Federal Skilled Trades

The Federal Skilled Trades is one of the three programs within Canada’s Express Entry System for the processing of the Permanent Residency applicants. The programs within the Express Entry system are highly competitive and all of them use the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) to rank the individual applicants applying under the programs.

Federal Skilled Trades Program Requirements

In order to be eligible under the Federal Skilled Trades programs, the applicant has to fulfil a few minimum requirements in terms of work experience, level of education, age, and English or French language proficiency. The candidate must have at least two years of full-time work experience in a skilled trade or equal number of hours in part-time work. This experience must have been obtained within the previous 5 years and only considers work experience obtained after an individual has been granted the certification to practice the trade in their country of residence.

According to Canada’s National Occupational Classification (NOC) code, Skilled Trades are defined as the following occupational groups:

Assuming the completion of the work experience, there are some other eligibility criteria that the candidate has to fulfil in order to be eligible under the program. These are as follows:

• Canada Employment Connection: The candidate must have a valid offer for a full time employment for a position lasting at least 12 months or a certificate of qualification in their skilled trade which is issued by a Canadian provincial or territorial authority.
• Language: The candidate must reach a minimum of Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level 4 on an approved English or French language test.
• Residence in Canada: Must intend to live outside the province of Quebec.

If the candidate fulfils all these criteria, they will become eligible to submit a profile under the Express Entry system for the Federal Skilled Trades program. The candidate should take note that they should meet the basic admissibility requirements. There are certain criminal offenses and medical conditions which may make the candidate inadmissible to Canada.

Federal Skilled Trade Application Procedure

A candidate can check all the program requirements and if he or she meets the requirements, he or she can submit an Express Entry profile to IRCC. The submission of a profile does not guarantee that the candidate will receive a Canadian Permanent Residence. Once the profile is submitted, the candidate will be assigned a CRS score and based on the score, he or she will be considered for all future draws for the Invitations to Apply for Permanent Residence.

When the candidate will be submitting the Express Entry profile, he or she will be asked to provide the following information:

• Language Proficiency Test Results : All candidates under the Express Entry programs must provide results from an approved language test taken within the previous two years.
• Identification Documents: Candidates will be required to provide information from identification documents. Ideally, a candidate and all accompanying family members should possess passports valid for travel.

Though there is no requirement for Educational documents under the program, the candidate should keep certain documentation ready to claim the points for education.

• Educational Credentials Assessment (ECA): In order to claim points for education, an FST candidate must provide a valid ECA report attesting to the value of foreign education by Canadian standards. There are five organizations in Canada authorized to issue ECA reports. This is not required for educational credentials obtained from a Canadian educational institution.