Ecamm Recording on 2026-10-28 at 09.25.27
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[00:00:00] All right, everyone. For 10 episodes, we've talked about proposals. On October the 16th, IRCC turned two of them into rules, CRS points for high-wage occupations, and no LMIA for qualifying job offers. Both are gonna come into force November the 3rd, 2026, and this episode is somewhat of a payoff for you guys.
You've been listening to the series for 10 episodes now. Now we're gonna explain exactly what changed and what didn't. So let's walk through what we're now, ~um,~ affectionately referring to as the Labor Market Integration Factors. All right, Alicia, this is step one of real change and real reform. What are your thoughts?
Mm-hmm. So we now have this new LMIF, right? So this is not to be confused with an LMIA, but it does involve LMIA, so we're gonna talk about this. ~Um, ~this is where IRCC has said, and kudos to them c- they gave us a little bit of notice, so this was announced on [00:01:00] October 16th. It will not take effect until November 3rd.
So this is why we are doing this episode right now, so everybody understands what's happening, what you need to do before November 3rd. But here's the crazy thing. People who maybe thought that they were in a pretty good position- Mm-hmm ... maybe just stay the same, but what happens is some people who were losing out before are going to now be able to jump ahead.
Yeah. And if you look at this, I think, ~you know, ~all along we knew that Amal was in pretty good shape. ~You know, ~a physician, one year of Canadian experience. Her illustrated CRS score, as we can see here, goes from 448 to 518 on November 3rd. That's a new bonus of 70 points. Now, we still don't know, Alicia, how this is gonna affect the overall scores because they have not yet, as of today, ~um,~ pulled away those other scores.
So the French are still there, the siblings, ~uh,~ the education is still there. So [00:02:00] this could very well cause CRS scores to potentially go up. But the question is, as we look at these things, how many of our existing examples, Amal and Charlotte and the other two, how many of them are actually going to be in- seeing their scores increase?
Because remember, it's Charlotte in the past and her co- her cohort that have been benefiting to a large extent from the existing rules. But now things are changing. So you can see for Charlotte, as a food service supervisor, she ain't seeing any change. No change. She's got two years of Canadian experience, a job offer, but her job offer is not a high-wage job offer, and that's a big deal.
It means nothing. So she starts two points ahead of Amal and ends up about 68 behind. So Charlotte doesn't lose a single point, and she doesn't lose ground. But ultimately, she's not going to be one of the winners in this final, ~uh,~ derby. [00:03:00] Mm-hmm. All right. Let's jump ahead here, Alicia, and let's talk about what just happened.
So- Mm-hmm ... turn it over to you Okay, so what just happened is fairly complex because there are two things that are happening. There are new points for high-wage occupations and only high-wage occupations for Canadian eligible high-skilled work experience. But that is stacked on top of people who already had eligible Canadian high-skilled work experience.
So we'll talk about that more in depth, but basically everything that still happened in the past in terms of one year of Canadian work experience, two years of high-skilled work experience, three, four, or five, that's still there. But what they did was they added on a high-wage occupation multiplication factor.
That's where we have a 1.3 times, a 1.5 times, and a two times. And we had talked about this before. We just didn't know how many points they were going to [00:04:00] associate it ~with it, ~with it, and how they were gonna calculate the baseline. And essentially what they said was, "We're not giving calculations. We're not giving you wage rates.
We're not telling you what the hours, ~um,~ the wage per hour, per week has to be. It's simply here are the list of high-wage occupations. We're gonna publish it on our webpage. We're gonna look at, ~you know, ~previous statistics and we're gonna update that." And so that's what's happened with these high-wage occupation points.
The other thing that happened is going to have more wide-reaching effects, I think, in that there now will be points for qualifying job offers. And this is where we really do need to see what happens with this temporary public policy. So they have said, we- Mark and I were trying to figure out, is it going to be- Yeah
a ministerial instruction? Are there gonna be regulatory changes? How are they gonna do this? ~Well, ~they've said now in their news release it's going to be by public policy. So that's gonna drop on November- And just to clarify for everyone, just to clarify, public policy means, ~well,~ we know the law says [00:05:00] something.
~Uh, you know, ~we've got ministerial instructions, but we just want to do this and it's completely outside of what we're au- otherwise authorized to do, so we'll just use public policy to do it anyways Exactly. So when you read the law and you take a look at what's happening in the Immigration Act and the regulations and the ministerial instructions, it's no longer gonna match up with what is actually going to play out once this public policy is layered on top.
And so what's happening is they're changing qualifying job offers, and that will have wide-ranging effects for people who are outside Canada, people who don't have Canadian work experience. So we're looking at federal skilled workers primarily, but some federal skilled trades also. And sometimes people have not been able to hit that selection factor pass mark, that 67-point pass mark, 'cause they're just, ~you know, ~they're over the age of 40 and they just don't have enough points.
~Well, ~now maybe if you can get a qualifying high-wage job offer, that might completely change the [00:06:00] landscape. Yeah, indeed. And as we look at this, we know that they have said they're gonna take another two weeks and not do rounds of invitations after November 3rd so they can ~kind of ~get things sorted out.
So there's gonna be a pause. This is something w- we'll talk about a little bit later that ~we, ~we didn't anticipate them doing that. Usually they just say, "This is the way it's gonna be, and now everybody get yourself ~in, ~in line ~with, ~with the new rules." And so- ~Um, ~kudos to them, and I think probably it has to do with them just trying to still figure out how to revamp the, the IRCC secure account portal so that they can now properly calculate these new points.
All right. So let's shift and let's talk about this 18 days ~and, and, ~and then a pause. 18 days really was ~kind of the, ~the time period we've had now to make some changes. They've told us to get the job offers updated, and there are specific instructions which we're not gonna go through in this presentation, but we have talked about them in our live Q&As, ~um,~ where you'll need to [00:07:00] update the job offer if you have one in advance.
~Um, ~obviously, if it's November 3rd, you can update it on November 3rd. It's not the end of the world. But some people will be confused if you don't have an LMIA because it will still ask for it. And at this stage, the LMIAs, ~um,~ they're not a requirement for a job offer, but you still have to say that you have an LMIA when you're completing your profile in order to trigger the system to accept the fact that you have a job offer.
Now, job offers may not be the, this wondrous balm that we think it is, this amazing thing, because the way that as we talk about this, ~um,~ you may be getting more points if you've got work experience ~in a, ~in a high-wage occupation that's on one of those lists than you would even if you had a job offer.
And you have to pick one or... ~Well, ~the, the system will give you the credit for whichever one is highest, but you can't stack and get both. ~So, um, ~so we'll see how this plays out. The job offer, though, if you need it, there are specific instructions on how to, ~um,~ how to answer the questions, and they're actually not fully complete, Alicia.
So if you go on the website, ~it,~ it [00:08:00] doesn't answer a couple other questions like what you do for the question that says, "Does your em- do you have a work permit that names your employer?" I think personally that you have to say yes, even though you're on an open work permit to also get it to trigger. But the system, the instructions on the IRCC website don't, don't-- they're silent on that.
So we'll see. All right. So we've got our pause. So from the announcement to the new scores and why the invitation rounds go quiet. ~Well, ~we've kinda talked about that. So the 16th, the new points. Before November 3rd, add any qualifying job offer to your profile that you have. Check your work history. Make sure you've got the right NOC codes.
Don't force yourself into something that you're not entitled to. These are things IRCC will be looking for very carefully, and the last thing you want is to be stuck in a, ~um,~ in an EAPR processing where your application gets returned, and you could have had two or three other draws in that time period where you actually were eligible.
So just be careful. And of course, the whole misrep thing. ~Um, ~so in force November the [00:09:00] 3rd. Today, as of recording today, this is October the 28th, but November 3rd is when this is going to, ~um,~ become, ~um,~ in force. And, ~uh,~ and then two-week, two-week break. So They'll have rounds that will be resuming. We don't expect any rounds during this time, and then, but they haven't really announced when they're gonna do it, just probably about two weeks after.
So we'll watch it close 'cause we've had even a draw today, so it's likely they may do draws all the way up to November the 3rd, but ~we'll, ~we'll see how it plays out. All right. What did not change on October the 16th? Mm-hmm. So some of the things that they have forecasted have still not been implemented, and they have said that, and they actually published a little summary of the findings from their consultations that they had done on- Mm-hmm
express entry reforms. And so there's a few little nuggets in there where, okay, ~well ~it seems like they are still going to be taking away the education points, but there's some wording in that consultation feedback that says, ~you know, ~maybe a [00:10:00] bachelor's will actually be okay, and they will retain points for having a Canadian bachelor's and probably a master's or a PhD, but probably they will be taking away the other points.
They haven't done it yet. Yeah. ~Um, ~the French language bonus, so any of those bonus for siblings, for French, they haven't removed the bonus points, so the bonus points are still there. They haven't changed the spousal grid. So Mark, you and I were looking at it- Yeah ... and we were taking a look at the breakdown of the points, and when you're looking at the high-wage occupation multiplier, there's a different grid if you've got a spouse and one that you don't.
Yeah. And so- Man, just take it away ... that's still there. Just take it away. Still there. ~And, ~and they've said, ~you know, and, and, ~and they said, I remember in those, ~uh,~ the conferences, ~uh,~ that I attended and, ~uh,~ the, the panels that I spoke on, they said that these were gonna roll out before the end of the year.
So I still think that they're gonna strip them away before December 31st. But why go through all this hassle with all these information circulars and all these things that still have spouses on there if you're gonna pull them off? [00:11:00] So- I know ... hmm. ~It is, ~it is what it is. So spousal differentiators are still there.
~Um, ~they have not changed the eligibility for general program, right? So we still have CEC, FSW- Mm ... and FST. They have been talking about collapsing those all into one program with a n- new minimum floors for that one program, but it hasn't happened yet. ~Um- ~Yeah ... so all of that is still as it is. Everything in the system is the same except for these labor market integration factors.
So this is where we're talking about Canadian High Wage Occupations, so those NOCCs, and then layered on that or in an alternative. So if you are not getting the points, just like Mark said, it's not you can do both of these things. You are capped. ~Uh, ~you can only get either the job offer in a high-wage occupation, or you're going to add your Canadian high-skilled work experience with a Canadian high wage or that high-wage [00:12:00] multiplier factor.
Okay, let's take a look at these new points and try to decode them. So first thing right off the bat, we weren't sure, ~you know, ~if we were gonna have to figure out this complex thing about wage ~and, ~and how they were going to assign which occupations were high wage, which weren't. ~Well, it's, it's, ~it's your NOC code, okay?
It's not your paycheck. And ~we, ~we knew that. We talked about that. ~Um, ~they won't be looking to see what you earned. What they're gonna look ~is, ~is at the occupation that you've claimed points under which NOC. So the NOC qualifies if the national median wage of everyone working in it is at least 1.3 times the median of the whole Canadian workforce.
So just to clarify, if you are at, ~uh,~ the, the, the median, right on that median, no points. It's 1.3 times, 1.5, and two. So the job bank will u- they use basically the job bank, the labor force survey, census, those kinds of things to determine what the level is. But the reality is you don't really need to worry about any of that stuff.
All you're really looking at is whether or not [00:13:00] your occupation is on the list. And if it is, ~well,~ then it doesn't make a big difference what you're getting paid. However, if you're in a high-wage 2X position and you're making $20 an hour, they're probably going to question whether or not you're actually working in that high-wage occupation or have experience.
So pay attention to that. In my mind, Alicia, if someone's wage is below the minimum range on, say, the job bank as a predictor, I think you're gonna be pushing your luck trying to c- claim those points, ~um,~ as a high-wage occupation, so be aware of that. All right. ~Um, ~'cause remember, your NOC and whether or not you are qualified for it can still be questioned by IRCC.
So no wage calculation is needed, the list is published, no dollar line to argue over, and essentially find your NOC, make sure your duties, ~um,~ align with a substantial number of the duties in the NOC. Okay. Three levels we've got now, Alicia, 186 occupations. Mm-hmm. There are a lot of [00:14:00] occupations here. So this-- and remember, this is where we are now talking about two things, either Canadian high-skilled work experience in one of these high-wage NOCs or a brand new job offer or an existing job offer in one of these high-wage occupation NOCs.
So this is where you could be in Canada, you could be outside Canada, because if you're getting a new job offer, theoretically it could apply to people who are outside Canada. And this is where you'll definitely want to take a look at what are the NOCs, what is the job offer ~that ~that employer is giving you?
And I can't emphasize enough the risks of misrepresentation, right? I've had a number of consults since the October 16th announcement, and I've had a number of people saying, "Okay, ~well,~ my job has to be one of the ones on this high-wage occupation list." ~Well, ~no, it doesn't. It definitely doesn't, right? You can for sure be working in any sort of other NOC, and it's up to you and your [00:15:00] employer to make sure that you are very certain in terms of what are your activities of the lead statement?
What are the majority of the substantial number of each of those bullet point duties? If you are trying to shoehorn it in just to one of these, that's the wrong way to approach this exercise. Yeah. A-absolutely. Okay, we've got two routes here. You get the better one, essentially, never both. So it's important to make the calculations because if on route A with your Canadian experience you're getting full points, it may very well exceed the points that are available for the offer itself.
So remember, there are maxes of 150 points if you are married and 140 if you have an accompanying spouse. But on route A, the duration, ~uh, of, ~of Canadian work experience plus the high-wage bonus. So if- remember, you're gonna continue to get those same Canadian experience, ~uh,~ work experience points that are still in there.
They're not going away. What you have is this high-wage bonus of 20, 40, or 70 [00:16:00] depending upon the level of high wage you're at. So Amal, Ken, ~well,~ they're already working in Canada, so they're getting points for not only their work experience but as well the bonus points. And in many instances, if you're getting both of those, the bonus and the work experience in Canada, you're often higher than the offer itself.
So what the offer does, the route B, the qualifying job offer, is it opens the door for people who are not already in Canada. Now, in some cases people, Alicia, might be working in an occupation in Canada, and now that this comes out, the employer says, ~"Well,~ hey, we'll promote you into a higher position." And this is where the fraud, the potential for fraud really comes in.
And I'm curious to see what IRCC does, but when individuals are going from, ~um,~ say they're working as a f- ~uh, ~in, in one type of, ~um,~ technical position and then like as a nurse and then they're promoted to, ~you know, ~a clinical manager, ~uh,~ with- for a clinic, ~well,~ the- that extra, ~um,~ bonus, that wage may... If they're, if...
~You know, ~even though they haven't [00:17:00] accumulated all of those points right off the bat, ~uh,~ because the job offer is new to them, ~uh,~ that could... They will still get the points for the job offer itself. So job offers don't require that the person has been working for, ~uh,~ effectively a, a year before they're eligible for them.
It just has to be a qualifying offer in accordance with the requirements: full-time, continuous. And one of the main things that lots of people forget is that employer needs to make an offer that is for at least, and I have to assume it's gonna stay like this, Alicia, at least one year after the person becomes a permanent resident.
And the big thing, which once again, I, this whole fraud is gonna be interesting, is that no LMIAs are required, and you don't need to be working an employer-specific work permit, so it's pretty open season. So for Eric, who's overseas with an offer in hand, ~you know, ~that might work pretty well for him. ~Um, ~so remember, these are not combined.
IRCC will reward, ~um,~ whichever or award whichever one, ~uh,~ is the highest. Okay. When a job offer [00:18:00] sometimes it's worth zero. Mm-hmm. So this is the confusing thing that we want to emphasize. It's not all about the job offer, right? This is what Mark was saying in terms of if you have high-wage occupation Canadian work experience, that is usually going to max out your points.
Because if we look at the points breakdown, the maximum that you can get for a high-wage job offer is 100. But if it's not a two times job offer, if it's a 1.5 times, then it's only 70, and if it's a 1.3, it's only 50. So that's quite a bit less on that job offer. Whereas on the other side, if you are a single applicant, you could max out at 150 the way that it works with giving you bonus points for a high-wage Canadian experience.
Mm-hmm. So this is where it's not all about the job offer. Take a look at what's happening here. ~Um, ~I can really see people being desperate to get job offers because they- Yeah ... think ~that ~that's where the points are coming from. Yes. Yeah. And just [00:19:00] understand the mechanics of what is going on here. Yeah.
And it's interesting, too, ~um,~ generally speaking, I know on our slide deck here we've got at the bottom, I just want to qualify one thing I see there. So rule of thumb, a year in a listed NOC beats any offer at the same level. It's Canadian experience. So one year- Yeah ... of Canadian experience. So not foreign work experience, it's Canadian experience, usually at the same level with or without a spouse, the work experience is usually gonna give you more points.
But as always, we want to make those calculations, and we do that all the time with our clients because if you have the experience, then there's no point wasting your time with a job offer from your employer. It's not gonna give you any extra points. Okay, the fine print that changes the outcome. Yeah. And this is where I wanna dive into some details because I think people are gonna not understand this and they're gonna get it wrong.
And what we've been doing with our clients all the time, Mark, is we have these spreadsheets, hours of work calculation spreadsheets, [00:20:00] and this is gonna be more important than ever because IRCC is saying, "Okay, it used to be that you can take a look at any work experience within the last 10 years. Has it been in Canada?
Okay." ~Um, ~now you can have combined NOCs, right? So you can work at two different NOCs that are in the 1.5 times multiplier, and you can add those together to hit your 12 months. But you have to check those NOC codes and it has to be the hours. So you have to hit that 1,560 hours. And if you're working two jobs and you're working 35 at one and 15 at the other, any given week, just like before, you can't count more than 30 hours in any given week.
So you can't carry over hours from one week to the next. So this is important to understand that when you're taking a look at do you actually get those high-wage occupation Canadian work exp- experience labor market integration factor uplifts, this [00:21:00] is a big mouthful- Mm-hmm ... ~um, ~make sure that you are looking at your hours calculations, that you have every employer, every job, every week that you've worked, how many hours you've worked in that week, and what is the corresponding NOC to make sure that you're listing all of your work experience properly.
Yeah. I want to point out too that if you have a combination and one of your work experience is in a 1.3 wage, high wage, and the other is in a two, ~well,~ the reality is you need a full, the full 12 months at the two before you can claim two. So if it's a combination, it will always default to the lowest, ~uh,~ factor, so 1.3 or 1.5 or two.
So if it's combined 1.5 and a two ~and, ~and you don't have a full, ~uh,~ full year at the two X, then you're only gonna get credit for the 1.5. Okay? ~Um- ~Mm-hmm ... yeah, so basically, as Alicia's pointed out here, ~uh,~ you just have to be ~really, ~really careful, ~um,~ how you're assessing this. And ~I, ~I can't reiterate enough the importance of making sure that you're-- the old rules, the old headache that we [00:22:00] had with NOC codes, it's gonna be even more important to, to nail that now Okay, let's take a look at the scorecards quick here.
So I know we- I'm just gonna pass this through this really quick, Alicia, but, ~you know, we, ~we anticipated that there was not going, ~like,~ there was not gonna be any Canada Gazette. We knew that. And the job offer points, we knew that they were coming back only for high wage. There were two routes, but, ~uh, you know, ~we knew that they likely weren't gonna be stacked because these are all things that IRCC shared.
But I didn't expect 186 occupations to fit on the list. ~Like, ~that's more than I anticipated. And, ~you know, ~and even to see registered nurses and teachers, ~um, you know, ~1.5 level, lawyers ~and, and, ~and other folks at two. And, ~uh,~ and the biggest one I think for me, Alicia, was the fact the LMIA is just gone. So it is, ~you know, ~this is the new world we're dealing with, and it's gonna be interesting to see the standard, ~you know, ~that people have to meet, ~um,~ in order to actually get their job offers accepted.
Okay. Let's take a quick look at our people and what's happened. We've carried, ~uh,~ Eric and Amal and Ken and [00:23:00] Charlotte through this whole previous 10 episodes. Let's see what's really happened to them on the ground Mm-hmm. And I wanna just emphasize that we have these scenarios, these little case-specific scenarios, Eric, Ken, Amal, and Charlotte, that came directly from IRCC when they were giving us their slide deck presentations.
So we were really trying to extrapolate from those scenarios what are they gonna roll out and how are they gonna do it? So this gives more details about why this is such a change, and specifically for Eric, right? Eric is gonna be- Mm-hmm ... one of the biggest winners. ~We, ~we knew Amal. Amal's great. She's fine.
She's a physician. Yeah. Physician. Yeah. She has so many pathways. She has, ~you know, ~physician-specific category draws. She has PNP options for most provinces. I'm not worried about Amal. Amal's good. Yeah. She's gonna be able to get her PR one way or the other. But it's people like Eric that are now gonna be winners in this new system, and this is where- Yes
the job offer points are going to make all the difference, and people [00:24:00] like Charlotte, who are the food service supervisor, are gonna start to fall behind. ~Um, ~it's also gonna give a little bit of an uplift for Ken because he is the crane operator. Yeah. And so crane operators are on the 1.3 list, so the trades- Who knew?
some of those trades will help. Mm-hmm. Who knew? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and it's, ~you know, ~even with Ken, like it's still... They talk a lot about trades, Alicia, but like Ken is still at 313 points, so if they do trade-only draws, then possibly. It's gonna be interesting to see how this plays out. ~That's, ~that's all I've got to say.
Maybe if Ken, in his case, could have a job offer as well, then maybe that could help him a little bit. But, ~you know, ~20, 20 points ~is, ~is not a big boost for him. And then Charlotte, of course, as we've talked about, there's no change with Charlotte. So you can see here the full scorecard before and after. ~Um, ~ultimately, i- yeah, you can see the age, the education, like all of these things.
We haven't had a lot of change with all of this. It's after when we're looking at the impact of the Canadian work experience bonus ~and, ~and the job offers [00:25:00] potentially, that's where the change occurs. So 100 points for Eric, 70 for Amal. Amal really doesn't even need the 70 points, right? Like category-based draws, like what are they, like 15 points or something for a physician these days?
Okay, I'm being a little facetious, ~but,~ but they're so low, so there's no issues with Amal. ~Um, ~Ken, a marginal increase, and then Charlotte. We knew that she was gonna be the one ~left in, ~left in the dust. So yeah, she didn't lose any points, but she definitely lost ground. You can see Charlotte drop down to third place, and Ken is, ~well,~ Ken's just Ken.
So you can't... ~You know, ~as long as they're relying on human capital points, there has to be a separate way to get these tradespeople in, which is the category-based draw. ~Um- ~Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. The LMIA is gone. So now what, Alicia? No scrutiny? Like what happens here? ~No, ~no, it's gonna be more scrutiny. Yeah. ~Um, ~I think it'll be more scrutiny because what's gonna happen is they're going to put a whole bunch of details in this public policy, but they've already said, "Okay, now we are going to be looking at how job offers will be assessed.
There will be a single [00:26:00] assessment process for qualifying job offers. We are essentially looking at all sorts of things to prevent fraud." So we are looking at very similar factors to what they looked at in an LMIA application, where they look at business legitimacy, and they also look at what is, ~um,~ what's required for the position.
So they will look at active engagement of the employer. Do you have a active Canadian business number? Yeah. Have you filed your annual returns? Do you have your corporate taxes up to date? Have you been doing your payroll deductions? Do you have those PD7A deduction records? Have... Do you have any workforce complaints under employment standards code or health and safety violations?
~Um, ~does this job meet your employer's reasonable needs? Can the candidate perform what you are asking them to do? Are they qualified? Has the employer complied with all federal laws in the past? Yeah. Are there compliance violations- Yeah ... against them? Yeah. All of this is going to be scrutinized. Yeah. And one big caveat, like if you're in a high-wage occupation and [00:27:00] you've got work experience in Canada, good on you, okay?
For companies that tend to be more institutional in nature, large tech companies, those things, they're not gonna wanna divulge all their details that I think IRCC's gonna be looking for. Heck, we look in Alberta right now with the Alberta Advantage immigration program and the employer declaration form, half the times we have clients that are working in high-wage occupations, and the employer doesn't wanna sign that declaration form.
So I'm hoping that for these people, the Canadian experience, ~um,~ those integration factors, at least on the work experience and the bonus, are gonna be enough that they won't need the job offer. And then of course, new recruits, ~well,~ this is going to be ~a, ~a good deal for them. For sure it's gonna be a good deal.
Okay. One job offer, two tests. Basically, an offer can pass one and fail the other, and, ~uh,~ IRCC will assess them separately. So you can see here, test one with the CRS points. ~You know, when, ~when they're calculating these, they're set by ministerial instructions. You can see it's [00:28:00] pretty straightforward, 170 or 50 CRS points.
~Um, ~186 occupations, LMIA not required. The program eligibility, ~well,~ this... these here are not, ~um, you know, they're, ~they're not published yet, so we're still waiting to see ultimately what's gonna happen with the program itself. So- Yeah ... we've got one side confirmed, at least a little bit till they decide what they're gonna do about pulling those other CRS points off.
But, ~um,~ ultimate program eligibility is still in a waiting period. Yeah, and ~this is, ~this is the whole article that I write all the time and talk about all the time. What is a qualifying job offer? What's an offer of arranged employment? Those are defined legal terms under the regulations. It is Very thorny.
There are lots of things you have to pay attention to. ~Uh, ~there's four different scenarios that you would currently have to meet in order to be eligible if you are an out-outland applicant, if you're applying from outside Canada, to meet program eligibility. So they have not published exactly how this is gonna roll out, and we are waiting to hear what [00:29:00] happens with the public policy.
But they have said you don't need to have an LMIA, and some of my clients have very kindly sent me the email that IRCC has been sending out to people who have eligible profiles in the pool, and it does say basically any type of work permit, regardless of type of work permit, ~um,~ any sort of job offer would be potentially eligible.
So we will see. ~Um, ~we'll give you more details when we have them. Yeah. So if you look at Eric, the real question is, does he qualify at all? ~So, you know, ~FSW grid, we've got it all laid out there. Without the job offer, pass mark is sixty-seven. With without the offer... ~Um, ~sorry, and w- if you have a-arranged employment, excuse me, and adaptability, ~he'll,~ he'll get those extra points to push him over the top.
~Um, ~but it's still... The question is still open. So with no work permit, his offer only counts on the grid if it's backed by an LMIA. ~Um, ~I think that hasn't changed. So I don't know, Alicia, at this stage, because the regulations haven't changed, whether or not this magical, ~you know, ~remove of LMIA, it's only attached to the CRS, ~uh,~ [00:30:00] calculations.
So where are we at? It's- we'll see November third. We'll see. So ~we'll, ~we'll leave that one aside, and then we'll come back ~to, ~to Eric. So this is what- And just- Yeah, go ahead ... be-before you move on, Mark- Sure ... the one thing ~that ~that's gonna really affect as well is settlement funds. Yeah, good point. And so keep in mind that foreign work experience, if you only have foreign work experience, you're FSW or FST, you have to show settlement funds.
One of the exceptions was if you were able to show that you had an offer of arranged employment, you wouldn't have to show settlement funds. ~Well, ~what's that gonna mean for settlement funds now? There has been radio silence on what that means for settlement funds, so we'll have to see what happens with the public policy.
Yeah. So as you can see here, this just ~kind of ~goes over what's still open, what's confirmed, and, ~um, we, ~we still have to wait. ~You know, is, ~is the LMIA waived for FSW, FST? ~Um, you know, if you're, ~if you're trying to claim those points, ~uh, you know, ~in terms of the new CRS offer, one employer, one year from the PR visa or from landing.
~You know, ~ultimately I think these ~are, are, ~are ~kind of ~settled, but there are still things that we're gonna have to [00:31:00] sort out, and that's why we'll definitely be coming back and revisiting the more regulatory side and the things that are actually gonna be laid out in the public policy on November the third.
So stay tuned with that. Okay. Ultimately, Alicia, whether we support it or ~whether, ~whether we don't, I guess who really cares? But, ~you know, ~I personally have got reservations with how they've structured the job offer. I think because of how open it they- how open they've made it, I think it's gonna create somewhat of ~a, a, ~a, an administrative nightmare for employers a little bit.
I think they're gonna have to go to a little bit greater lengths to basically, ~um,~ I guess disabuse ~the, ~the possibility of it being a fraudulent job offer. But if they wanna bring the worker and the worker's getting the benefit, then yeah, a lot of the e- ~you know, ~a lot of the heavy lifting I think is gonna be now on the part of the employer, at least in, in my mind.
I don't know what your thought is. Yeah. I think that's true, and I think it's also going to cause a little bit of a nightmare in terms of the IRCC officers who have to now vet these applications, [00:32:00] because now which set of rules are they acting on? At what time are they acting on? What time was that ITA issued?
What time was the EEPR submitted? And what evidence was there to show that it's a qualifying job offer? So I think there is definitely an increased possibility of fraud. Mark and I have said this so many times. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But if anybody ever says that they are going to charge you a penny for your job offer- Yeah
you run the other way and report them to authorities. Yeah. Because there should be zero payment. If somebody's recruiting you, the recruiter should be getting paid by the employer. They don't charge you a penny. If anybody says, "Oh, ~well,~ you have to pay for the LMIA," ~uh-uh, ~that's not right either. So make sure that you're not ever paying.
All right, let's talk very quick here. We'll wrap up with our game plan before November 3rd. So it's pretty simple, you guys. Find your NOC on the official list, okay? Make sure your duties and everything matches and it really is your NOC. Count [00:33:00] your qualifying months. So do you have the 12 months necessary to claim the extra bonus work experience?
Or if necessary, ~uh,~ is your employer willing to support, ~uh,~ you with a qualifying job offer? If so, add it in before November 3rd, ~uh,~ but understand that ultimately it's not like it's gonna be locked and you can't add it in after November 3rd. They're just not gonna do rounds of invitations. ~Um, ~and then also relying on your offer for FSW/FST eligibility, ~well,~ reach out and let's take a look at it, and we can review that with you.
And then basically, if you're below the line, build a plan. So take a look. Can your employer, ~uh,~ promote you? ~Um, ~d- do s- French is not going away. Can you learn French? Is there a possibility of a provincial nomination? ~You know, ~can you, ~uh,~ get work experience under one of the category-based rounds, which obviously those are going to have varying, ~um, uh, ~levels for the rounds of invitations as well.
~So, you know, ~ultimately you have to be proactive here. You can't sit ~and, ~and wait. All right. There we have it for today. So Alicia, [00:34:00] yeah, where does my profile land on November the 3rd? Don't hesitate to reach out- And one- We can help you. Mm-hmm. Yeah, one thing I do wanna point out too is that they have said in that backgrounder that 10 years, right?
So if you're looking at your Canadian qualifying work experience for a high-wage occupation factor uplift, normally for CEC, you can only count three years, right? You can only look backwards in time for CEC for three years. But because of these new high-wage labor market integration factors, it will benefit people who came to Canada, worked here, and then had to go home because they- Yeah
couldn't quite hit that cutoff. ~So, you know, ~don't feel like it's hopeless because you had to go home because you might actually be able to take a look at your NOC and say, "Oh, wait a minute, it did qualify as a high-wage occupation- Yeah ... factor, and it's gonna give me extra points." You bet. If you need any assistance, Alicia and I are always here to help.
Just go to our website here, and all you have to do... We got this a little bit funky size here. I can't [00:35:00] quite get it up. ~Um, ~when you- all you have to do is go to... Wow, I can't even, I don't even know what... Here we go. Go to speak to a lawyer here, and then when you click on here, you'll have the opportunity to, ~uh,~ choose whoever you'd like to book a consult with.
But that is, ~uh,~ that's it for today. So thank you so much for joining us. We'll wrap up this special Express Entry Reforms, episode 11, Labor Market Integration Factors, and we'll have more to come as more is released. Take care.
