FEDERAL SKILLED WORKER CLASS PROGRAM

All About the Federal Skilled Workers Program – How Can You Qualify?

Back in 2002, the Canadian Immigration system had introduced the FSW Program, which is short for Federal Skilled Workers.  In an effort to encourage participation from workers skilled enough to help both the Canadian economy and the world economy as well, the FSW Program was instituted a decade ago, and continues to assist workers to this end.  Since the program was started, the Canadian government has been pinpointing certain lines of work that would qualify for immigration and to fill in openings in the country’s lucrative job market; in the program’s first six years, an average of almost 250,000 immigrants per year qualified to immigrate to Canada for work purposes.  There are currently 29 jobs qualified under the FSW program, and qualified applicants need to have at least one year’s continuous paid work experience in the eligible occupation of their choice.

Just like with similar immigration programs in place in Australia, the United Kingdom and other countries, Canada’s Federal Skilled Workers Program is based on points.  Several factors are evaluated when calculating the number of points to qualify.  To wit, the factors that would play a part in determining the number of points are the worker’s age, educational background, work experience, fluency in English and/or French and previous work experience or education in Canada.  Applicants would need to score no less than 67 points in order to qualify for immigration under FSW rules.  Although such points-based evaluation may sound quick and easy, the evaluation may actually take about one year to complete.    This time frame may vary depending on the country the worker originally hails from.  Eligible applicants would be granted permanent residence in Canada and after three years continuous residence, would be cleared to apply for citizenship.

However, the Federal Skilled Workers program has since become stricter in terms of the qualification process.  The number of qualified applicants covered by the program is now capped to a maximum of 20,000 combined workers per year.  As for individual occupations, there is now a cap of 1,000 applications per year per occupation in place.  So far, the most popular occupations, meaning those that reach the individual cap faster than others include jobs in the medical industry, business management-related jobs such as consultants, account executives and business analysts, and jobs in the restaurant management industry.  The annual cap of 20,000 is reset every June 30^th of each year, so at this point, there should be more than enough time to reach that limit and apply for assistance under the Federal Skilled Workers program.

If you desire a permanent residence visa in Canada under the Federal Skilled Worker Class, consider the following conditions:

• An applicant must have at least one year of experience in a number of occupations listed by the government and works that are directly answers the need of the country. Listed occupations includes restaurant and food managers, primary production managers except for agriculture, insurance adjusters and claims examiner, professional occupation in business services, biologist and scientist, architects and specialist physicians, general practitioners and family physicians, dentist, pharmacists, Physiotherapists and others in the listed occupations.
• International workers or students who have legally live in Canada for a minimum of one year.
• Applicant need to have AEO or Arranged Employment Opinion approved by (HRSDC) or Human Resources Social Development Canada.

If you believe you pass the above conditions, you should take the following assessment to determine whether you can apply in the Federal Skilled Class or not. You need to have professional work experience with at least one continuous year at a full-time job.