Federal Skilled Trades – a federal immigration program, for participation in which experience in a suitable profession is required, as well as a job offer in Canada, or a certificate of qualifications. The program operates through the Express Entry system.

When assessing compliance with the program, the following is taken into account:

• level of English or French;
• work experience over the past 5 years;
• having a current job offer or certificate of qualifications.

1. Job offer or qualification certificate

The invitation from a Canadian employer must be for continuous, full-time paid work (from 30 hours per week). The job offer must be valid for at least 1 year.

A certificate of qualifications, which must be issued by a Canadian provincial, territorial or federal government, may be appropriate in lieu of a job offer.

2. Language knowledge

To confirm your language level, you must pass one of the approved tests: most often IELTS for English and TEF Canada for French. Scores from the language test are converted into CLB.

CLB is a kind of unified system for assessing language skills.

Minimum CLB level

3. Work experience

• FSTP requires 2 years of work experience within the last 5 years in an occupation that matches the codes listed below in the NOC:
• category 72, except subcategory 726;
• category 73;
• category 82;
• category 83;
• category 92;
• category 93, except subcategory 932;
• subcategory 6320;
• profession 62200.

To find out which specific professions are included in these groups, you need to:

• Go to the official website of the NOC 2021 occupational classifier;
• In the list below, expand the item whose first digit is equal to the first digit of one of the groups listed above, for example: 7;
• A list of all subcategories for this group will open. You only need the ones that start with 72 or 73, but not the ones that start with 726.

If you go through this program and receive an invitation to immigrate, you will need to attach a letter of recommendation from your employer, which will list your responsibilities. They must completely or partially coincide with those described in the Main duties block of the selected NOC.

3. Education

Although not required for this program, education greatly impacts your overall Express Entry score.

In order for your diplomas to be accepted, it is necessary to carry out an evaluation of your education. This is most often done through WES.

Immigration process

It is not possible to apply for this particular program. Express Entry automatically evaluates, based on the data you enter, which program is right for you. Therefore, you can get hit by several at once. We talk more about this in the article about Express Entry 2023.

Below we will describe the process of immigration to Canada through the EE system.

1. Creating a profile.

This is worth doing if you have assessed that you qualify for one of the federal programs. In this case, Federal Skilled Trades.

If you are not suitable, then there is no point in creating an account, it will simply be closed.

Compliance with the requirements of federal programs occurs automatically based on the entered data (age, work experience, education, language, etc.) that you specified when creating your profile..

2. Selection of candidates.

If you have completed one of the federal programs, then your profile is moved to the pool of candidates.

Here your data is once again automatically assessed, this time by the CRS system. After this you receive the corresponding score. The higher it is, the greater the chances of immigration.

Before the pandemic, invitations to immigration were sent consistently 2 times a month. Afterwards there was a long break, and in the summer of 2022 the selections resumed, but now there is no previous stability: maybe 3 selections per month, or maybe only 1.

While you are in the candidate pool, you can make edits to your profile. For example, if you retake a language test with better scores.

The profile is active for 1 year, after which you will need to create it again.

3. Receiving an invitation to submit documents.

Such a letter will be received by those whose score in the next selection is not lower than the passing one.

The invitation is active for 60 days. During this time, you need to upload all the required documents, fill out additional forms, and pay fees.

4. Decision on the application.

If the application is submitted correctly, the review begins. If not, then refusal. Depending on the stage of consideration, part of the fees may be refunded.

If additional documents are required, you will receive a notification by e-mail and in your personal account.

If approved, you will need to stamp your visa and then travel to Canada before it expires.