Eligibility criteria for federal skilled worker applications as of July 1, 2011

Under changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, federal skilled worker applications are assessed for eligibility according to the criteria listed below.

Note: This does not apply to applicants intending to live in the province of Quebec.

These criteria affect you only if you applied on or after July 1, 2011. If your application was received before July 1, 2011, it will be processed according to the rules that were in effect at that time.

Is my application eligible for processing?

For your application to be eligible for processing, you must include the results of your official language proficiency test, and fall into one of these three categories:

1. Skilled workers with a valid offer of arranged employment.

2. International students enrolled in a PhD program at a provincially or territorially recognized private or public post-secondary educational institution in Canada who:

   • have completed at least two years of study towards a PhD
   • are in good academic standing at the time they apply
   • are not recipients of an award requiring them to return to their home country to apply their knowledge and skills, OR

   International students who graduated from a PhD program at a provincially or territorially recognized private or public post-secondary educational institution in Canada who:

   • graduated no more than 12 months before the date their application is received
   • did not receive an award which required them to return to their home country to apply their knowledge and skills (or did, but have satisfied the terms of the award).

   (A maximum of 1,000 applications from this category will be considered for processing each year. This will not be included in the total for any other cap. Applications will be considered in order they are received. The first cap year for the PhD stream begins on November 5, 2011.)

NOTE: the occupations above are all Skill Type 0 (managerial occupations) or Skill Level A (professional occupations) or B (technical occupations and skilled trades) on the Canadian National Occupational Classification list.

If you are not sure if you should apply as a skilled worker, you can use the Come to Canada Wizard to get an idea of whether your application would be eligible for processing.

If you apply and do not meet the above criteria, you will be informed of this and  your processing fee will be refunded.

There are many ways to immigrate to Canada. If you don’t meet the criteria to apply under the Federal Skilled Worker Program, you may qualify under another category. Learn more about your options.