How to Apply for the Federal Skill Worker Program (2)

Immigration programs available for Canada (2)

How to Apply for the Federal Skill Worker Program (2)

After you must have sent your certificates and transcripts to WES, the next step will be to take a Language Proficiency Test. Canada has the English Speaking provinces and French-speaking Provinces.


You are to take a language proficiency test to show that you can read, write, listen and speak in either English or French or both. If you can speak both, that’s more points for you.

IELTS is the most popular Language Proficiency test for English speakers. There are other options but for a few reasons, a lot of people opt for IELTS.


IELTS is organized by the British Council and is of 2 types.

- Academic IELTS
- General IELTS.

For the sake of Immigration, you should register for the General IELTS. The academic one is for people seeking Admission. ECAs are valid for 5 years while IELTS results are valid for 2 years, during this period, you must have finished your application; else, you’d have to write another IELTS.


When writing IELTS, your aim should be a minimum band score of 7.0 and above. Anything below will not be okay for FSW.


After the ECA and Language test, your next step is to create an Express Entry Profile on the Official CIC website.


Filling the form is basically filling basic data about yourself. You will have to provide your Language test results and show that you have done the Educational credential Assessment (ECA).


At this point, you are to wait for an ITA. ITA means an Invitation To Apply.

This is the point where you start the actual application.


Basically, All you have been doing up to this point is to tell the IRCC that you would love to apply. The ITA is sent by the IRCC after going through your Express Entry profile.

The ITA isn't sent to everyone who makes it to this stage. This is the point where the CRS score comes into play.

The CRS score is the score used to determine those who are eligible to apply. The draw for the CRS cutoff is done twice every month. You can study past cut off marks and the trend, then compare it with what your potential score might be so you know if you should expect the ITA or not.

To estimate your CRS score, make use of the link below. The grand total at the end of the page is your potential CRS score.

https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/crs-tool.asp

How the CRS score works

When it asks if your language test is less than 2 years old, choose yes. 

Where it asks for your IELTS result, (if you haven't taken the test) just choose the highest score on all 4 categories. Work with that for now

Where it asks for foreign work experience, choose 3 years plus. All work experience gotten from outside Canada is considered to be foreign work experience.

After answering these questions, compare your grand total to the current CRS cut off mark of 473. If you're not close, that means the FSW is not for you.

You should explore other immigration routes.