The Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) is one of the three programmes managed through Express Entry, and one of the lower-cost routes to Canadian permanent residence. It selects people with skilled work experience, an assessed educational credential and solid English or French. If you meet the requirements and your profile ranks highly enough, you can be invited to apply for permanent residence for yourself, your partner and your dependent children, without investing capital. Selection and every final decision rest with IRCC.
Yes
English or French
About 6 months
CAD 1,590 per adult
A job offer from a Canadian employer, or a Canadian work permit, is a separate route into Canada. It can also earn you 10 points on the Federal Skilled Worker selection grid, although arranged employment no longer adds points to your Express Entry ranking score.
These routes cover self-employed persons, business investment and entrepreneur streams. Applicants are expected to run or invest in a business in Canada, in manufacturing, services or technology, or to make a defined financial contribution to the Canadian economy.
Canada is a strong destination for international students, with well-regarded universities and colleges and post-graduation work options that can later support a permanent residence application.
1Assess your profile and choose the right route
2Sign a formal retainer and open your file
3Prepare and translate your documents, then book biometrics
4IRCC decision, landing and settlement support
You are exempt from proof of settlement funds only if you are already authorised to work in Canada and you hold a valid job offer from a Canadian employer. Both conditions must be met. Otherwise you must show unencumbered funds that meet the current threshold for your family size, which IRCC updates every year.
Not automatically. Periods of self-employment do not count as skilled work experience under the Federal Skilled Worker Program, so owning a business in construction, transport, manufacturing, natural resources or agriculture does not by itself make you eligible. What counts is paid employment in a NOC TEER 0 to 3 occupation. Business owners usually look at the Start-up Visa, a provincial entrepreneur stream or a work permit route instead.
On the 67-point Federal Skilled Worker grid, age scores 12 points from 18 to 35 and then falls by roughly a point a year to zero at 47 and over. Applicants under 18 score nothing for age. In the Comprehensive Ranking System, which ranks Express Entry profiles, age points reach zero at 45.
You have 60 days from the date of the invitation to apply to submit a complete application with all supporting documents.
Usually not. A police certificate for the country where you now live must have been issued within the last 6 months. For a country where you no longer live, it must have been issued after the last time you lived there for 6 months or more. An out-of-date certificate can have the application returned as incomplete.
Have your profile checked before you file. An honest review of your work experience, language plan and points total shows whether the Federal Skilled Worker Program is realistic for you and where the weak points are. It cannot change how IRCC decides, but it does prevent avoidable mistakes and wasted fees.
If you want to move to Canada without putting up capital, the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) is usually the first route to look at. It is one of the three programmes managed through Express Entry, and a single application can cover your partner and dependent children.
Applicants who meet the requirements and rank highly enough may be invited to apply for permanent residence, which can later lead to citizenship. What matters is understanding the rules, preparing the file properly and submitting it online to IRCC, with an authorised representative if you want one. The sections below set out how the route works.
The Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) selects people with skilled work experience for Canadian permanent residence, and it is run through the Express Entry system. Canada introduced it to attract qualified, educated workers, and a successful applicant can bring a spouse or partner and dependent children on the same application.
It is one of the main economic routes into the country. Under the current Immigration Levels Plan, Canada aims to admit around 380,000 new permanent residents in 2026, and about 60 per cent of those places are allocated to economic programmes, of which Express Entry is the largest single channel. So what does Canada actually mean by a skilled worker?
For IRCC, a skilled worker is someone whose knowledge and skills were gained at university, at a recognised college or training institution, or on the job. Broadly there are two groups:
The list of eligible occupations is wide. Engineers, teachers, doctors and accountants qualify, and so do many technical and trade roles, from truck drivers to cooks. Note that the Federal Skilled Worker Program is a permanent residence route and works quite differently from a Canadian work permit.
Eligibility takes more than a language test. You need eligible work experience, an assessed educational credential and enough points on the selection grid. Here is what each one means in practice:
The experience has to be paid work, so voluntary roles and unpaid internships do not count, and periods of self-employment are excluded. You need at least 1 year of continuous work, or 1,560 hours, in the last 10 years. Full-time means 30 hours a week over 12 months, which comes to those same 1,560 hours; part-time counts as well, so 15 hours a week over 2 years reaches the same total.
You must show ability in all four abilities, writing, speaking, listening and reading, in English or French, at CLB 7 or above in each one.
Only certain tests are accepted. For English that is IELTS General Training, CELPIP-General or PTE Core; for French, TEF Canada or TCF Canada. TOEFL is not accepted for Canadian permanent residence. Results are valid for 2 years and must still be valid on the day you apply.
Three measures drive a Federal Skilled Worker application:
Related reading: If you were counting on points for a job offer, read this change: CRS points for a job offer have been removed
Related reading: If your score sits below recent general-draw cut-offs, look at the targeted route: Express Entry category-based draws
Every occupation in the NOC is assigned a TEER level.
Work experience only counts if the occupation sits in NOC TEER 0, TEER 1, TEER 2 or TEER 3. The categories work like this:
Education completed in Canada, at secondary school, college or university, is accepted as it stands. A credential earned outside Canada must be assessed by an IRCC-designated organisation, which issues an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA). Your language test must also still be valid on the day you submit.
For work experience, you need documents that prove both the role and the pay: employer reference letters setting out duties and hours, contracts, payslips, and social insurance or tax records, signed and stamped.
The remaining requirements are set out in the table below, in order of weight:
| Key requirements for the Federal Skilled Worker Program |
|---|
| No criminal record |
| Not a security risk to Canada |
| Good health; medically admissible |
| A minimum of 67 out of 100 points |
| Selection factor | Points |
|---|---|
| Language ability | 28 points |
| Education | 25 points |
| Work experience | 15 points |
| Age | 12 points for ages 18 to 35 |
| Valid job offer in Canada | 10 points |
| Adaptability | 10 points |
The process starts with the selection grid, where you need at least 67 points out of 100. You can check the criteria and work out your score on the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) website.
If you meet the minimum, these are the steps:
The government fees for a Federal Skilled Worker application, for the principal applicant and family members, are set by IRCC as follows:
Fees are reviewed periodically, so check the current figures on the IRCC fee page before you pay. Biometrics, language tests, the ECA, medical exams and translations are charged separately.
For applicants who meet the criteria, the Federal Skilled Worker Program is one of the most direct routes to permanent residence in Canada, and one of the least expensive.
A Federal Skilled Worker application has a lot of moving parts: the 67-point grid, the ECA, reference letters that match the NOC duties, and a 60-day window once an invitation arrives. Aval Visa is led by Hadi Imani, a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC #R522575) regulated by the CICC. We assess your eligibility honestly, prepare the file to IRCC standards and act as your authorised representative. Using a representative does not improve your chances of approval; selection and every decision rest solely with IRCC. What it does buy you is a complete, accurate file filed on time.
To review where you stand and decide whether this is the right route, request a consultation with the Aval Visa team.
