Apply for permanent residence through Express Entry

You can only apply for permanent residence through Express Entry if you’ve received an invitation to apply.

Once you have your invitation

Your Express Entry invitation to apply is valid for 60 days only. You should start filling out the online form right away so that you can get all the information and documents you need before your invitation expires.

If you took a French test from TEF Canada: Test d’évaluation de français between December 11, 2023 and May 6, 2024

If you took a French language test between December 11, 2023 and May 6, 2024 from TEF Canada: Test d’évaluation de français you may need to take action in your Express Entry profile.

CCI Paris Ile-de-France administers the TEF Canada language test for immigration to Canada. As part of ongoing improvements to the way French language is evaluated, CCI temporarily modified the Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadien (NCLC) to reflect raw scores.

This change has been reverted back to the Express Entry scoring grid we currently use.

Test results for each ability

NCLC Level	Speaking ( expression orale )	Listening ( compréhension de l’oral )	Reading ( compréhension de l’écrit )	Writing ( expression écrite )
10	393-450	316-360	263-300	393-450
9	371-392	298-315	248-262	371-392
8	349-370	280-297	233-247	349-370
7	310-348	249-279	207-232	310-348
6	271-309	217-248	181-206	271-309
5	226-270	181-216	151-180	226-270
4	181-225	145-180	121-150	181-225

If you were impacted by this scoring change, you’ll have received an email message from the CCI, notifying you of this change, and your updated score.

You’ll need to update your Express Entry profile with this new scoring information.
If you don’t, and you’re invited to apply, it could cause your application to be refused based on incorrect language scores.

If you’ve been invited to apply but have not yet submitted your application, please update your scores. If you find that you no longer meet the criteria, you should decline your invitation for that round.

If you’ve already applied for permanent residence, the Department may contact you to provide your updated test scores.

To fill out the online form:

sign in to your account.
go to “Continue my profile / application, not yet submitted”
on the right-hand side of the row with “application type” as “permanent residency,” choose the blue “Continue application” button

Who has applied to IRCC before

The form will ask if you’ve applied to IRCC before. This means a full application – for example, for a visa, a work permit, another immigration program. Filling out an Express Entry profile doesn’t count.

It will also ask if you’ve applied for Express Entry before. Similarly, you should only answer “yes” if you filled out a permanent residence application and submitted it electronically. A profile on its own, even if you got an ITA, doesn’t count as applying.

When filling out the form:

make sure you submit all of the required documents
all of your answers must be complete and true
make sure all the mandatory fields are completed, or you won’t be able to submit your application
you can save your information on the form and go back as often as you need to

Fees

For your application: Error loading fee. Check the fee list.

Include your spouse: Error loading fee. Check the fee list.

Include a dependent child: Error loading fee. Check the fee list.

Processing time ?

You may need to give biometrics with your application. This processing time includes the time you need to give your biometrics.

Processing times

Processing times will vary based on:

the type of application submitted
if the application is complete
how quickly we expect to process applications we’ve already received
how easily we can verify your information
how long you take to respond to any requests or concerns
other factors

More people want to immigrate to Canada than we can bring in each year. Applications received after we meet our yearly limit may have to wait longer to be processed.

Learn how processing times are calculated.

Close Close overlay (escape key)

If your work permit will expire soon

If your work permit expires before you submit your application and you didn’t apply for a new one yet, it may cause your score to drop.

This could happen if you got points for a job offer but the work permit associated with the job offer expired before you submitted your application. This could cause you to not be eligible anymore.

If your score has dropped below the minimum cut-off for your round of invitations, you should decline the invitation. If you submit your application anyway, we’ll refuse it.

If you decline, you’ll be put back in the pool. You should update your Express Entry profile to show the change in your work status.