Q & A: Professional Licensing

Q. The occupation of my sister is Community Pharmacist (NOC 3131.1) and according to General Occupation List she can get 1score as occupational factor and 17 scores as ETF. She got education in Russia. My question is can she get 1+17=18scores in her application without Canadian license?

Answer: As many professional licenses require that the candidate be a permanent resident or citizen to be eligible, the immigration process does not typically require that the applicant be licensed in order to qualify. For several occupations, including pharmacists, however, the applicant must demonstrate that they would be eligible for licensing in Canada.

[Comment: Assessments for this and other occupations which require similar processes of evaluation during the application for immigration to Canada are based, typically, on the education of the applicant. The effort is to ensure that the applicant has received training approximately equivalent to that of a Canadian, and will thereby be eligible for employment in the stated profession in Canada.]