Overview
This programme exists to convert temporary work into permanent residence, and it is deliberately the least demanding of the three on paper. There is no education threshold at all, settlement funds are not required, and the language bar drops to CLB 5 for occupations at TEER 2 or 3.
The difficulty is entirely in what counts as qualifying experience. The year has to be skilled, in Canada, physically performed here, done while you held authorisation to work, and outside any period of full time study. Each of those has ended files that looked comfortable on a first read.
Best suited to: a post graduation work permit holder or other temporary worker with a year of skilled Canadian experience, who wants the lowest documentary burden of the three programmes.
Eligibility
- Work experience. At least one year, or 1,560 hours, of skilled work in Canada within the three years before you apply. It does not need to be continuous, and full time, part time and several jobs can be combined.
- More than one occupation is allowed. Unlike the Federal Skilled Worker Class, your experience may span several occupations, provided each is at a qualifying level.
- Skill level. TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3.
- Authorisation. You must have held authorisation to work in Canada, under temporary resident status, for the whole of the experience you are counting. Periods of maintained status while a renewal was pending need looking at individually rather than assumed either way.
- Language. CLB 7 in all four abilities for an occupation at TEER 0 or 1. CLB 5 in all four abilities for TEER 2 or 3.
- Education. Not required. It still adds to your ranking score, but it is not a condition of qualifying.
- Settlement funds. Not required. This programme is exempt entirely.
- Where you will live. Anywhere in Canada except Quebec.
What does not count
Where these files fail
Every item below describes work that felt like Canadian experience to the person doing it and does not qualify. This is the substance of most refusals under this programme.
- Self employment. Contracting, freelancing and running your own company do not count as employed experience. One narrow exception exists. A temporary public policy in force since 25 April 2023 allows fee for service physician work, normally treated as self employment, to count for candidates invited on or after that date. It is limited to specified physician occupation codes rather than medicine generally, and it reaches the Federal Skilled Worker Class as well as this one.
- Work during full time study. Including co-op and internship placements that formed part of a programme. A common and painful discovery for graduates who worked twenty hours a week for two years.
- Remote work performed outside Canada. Employment by a Canadian company does not make the experience Canadian. The test is where you were, not who paid you. The corollary is worth stating plainly because people get it wrong in both directions: remote work done while you were physically in Canada, for a Canadian employer, does count.
- Work without authorisation. Any period where your status or work authorisation had lapsed cannot be counted, and disclosing it correctly matters more than the lost time.
- Unpaid work. Volunteering and unpaid internships, as with every programme.
The classification problem sits underneath all of this. Whether your year counts depends on the occupation your duties actually fall under, not the job title on your contract or the title your employer prefers to use. Where a role could reasonably be classified more than one way, that decision is worth getting right before anything is filed, because it is the part an officer tests.
Requirements checker
A structured way to see where you stand against the published criteria. It returns an indication only, not an eligibility decision, not legal advice, and not a prediction that you will be invited.
Your situation
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