Before you apply for a study permit: three tips to boost your chance at Canadian permanent residence

If you’re planning to pursue Canadian permanent residence through the study-to-immigrate pathway, you can gain an advantage over other candidates by

• Getting skilled work experience before moving to Canada;
• Moving to Canada for a master’s degree; and/or
• Pursuing your degree through a co-op (work-study) program.

You can start planning your permanent residence journey before you even move to Canada, by assessing your eligibility and competitiveness for the major permanent residence (PR) pathways using CanadaVisa+.

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Get skilled work experience before moving to Canada

You can boost your chance at PR by moving to Canada only after having gained sufficient skilled work experience in your home country.

Canada’s flagship system for selecting permanent residents, Express Entry, gives additional points to candidates with foreign work experience under skill transferability factors.

With the exception of skilled tradespeople who can obtain a certificate of qualification, having either two or three years of foreign work experience is the only way to maximize the 100 points for the skill transferability factor under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS).*

Whether the work experience counts as skilled depends on the duties that you performed in the job, not on your job title.

The Canadian federal government considers work experience to be skilled if it falls within the top four ranks of the National Occupational Classification (NOC), the government system for categorizing occupations: Training, Education, Experience, and Responsibilities (TEER) categories 0, 1, 2, or 3.

TEER 1 occupations typically require a university degree, while TEER 3 occupations typically require at least six months of on-the-job training, or a postsecondary credential of less than two years. TEER 0 occupations are management positions.

*Depending on the candidate’s situation, they may be able to maximize skill transferability factors within only two years of foreign work experience, or they may require three years.

Get a bachelor’s in your home country; study in Canada for a master’s

Moving to Canada only to study for a master’s program provides several advantages.

First, it can make it easier for you to gain skilled work experience prior to moving to Canada, as you could complete a bachelor’s in your home country to help qualify for higher-level jobs.

A master’s degree also saves time and money on the study-to-immigrate journey compared to a bachelor’s degree.

Master’s programs in Canada are typically one or two years long, compared to a standard of four years for a typical university bachelor’s degree, so an international master’s student can expect to pay either 50% or 75% less in living expenses in Canada to obtain their credential.

Unlike university bachelor’s programs, Canadian academic master’s programs will commonly include significant funding packages in their offers of admission. In many cases, funding packages will be structured to cover the entirety of an international student’s tuition and fees, plus some component of their living expenses as well.

Even a one-year master’s program qualifies for a full three-year post-graduation work permit (PGWP), a once-in-a-lifetime open work permit issued to international student graduates.

Master’s programs are exempt from PGWP field-of-study requirements, so graduates can obtain a PGWP for any master’s program from an eligible Canadian designated learning institution.

Graduates of Canadian master’s programs pursuing permanent residence through Express Entry also gain the maximum 30 bonus CRS points for Canadian education in only one or two years, rather than requiring a credential of at least three years, as is the case for college programs or university bachelor’s programs.

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Pursue a co-op (work-study) program

For many international student graduates, getting their first skilled jobs in Canada after graduating can often prove to be one of the biggest hurdles, both to establishing economically in Canada and to building eligibility for permanent residence programs.

Pursuing a co-op, or work-study program, can provide a major advantage in establishing your career in Canada, especially if you come to Canada for a bachelor’s degree.

Co-op programs are generally made up of a combination of study terms and work terms. On study terms, students perform the normal coursework associated with their program. On work terms, they perform paid work placements for Canadian employers, typically in jobs related to their field of study.

Work terms allow students to earn money to support their studies as well as to obtain Canadian work experience in their field, while making connections with employers in their industry.

To complete a co-op program, the student must fulfill the minimum requirements both for the academic terms and for their work placements, for which they generally receive evaluations from the employers.

For students who excel during their co-op placements, it is common to receive job offers upon graduation from their previous employers, which can put co-op graduates significantly ahead of their peers in establishing their careers in Canada.

Work experience gained in Canada as a full-time student typically does not count toward eligibility for many permanent residence programs, but instead helps candidates by accelerating their career in Canada, enabling them to begin building qualifying work experience sooner after they graduate.

Co-op programs may be structured differently than non-co-op versions of the same degree. For example, at the University of Waterloo, it is common for a co-op bachelor’s program to consist of five years of alternating work terms and study terms, compared to a non-co-op bachelor’s typically consisting of four years of two terms per year interspersed by summer breaks.

Program structures and requirements can vary dramatically between different institutions for the same degree, so you may wish to dig into the specifics of each program before deciding which to apply to.

Advance planning pays dividends

Canada’s immigration system provides no guarantees, and immigration policy is changing all the time. It is not possible to be certain that the selection system in place at the time you apply for your study permit will be the system under which you compete for permanent residence after graduation.

That said, Canada’s federal government has been consistent in prioritizing candidates on the basis of skilled work experience, advanced postsecondary education, and Canadian work experience, as these factors are associated with stronger economic outcomes for permanent residents.

Incoming international students who think through the operation of the system start to finish will be better positioned to establish themselves as cream-of-the-crop candidates for permanent residence selection after they graduate.

Plan your PR journey with CanadaVisa+