Canadian Experience Class (CEC) – Is this the case of the “favourite child” to soon-to-be “abandoned one” by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)?

This class has been one successful class for CIC, increasing from the initial 7,500 applications to 25,000 applications as of 2013 annually.

However, as of November 9^th, 2013, there are a number of major changes to Canadian Experience Class application.  First of all, CIC introduced a cap of 12,000 completed applications in total under this class.  Although it may sound drastic change from 25,000 to 12,000 applications, it is reported that currently CIC is working on about 1,000 completed applications per month, which would lead to 12,000 completed applications.  In other words, CIC may receive 25,000 applications, but they are not all completed applications to be accounted towards the cap application number.

Initially, CEC has the high acceptance rate – as high as 90%.  As of 2013, it was reduced drastically to 60% – or 1/3 reduction in success rate.

The applications under National Occupation Class B have had low acceptance rates because of:

1. unreasonable job classifications in the facts of actual job done by applicants,
2. too many applications in several job classifications and
3. mistakes in employment verification.

Some other factors for refusal are as follows:

1. salary consideration for high NOC occupation;
2. self-employment not eligible; or
3. holiday calculation if more than 2 months have been taken, even with a salary paid during such holiday.

Furthermore, poor application preparation as a result of self-representation appears to be another negative impact upon higher rate of refusal as well.

As a result, in addition to the total 12,000 completed applications per year (from November 9, 2013 to November 8^th, 2014), there are now six excluded NOC B job classifications –

1. administrative officer under NOC1221;
2. administrative assistant (NOC 1241);
3. accounting technicians and bookkeepers under NOC 1311;
4. retail sales supervisors (NOC 6211);
5. food service supervisors (NOC 6311); and
6. cooks (NOC 6322).

In fact, it appears to be a strong possibility to add further occupation to such excluded list in coming year, based on labour market demands.

Moreover, each NOC B classification is now capped at 200 completed applications per year as well.  Once cap is reached, then any further application will be returned to the applicant without being processed at all.

In the meantime, current processing time for CEC application is about 9 months with a goal to clear out as many applications as possible, in order to “roll” into Expression of Interest intake system (see my article on Expression of Interest) in January, 2015.

If you have any individual questions or concerns, please contact our office for more customized consultation for your unique situation.  Please note that this posting is for general information only and is not to be considered binding or official legal counsel since situations will vary and can be complicated. The content in this post is current as of the day of entry. Due to the changing nature of Immigration law, the information in this entry may or may not still be applicable.