Canadian Experience Class (CEC)

What is the Canadian Experience Class

Canadian Experience Class is a new class of immigrants. This new class takes into consideration an applicant’s Canadian experience. This is to say that applicants who have legally resided in Canada, whether as temporary workers or foreign students – will be able to use their Canadian experience to their advantage.

Qualifications for the CEC:

There is a key requirement that you must be legally admitted into Canada – whether as a foreign worker or student. The following are minimum requirements for consideration:

Foreign Worker Requirements:

1. 2 Years of Skilled, Professional or Technical Work Experience – of course this gets more complicated. There remains the question of what qualifies as skill and further what qualifies as experience. And if you think the question is complicated, the answer does not get any simpler.
Experience will be determined by skill type, in reference to the NOC (I will be posting information regarding the NOC shortly):

• 0 – Managerial
• A – Professional
• B – Technical & Skilled

2. Language Ability Must be Appropriate for Occupational Level of Skill. To further complicate matters – the language requirements differ. They are assessed on Benchmark Levels (More on this later):

• If your experience is Managerial or Professional (0 or A) you are required to have a benchmark of 7, as per the Canadian Language Benchmark.
• If your experience is Technical or Skilled (B) you are required to have a language benchmark of 5.

Foreign Student Requirements:

1. Must be a Graduate:

a. They must have successfully completed a post-secondary program with at least 2 years of Academic Instruction in Canada. (Academic year is equal to 8 Months of Study – so 2 years, is technically 16 months).
b. The academic institution that you graduate from must be either a Canadian Public Institution such as an accredited college or university. Or from a Canadian Private Institution that is authorized by provincial law to grant degrees.

2. Work Experience: They must have at least 1 year of technical, skilled or professional work experience. Graduates can earn work experience by applying for a Post-Graduate Work Permit

3. Language Ability: Language ability must be appropriate to occupational skill level. They are assessed on Benchmark Levels (More on this later):

• If your experience is Managerial or Professional (0 or A) you are required to have a benchmark of 7, as per the Canadian Language Benchmark.
• If your experience is Technical or Skilled (B) you are required to have a language benchmark of 5.

Although, the information is excessively technical and redundant, the key factors that are important to the CEC class are Experience and Language. One should also be aware, that – requirements are assessed on a pass/fail model. That is, if you meet the minimum requirements, you are eligible to apply under this new class. There is no point system to meet.

INTERESTING FACTS: The CEC has been a year in the making; it was first introduced in the 2007 Budget. Contrary to popular belief, experts and proponents of this new class say that Immigration will NOT increase due to the CEC, and that in fact, it will decrease the number of people being accepted. The only effect the CEC has to Immigration is that it will give priority processing to those who meet the objectives of Canadian Immigration – ie. Their ability to adapt and settle successfully in Canada.