As part of the Express entry application, you will have to provide the travel history for the applicants in your application. Now here are some tips-
1) You need to provide international travel history ONLY if either the country of origin or country of destination is NOT your country of birth or country of residence.
2) You need to specify vacations and business travel too. Even short durations need to be specified as long as they are within 10 years!
3) Match the dates with your passport stamps.
4) Missing any visit would be considered as misrepresentation.
5) Remember that you are required to specify police clearance certificate from countries, where you have stayed for 6 months or more. The express entry application generates the document list. If you missed a visit and it turns out to be more than 6 months then your application coild be denied.
Please double check the travel history for all your family members.
6) Express entry is an entirely online process until you get the golden email but if you plan on international travel post getting ITA, make sure that you include the latest travel in your history. The CIC officials run a security check for those dates and that is why omitting travels is considered a serious offence.
When applying for express entry, you have to specify your NOC code for every position in your work experience. You also have to decide the primary NOC code for your application.
What is NOC and what is its significance?
NOC stands for National Occupation Code. Each of the various occupations and jobs that are applicable have been assigned a NOC code. Since you are applying as a skilled immigrant, each of the positions in your career for which you are claiming points, has to be associated with a NOC. This is the basis on which you would get an invite i.e. ITA. Remember that once you get an invite, you have to get job duties listed by your employer. So please invest time to find the correct NOC.
Primary NOC is the NOC that you would like to apply for. You should have a good deal of experience in that NOC. Since you would be working in that role, CIC would like to ensure that you are indeed going to do a skilled job and you have the experience for it.
If you have a job offer from a Canadian employer and you are claiming points for that in your express entry application, you would also need to specify the NOC for that job offer as well.
How should I find my NOC?
1. Skill level 0, A or B are considered for Express entry.
For NOC 0 check this video.
For NOC code A, check the video below. This is one of the biggest categories for which invites were sent! Codes 217, 2173, 2174 and 1112 received the highest invites.
2. Here is the list of NOC codes. You may not find the exact title that you may hold now. That's where you have to do a little bit of work.
3. Each of the NOC codes have responsibilities listed clearly. You need to compare the responsibilities of the NOC with the letter your employer might give you.
4. For every position you have take the time to research and compare the NOC.
5. Select your primary NOC carefully. You should have at least one year of skilled experience in that NOC. It is perfectly fine if you have other NOCs in your experience.
6. Your job duties may vary and may not match 100% and that is expected because every employer may have different expectations for a given title. While there is no % match mentioned on the site, it might be good to get a close match to the description of the main duties. Companies might have job positions that might have mixed duties. In my case I was a scrum master and analyst but I had more duties as an analyst but completely stated both my job duties in the letter and chose the NOC of an analyst.
7. Another thing to note is that the typical job titles are also mentioned in the NOC. Your employer may have different titles. For example, scrum master isn't a title but based on your responsibilities, you could choose a NOC of IT manager or analyst.
8. The minimum education is also stated for the NOC. Please consider that too while selecting a NOC. If that NOC needs a minimum masters and you only have higher secondary education then it might not be a good fit.
Recommendations from our research
The search functionality on the CIC site could definitely use a lot of improvements. One of our pain points was finding the correct NOC. Note that you know your job role well and so go thru the responsibilities mentioned in the NOC before using it. This is just for you to get started.
IT / Computer software job roles
IT System Analyst / Business analyst / Product owner / Security analyst / performance analyst - 2171
Scrum master / project manager / program manager- 0213
Front end developers/ UX developers - 2175
DBA / database analysts - 2172
UX designers who wireframe and create prototypes - 5241
Developers working on maintenance projects or gaming / animation works - 2174
Software architects and senior developers - 2173
Quality assurance - 2283
Operations / support technicians / LAN managers - 2281
Directors, Vice president and above - 0013
Frequently asked questions-
1. Where else do you need NOC?
NOC is required when you submit your profile i.e. you specify primary NOC and NOC for every position in your experience. If you have a job offer and using it towards getting points then your offer letter will need the NOC.
2. If you have not used any job offer towards points, do you need NOC to search jobs?
No, you don't need NOC. You search jobs normally. Here are some tips.
DISCLAIMER - This is a very subjective topic and I am stating this based on our personal experience. If you need any further assistance, please contact an immigration attorney.
Next steps - 1. Get ready to submit your express entry profile.
After you have submitted the Express entry profile, you need to wait for the invitation to apply. However, in the meantime you can prepare for the next steps. Express entry draws happen every 15 days and after you get the invite you get only 2 months within which you have to procure all documents. You have to plan on these aspects. Please remember that these documents should be procured after you get the invite and not before. So timing is critical. While most of them are straightforward, others require planning.
Proof of funds - You need to identify the institutions that you would need to approach for the letter. You need to get ALL assets that you have with the institution on that letter with the 6 month average balance. In our case, we chose ICICI bank in India and BOFA in USA. While BOFA was very easy, ICICI was painful. It would be good to figure out the procedures for these institutions.
If you have to provide proof of funds then please be aware that CIC officials can contact the finance institution for verification. So please choose the institution accordingly!
Employment history proofs - You need to get letters from your current employer and previous employers in the last 10 years. This one is tricky because some employers are averse to providing the same. For previous employers there may be policies and procedures for you to get the letter. Figure out the contacts, who you might have to approach for the same.
You should line up the references from previous and current work places. In some cases, CIC officials try to contact the references you provide for verification.
Police clearance - You need police clearance from the countries you have been since the last 10 years or since the age of 18 if you are younger than 28. This is the very 1st check that the authorities do. Make sure that you have the correct certificate else you can get a decline. Find out the procedure for the various countries you were in, if applicable and plan accordingly.
For USA, you need to get a clearance from FBI. The procedure is online now.
For India, you can get it from the embassy, if you are outside of India. But again the Indian embassy may not be close to your residence and you may have to plan for it.
For Australia, the process isn't fast. You might have to file for it on the very 1st day.
4. Get your address history for the last 10 years. This can be tedious if you have moved a lot.
5. Get your travel history. You need travel history for trips, that are other than your country of birth and country of residence. Verify this with your passport stamps.
6. Inspect your documents for the name and check if you need to submit an affidavit.
7. You should be good at creating and editing PDFs. Here is my blog to give you an idea of what is involved with different documents.
Hope these steps get you a headstart on your application.
This is the 1st step in express entry, where you express your interest in permanent residency to IRCC i.e. Canadian government. Once you create your profile, you can also check your CRS score too. You might note that this score could differ from the free tool that you might have used before. The one calculated in the profile is ultimately the score that the IRCC will see and not that of the free tool.
Remember that the information you provide in this stage is used by IRCC to invite you. Your CRS score is calculated based on several pieces of information you provide as part of the profile. Once you submit your profile, it will be in the pool for a year. Draws are held every 15 days. The idea is that the profile would get picked up in one year if it meets the minimum CRS score cutoff.
Things to watch while submitting your Express entry profile -
While getting your language test and education assessment are 2 important things, please note few other aspects while submitting your profile. Should you get an invite, you will have to submit the documents for the same. Changing these answers at the time of document submission i.e. post ITA would lead to more scrutiny and unnecessary delay.
Amount that you are willing to get into Canada - Proof of funds is required when you don't have a job while entering Canada. Typically people come to the country without job and it may take a few months for them to find a job. That is why the Canadian government would want to know the amount you can bring in when you enter so that your family can sustain without issues. This is money that is readily available i.e. like cash or fixed deposits. Assets like property are not considered. Secondly, make sure that you check the government website to find the minimum funds needed based on family size.That is why you have to declare the amount you can bring to Canada in the 1st expression of interest step itself. This isn't optional. Make sure that you can provide proof later on whatever amount you have promised. Note that you are not required to bring the amount at the time of entry into Canada. However, should the need arise you should be able to get these funds to Canada.
NOC code - The job titles of different companies around the world are different. In order to ensure that you are skilled, you would need to procure a letter from your employer(s) in the last 10 years with your job duties. The visa officer looks for a 40% match with the NOC code and your employer letters. So please analyze the codes properly. This is a significant piece on the basis of which you are getting the invite and so changing it later will lead to complications in processing your case.
Employment history - Do not miss or misstate your experience. Mention every employer regardless of whether you can get the perfect letter from them. NOC is needed for every position. So work on this earlier on.
What happens once you submit the profile?
You would get an acknowledgement email and message in your profile about the same.
If you get selected in the draw, watch out for the minimum cut off. If your score is greater than or equal to the minimum cut off, you would get the email and notification from CIC. Sometimes it takes a day or so for the message to arrive.
And your time starts now to gather documents and provide additional information!
Hope these tips help you submit your profile!!
Next steps -
While you are awaiting your ITA, there are things you can do to prepare for the next stage! - Read along.
