Federal Skilled Worker immigration program is one of the most straightforward and predictable ways of immigrating to Canada. It is a two-stage process that is comprised of eligibility assessment stage and final review and processing stage for the applicants considered eligible. Significant changes to the program were introduced on November 28, 2008.

Stage 1

Eligibility assessment

The purpose of the first stage is to determine if the applicant is eligible for processing under the Federal Skilled Worker program.

Currently, the applicant is eligible if he:

1. Has an arranged employment in Canada
   or
2. Was living in Canada legally as a foreign student or foreign worker for not less than a year
   or
3. He has at least one year of work experience in one of the occupations present on the eligibility list.

If the applicant feels that he is eligible, he should complete and submit general application to the Centralized Intake Office located in Sydney, Nova Scotia (Canada). Processing fees must be paid when submitting an application for assessment.

Application is then assessed against the eligibility requirements, and an applicant is informed in writing about his further steps: he is either considered eligible and instructed to submit the complete application (that includes all forms and supporting documents) to his local visa office, or his eligibility is not established, and the permission for further processing is not granted.

Stage 2

Processing of eligible applications

Candidate must receive enough points based on a six-factor selection system to obtain a permanent resident status in Canada. The six selection factors under the Federal Skilled Worker program are as follows:

1. Education (maximum 25 point)
2. Knowledge of English and/or French (maximum 24 points)
3. Work experience (maximum 21 points)
4. Age (maximum 10 points)
5. Arranged employment in Canada (maximum 10 points)
6. Adaptability factors (maximum 10 points)

This gives a theoretical maximum of 100 points. As of January 10, 2009 the passmark is 67, which means that the candidate with 67 or more points have a near 100% chance of being granted the Canadian permanent resident status for his family.

Based on the experience and statistics, current passmark of 67 points is reachable for most people with Bachelor's degree, good work experience and intermediate proficiency in English or French.

Principal requirements 

Besides requirements mentioned above, there are some important things for candidates and their family members to consider before making a decision to apply under the Federal skilled worker program:

• They must be in good health (which means that they do not suffer from diseases posing risk to other people or requiring continuous medical supervision).
• They must have no criminal records.
• They must have enough funds to support their living in Canada for about 6 months after arrival.

Of course there are numerous other matters that should be taken into consideration when preparing documents, but those mentioned above are most important.

How to apply 

After the successfull completion of eligibility assessment stage (completed by the Centralized Intake Unit in Sydney, Canada), an applicant is given instructions regarding further processing. In general, applicant will need to submit the following documents (translated into English or French where necessary) for review under this program:

• Application forms
• Diplomas
• Birth certificates, marriage certificates and/or other documents
• Police clearance certificates
• Letters of reference from employers
• Language test result from authorized organization

Also may be advisable and/or required by different visa offices to submit other documents such as:

• Professional training certificates
• Workbooks
• Cover letters
• etc. 

Expenses

There are different fees to be paid upon submission of application, during the review and after the positive decision is made. They are estimated as follows:

• $550 (Canadian) processing fee paid when application is submitted for every adult included in the application
• $150 (Canadian) processing fee paid when application is submitted for every child included in the application
• $80..$350 per person paid for medical examination to the authorized medical instutution on the final stage of processing
• $490 (Canadian) right of landing fee (ROLF) paid for every adult when permanent resident visa is issued
• from $8,000 to $17,000 should be in applicant's posession on the date of visa issue - this is the amount necessary to support applicant's family in Canada for the first time

Besides, there are such expenses as courier services, document translation services, airplane tickets and so on.

Processing times

Before changes introduced in November 2008, applications under the Federal Skilled Worker class were being processed in case processing centres all over the world and processing times are very different. They can vary from 6 months (which happens extremely rarely) up to 5 years and even more (which is also a very rare case). On average it takes from 2 to 3 years from the date of submission to review the case and issue visas to successfull applicants.

At the same time when changes to the Federal Skilled were introduced, it was announced that processing times will gradually decrease to as little as 6 to 12 months, but no evidence yet exists to support this information.

Process step-by-step

Case processing is straightforward and is done as follows:

• Submission of several forms and processing fees to the Centralized Intake Unit (CIU) in Sydney, Canada.
• Receiving approval and further instructions from CIU.
• Submission of complete application and all supporting documents to the local visa office.
• Interview with applicant (may be waived in some cases).
• Medical examination of applicant and his family members.
• Security interview (this one is scheduled for only a small percentage of cases).
• Case decision.
• Providing evidence of sufficient settlement funds in applicant's possession, payment of Rightof Permanent Residence Fee.
• Issue of visas