Connect with us
Connect with us
Do you know how you can receive the maximum points in Express Entry? The first route is a provincial nomination certificate for Express Entry which is 600 points – but you can’t really nominate yourself. The 2nd option is claiming 200 points for a job offer which you can issue yourself from your own company or from a potential employer. Isn’t everyone waiting for those 200 bonus points? – since it’s the difference between being stuck in the Express Entry pool vs. receiving an invitation to apply for their PR. Today we’re going to cover the step-by-step process to claim the 200 points.
Do you want to become a Permanent Resident in Canada? Our licensed consultants could assess your profile against +75 immigration programs across Canada. Get a FREE email assessment by filling out our form, click here.
There are only 6 occupations in the NOC code system where you can claim 200 points in Express Entry. It’s all C-level positions also known as NOC 00 or TEER 000 as follows:
NOC 00010 to 00015. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on 00012 to 00015 as 00010 to 00011 are for government positions only. NOC’s 00012 to 00015 are CEO’s, Managing Directors, COO’s and all top-level executive positions in the private sector.
There are two ways to claim this, either through a Labour Market Impact Assessment also known as an LMIA, or an LMIA exempt route. But to claim this through an LMIA you need to go through the whole LMIA process with an operational business and justify that you will be hiring an executive in NOC 00 or TEER 000 level, which also means the executive salary and structure of the company justifies this NOC 00 position LMIA.
The second method is using an LMIA-exempt route, which means as per the IRPR 82(1) and the ministerial instructions for Express Entry defining a valid offer of arranged employment as having an LMIA-exempt closed work permit based on significant benefit or bilateral agreement such as R205(a) or R205(b) – as an example, this can include work permits in the Intra-Company Transfer C12/C61/C62/C63, C10 categories or even maybe C11 from previous years, a Startup Visa A77 LMIA exempt code, or even the bilateral agreement LMIA exempt codes based on your nationality and profession. Under these categories, you may have started your own business in Canada (either purchased or started from scratch), then you could be eligible to claim 200 points by issuing yourself an LMIA-exempt job offer after being on the payroll for your organization for a minimum of 12 months while you have this closed work permit.
The exact wording as per the Ministerial instructions for this specific section for LMIA exempt work permits is “…the foreign national holds a valid work permit issued under the circumstances described in paragraph 204(a) or (c) or section 205 of the Regulations, the offer is made by an employer who is specified on the work permit and the foreign national works for that employer and has accumulated at least one year of full-time work experience, or the equivalent in part-time work, over a continuous period of work in Canada for that employer…”
Your closed work permit may state ‘Entrepreneur’ or not have a specific NOC code when you receive it if you are starting a brand-new business or branch under any of the significant benefit categories such as ICT, C10, C11 or A77, but after the 1 year of running payroll for yourself, you can go through the following process to define your NOC code. Keep in mind that you need to meet the minimum eligibility criteria for the IRCC officer processing your Express Entry PR application to accept the fact that you are claiming 200 points.
Do you want to become a PR in Canada? At INGWE we could support you! Get a FREE email assessment with one of our licensed immigration consultants. We speak over +8 languages and we have helped applicants from +49 countries in their immigration path to Canada. Fill out our form, click here.
Here are the steps to claim the 200 points under the significant benefit or reciprocal opportunities LMIA exempt work permits in Express Entry:
1: Have a valid closed work permit with the name of your employer or company stated on it.
2: Issue an offer of employment for an indefinite period for a C-level or executive position such as Managing Director, CEO, CIO, COO, CTO, and so on… The job offer should be current, and a detailed job description included for this executive position.
3: Pay the Employer compliance fee of $230 through the Service Canada Employer Portal and receive your LMIA exempt code starting with ‘A’.
4: In your Express Entry profile, you will state that you have a valid offer of employment in NOC 00. This will allow you to claim 200 points for your profile. This can be either under FSW or CEC – in the latter case for CEC you or your spouse should not own more than 50% of the business which is issuing you the offer of employment for Express Entry purposes.
5: Your position and NOC code should be in NOC 00010 to 00015, as most of our clients are in the private sector, they will be between NOC00012 to 00015. Any director or high-level executive position will be in these NOC codes for all industries – no exceptions.
Here is the part where you need to pay serious attention. The structure and size of your company have to justify a C-level executive position for which you are obtaining an offer of employment and claiming these points. Maybe 6-8 years ago it was easy to claim these points, even if you had only 1 or 2 staff. Today, this is a whole different story and IRCC officers are trained to identify when your 200 points claim is not legitimate or justified.
The main duties and lead statement of these executive roles indicate the following, as an example for NOC 00012 and you can use any of the 6 NOC 00 TEER 000 titles based on your specific industry and role:
“Senior managers in financial, communications, and other business services are usually appointed by a board of directors, to which they report. They work either alone or in conjunction with the board of directors to develop and establish objectives for the company and to develop or approve policies and programs. They plan, organize, direct, control, and evaluate, through middle managers, the operations of their organization in relation to established objectives. They work in establishments throughout the telecommunications, finance, insurance, real estate, and data processing, hosting, and related services industries as well as other business service industries or they may own and operate their own business.”
Do you want to plan your future in Canada? We could help you get your PR! Reach out and get a FREE email assessment with one of our licensed immigration consultants, who will assess your profile against +75 immigration programs across Canada, click here.
These positions plan, organize, and control through middle managers. This means as a NOC 00 or TEER 000 position you do not handle day-to-day operations. Here is the question you should ask yourself, if you have 1-2 or even 3 staff members, can you have a middle manager or claim that you are a CEO or Managing Director? According to IRCC that’s not possible. In any logical business setting, in order to have and justify a middle manager you need at least 4-6 staff plus one middle manager and then the CEO or director of the company.
Of course, IRCC likes to see at least 8-10 but you could get away with 4 + 1 middle manager + 1 CEO if you have 2 locations or branches. So, you either have one location with 4-6 staff plus the middle manager or managers and then the executive such as yourself but all split between different departments.
You cannot claim these points if you do not have different departments. Or you have 2 small branches across Canada all under one business and payroll number and have 2 staff in each location. This is probably the most justifiable scenario if you have only 4-5 staff on your payroll, by having 2 or more branches or locations. Of course, if you have a much larger entity then this is much easier to justify.
The reason they want you to have a justifiable business size is that you need to only be doing the executive director level responsibilities such as the following. In your explanation letter and supporting documents, you need to indicate your specific responsibilities and match them one by one in a table to these NOC00012 or similar NOC 000 titles. Here is the example for NOC 00012 position:
* “Determine the company's mission and strategic direction as conveyed through policies and concrete objectives which are met through the effective management of human, financial, and material resources” – You need to indicate here that you are creating the strategy and policies for the company on a high level.
* “Authorize and organize the establishment of major departments and associated senior staff positions” – You need to be reviewing reports from your middle managers and multiple departmental managers – not lower staff.
* “Allocate material, human and financial resources to implement organizational policies and programs; establish financial and administrative controls; formulate and approve promotional campaigns; and approve overall human resources planning” – You need to be allocating resources and making key decisions on how to spend / budget and so forth depending on the data you receive from your middle managers. Even if you can include middle manager reports in your application this can help throughout the 1-year employment you are claiming.
* “Select middle managers, directors, or other executive staff; delegate the necessary authority to them and create optimum working conditions” – This is a key part of managing your other managers and heads of departments or middle managers that are between you and your lower working staff.
* “Represent the organization, or delegate representatives to act on behalf of the organization, in negotiations or other official functions.” – Key strategic partnerships, negotiations, event representation, or maybe raising funds or negotiating with banks and key potential partners could be part of your role – but high level.
For these positions obviously, they prefer a post-secondary degree as described below. If you don’t have a post-secondary degree, you need to justify why your past documented work and managerial experience allows you to perform this executive/director level position: The key words in the following description of educational requirements is “usually”
* A university degree in business administration, commerce, computer science, or other discipline related to the service provided is usually required.
* Several years of experience as a middle manager in financial, communications, or other business services are usually required.
* Specialization in a particular functional area or service is possible through specific university training in that area or through previous experience.
* Senior managers in finance usually require a professional accounting or financial designation.
Keep in mind that mobility is allowed for these key executive roles – which means they can travel for work all around the world.
If you’re planning to immigrate to Canada and you’re looking for some guidance and support, you’re at the right place! We are licensed and we have successfully supported applicants from more than 49 nationalities to apply for Canadian immigration through Studies, Working, Sponsorship, and Business. Get a FREE email assessment, click here.
Here are the documents you need to include in your application to claim the 200 points for an LMIA-exempt work permit in Express Entry. The key is the job description for the NOC 000 and proving you are completing these tasks and your role is not lower or involved in any way in the day-to-day operations.
* You need a detailed organizational chart showing your position/title, your middle managers, and departmental managers under you, and then the staff under them.
* You need all payroll statements indicating how many staff you are paying salaries in the company. Contractors won’t count.
* Your salary being paid by the company, including all pay stubs to claim the 12-month accumulated work for the employer. You will need to prove it was full-time, which is a minimum of 30 hours a week or 1560 hours accumulated. This is a key document to establish eligibility.
* This is where IRCC may trip you up if you are paying yourself $16 to $20/hour as CEO or Director because your business is not big enough or financially sound to pay you the CEO-level median wage such as $45 to $52 depending on your province and city/region then that could be a red flag for them when claiming 200 points for Express Entry. This means inherently you need to be proving the operational part of the business in terms of financials to justify that you can afford to hire and operate all these people and the C-level position. Keep in mind that in Express Entry or median wage requirement is legally NOT necessary – but you need to justify this for your role if you’re getting paid min wage. That’s up to you.
* Your offer of employment, contract, job duties, and wage for the C-level position as NOC 000.
* Include proof of your business’ operations such as quarterly sales tax filings, financial filings with CRA, income statements, and so forth.
* You need a detailed table of your jobs and duties and cross-reference them to the NOC position you are claiming.
* You need supporting documentation that you are doing these duties which you just outlined for NOC 000 position. This can include any media or news showing you or reporting you as a CEO or executive, middle manager reports, agreements, or partnerships you have signed as CEO or director on the documents, travel documents for business meetings indicating whom you met and for what, and the results.
* Any documents such as investments made, expansions, financing, and other key milestones to show the size and operations of your business
* If you have more than 2 locations then you’ll need to provide documentation for these locations, all under one CRA business and payroll number.
* If you have good profiles for your middle managers and departmental managers, put their employment contracts/resumes and profile snapshots/summaries in your application (almost boasting about them to the IRCC). IRCC sees so many bogus claims for these 200 points that if yours is legit or looks legit, they’ll be happy to give you the 200 points.
* Include your own updated professional resume.
* Include your educational documents with transcripts – and assuming you are claiming educational points you will of course require your Educational Credential Assessment Certificate.
* Include an explanation letter and supporting documents on all your past C-level/director positions held in previous and overseas companies. This is very important in proving that this is not the first time you have had managerial roles or owned a business for which you were a director or maybe still are for your overseas entities.
Yes, this may seem a bit overwhelming or maybe it doesn’t. But the key is that the IRCC officers processing your PR are the gatekeepers in terms of whether you can claim the 200 points to become a Canadian Permanent Resident or not.
If you are working already for a large-sized enterprise or multinational in a C-level position then this is much simpler to justify. If you are running a small grocery store or restaurant, then very likely it’s not. Keep in mind that you do not need all these detailed documents if you already have a positive LMIA for this position in NOC 000 and are not LMIA-exempt. Obtaining a NOC 000 LMIA for a very small business is also not something you want to try – unless the business size is justifiable for Service Canada to claim this type of LMIA.
Again, each case is different, and you need to assess your case or maybe your client’s file in detail to figure out how you can successfully claim the 200 points for arranged employment in the Express Entry under Federal Skilled Worker or CEC if they don’t own more than 50% of the business.
And of course, we can help – this is our specialty. Remember, your application should be logical, even if you don’t know much about immigration, the officer should be convinced so the storyline must make sense. You can consider us immigration storytellers….
Do you want to become a Permanent Resident in Canada? Our licensed consultants could assess your profile against +75 immigration programs across Canada. Get a FREE email assessment by filling out our form, click here.
If you’re thinking about immigrating whether permanently or temporarily - you’re at the right place! Our team speaks over +9 languages, and we help applicants from over 49 different countries during their immigration process. And this list is growing everyday. Get a FREE email assessment, click here.
