If you're looking to immigrate to Canada, many people will tell you that the best way is through a job offer. However, it's not always feasible for some people to be able to obtain this type of work permit or visa. If this sounds like you, then there are other options available that can help get you into Canada without having a job offer lined up first.
How to Immigrate to Canada Without a Job Offer
To immigrate to Canada, you don't need a work offer. Your work or school background may qualify you for one of the many immigration options available.
There are more than a hundred economic immigration routes to Canada. That excludes family- and refugee-class immigration schemes, which do not take into account job offers or other aspects of human capital.
What are the immigration programs for obtaining permanent residency in Canada without a job offer?
Without a work offer, Canada offers permanent residency through two main immigration procedures, namely
Federal Express Entry System
Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP).
Through these two leading immigration programs, tens of thousands of individuals submit applications each year for a skilled PR visa in Canada.
Federal Express Entry System
The Express Entry program is a federal immigration program that makes it easier for skilled workers to immigrate to Canada. You can apply for the Canadian permanent residence permit through the Express Entry pool, or you can be selected by another method such as provincial nomination or an employer-sponsored stream.
The federal government introduced the Express Entry system in January 2015, and it is Canada's quickest and most well-known online point-based immigration system. The six selection criteria are as follows:
Age
Education
Work Experience
Language Skills (English or French)
Arranged Employment
Adaptability
Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP).
Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) are a way for provinces to select people who want to immigrate to Canada and then nominate them for immigration.
The PNP process is generally used by provinces that have a shortage of skilled workers in specific fields as well as those with low levels of new immigrants.
Directly applying to provinces via the Provincial Nomination Program is another another fantastic method of entering Canada without a job offer (PNP). Every province in Canada has different labor needs depending on which businesses are more prominent; for instance, the IT sector is flourishing in British Columbia and in Ontario, working as a truck driver can provide you permanent status.
Few Canadian provinces also provide a route to permanent residence without a job offer through their own Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs). Canadian provinces have their own Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) to choose qualified foreign employees and nominate them for permanent residence. Not all of them, however, provide the PR option without a job offer.
If there aren't any jobs available through the Federal Skilled Worker Program, then applying through this route could be beneficial because it allows applicants to enter into the country without having first secured employment there first!
Other Programs That Can Help You Come to Canada Without a Job Offer
Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP)
The FSTP is for skilled tradespeople who wish to immigrate to Canada. To qualify for this program, you must have at least two years of experience in a skilled trade and be able to provide proof of work experience. You can use either your certificate of qualification or certificate of experience as evidence that you have held full-time employment in the past five years in order to qualify for this program.
Canadian Experience Class (CEC)
Canadian Experience Class (CEC) is the path to permanent residence for professionals with Canadian experience working in a skilled job.
To apply for CEC, you must have at least 4 years of work experience in an eligible occupation. The following categories are eligible for CEC:
Professional occupations that require at least two years of postsecondary education or licensing (e.g., engineers, lawyers)
Occupations where you were self-employed and had 20+ hours of paid work per week – even if your employer was not registered with Employment Insurance as a business; these include artists making artworks or musicians playing instruments regularly.
Conclusion
Hopefully, we’ve helped you understand how Canadian immigration works and why someone may need to immigrate to Canada without a job offer. If you're interested in immigrating to Canada, but don't have enough points for Express Entry then there are other ways of being considered for permanent residency, which we have already discussed on this page.
