 points can be obtained for this factor.

Canada Immigration Application Criteria Work Experience

Supporting documents required:

  • Certificate of Employment
  • Certified true copy of Professional Trainings

4 Comments

  1. Akscanada on June 21, 2011 at 11:29 am

    hi John Marco,

    I applied under MI1 with NOC 1111, when i applied i had 2+ years of experience & now its almost 3+ years, so i should be getting 19 points….correct me if i am wrong…do u have any idea how much time London VO is taking now days….thanks in advance…

    • John Marco on June 21, 2011 at 11:35 am

      Hi Akscanada,

      The work experience is counted based on what you’ve submitted when you forwarded the full documents to the London VO. So, if you’re just submitting it now, then the 3+ years holds. Based from the latest update, London VO takes 16 months (from 2nd AOR to release of VISA) to process. Hope this helps.

  2. laila on July 1, 2011 at 5:10 pm

    Hi John!
    I have 3 years experience as a registered nurse in my country and 1 year experience as a nursing auxiliary staff in the UK. I am planning to apply under NOC 3152. Will my experience as a nursing auxiliary staff be counted as part of my experience? Will I be eligible to get 21 points? I hope you can clarify things up for me. Thanks!

    • John Marco on July 4, 2011 at 5:39 am

      Hi Laila. I’m not in the medical field so I have no idea the difference between the two. In my case, I had several jobs with different titles that fall under one NOC when I applied. In essence, these are all credited to my work experience. The key in preparing for such is to elaborately explain each job that you had and the corresponding duties. This would help the VO understand your work and make your application be processed better. Goodluck!

Submit a Comment