Hello! Today I want to talk about a topic that seems obvious, but in fact causes a lot of mistakes. Let’s shed some light on work experience for immigration to Quebec through the ARRIMA system.
Very often I see people confident about “working in Canada means this experience will be counted.” But no. Actually, not always. It all depends on what category of professions your activity belongs to. And if you submit documents without analyzing these nuances, you risk simply wasting time and your chance.
The ARRIMA platform clearly divides professions into two groups by skill level.
The first group is highly skilled labor (Tier 0, 1 and 2)
This includes professions that require higher education or college. These are programmers, accountants, nurses, engineers, education specialists and others whose profession requires a diploma and a long-term training.
For this group everything is simple:
You only need one year of work experience, and it doesn’t matter where: in Canada, overseas, or in any province.
But the language requirements are different here:
French should be at least level 7- speaking and 5-writing. This is pretty high level. But these categories are also serious.
The second group: blue-collar jobs (Tier 3, 4, 5)
Pay close attention here.
Tier 3 — skilled labor, professions that can be mastered within 6 months of experience. These are hairdressers, drivers, manicurists, etc.
Tier 4 — low-skilled labor. This includes data entry clerks, tailors, salespeople
Tier 5 — unskilled labor. These are cleaners, cashiers, general workers. These professions that can be started after a short briefing or short training.
Now the main point:
If your profession belongs to the second group (Tier 3, 4, 5), you need two (!!) years of work experience, and one year must be in Quebec!!
This is a strict requirement. Experience from Ontario, Alberta or Ukraine without at least one year worked in the province of Quebec itself, will not help.
So what about the language:
For this group, oral French level 5 is sufficient.
Written French is not required.
For spouses, it is even more lenient: oral French level 4.
That's it.
On one hand, everything is transparent.
On the other hand, there are many nuances that can cross out the entire immigration case.
That is why it is important not just to “work in Canada”, but to understand what category your profession belongs to, how many years of experience you must show and where exactly this experience was obtained.
Pay ATTENTION: NOC is not just a number for Quebec, but a whole strategy.
Work experience requirements for Quebec!
https://youtu.be/yjQdRnCzpn4
Oleksandra Melnykova, Immigration and Refugee Consultant in Canada & the province of Quebec
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