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Lowest possible score for LMIA-holders is just 624

fl_pie

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I was curious to find out what is the lowest possible score for somebody who has a job offer backed by LMIA. It turns out that, unless I'm mistaken, this score is as low as 624. That is because the Skilled Trades program doesn't have pretty much any requirements apart from a job offer. The acceptable language proficiency levels are CLB 4 for reading and writing and CLB 5 for speaking and listening, which translates to the following IELTS marks: 5 listening, 3.5 reading, 4.0 writing, 5.0 speaking. This level of English proficiency gives 6*4=24 points (with or without spouse, makes no difference). And... that's it. No education requirements, pretty much no age restrictions. There is also a requirement to have at least 2 years of foreign experience, but it doesn't necessarily give any points under EE, because skill transferability factors require education, or good first language proficiency, or Canadian work experience, all of which are optional.
 

pixelfrontier

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Oh man this means there are still quite a few draws to come before people with no LMIA start being selected. This sucks.
 

fl_pie

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pixelfrontier said:
Oh man this means there are still quite a few draws to come before people with no LMIA start being selected. This sucks.
I just hope that there are few people with such low scores, but it's theoretically possible.
 

EEKnowledge

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Jan 29, 2015
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fl_pie said:
I was curious to find out what is the lowest possible score for somebody who has a job offer backed by LMIA. It turns out that, unless I'm mistaken, this score is as low as 624. That is because the Skilled Trades program doesn't have pretty much any requirements apart from a job offer. The acceptable language proficiency levels are CLB 4 for reading and writing and CLB 5 for speaking and listening, which translates to the following IELTS marks: 5 listening, 3.5 reading, 4.0 writing, 5.0 speaking. This level of English proficiency gives 6*4=24 points (with or without spouse, makes no difference). And... that's it. No education requirements, pretty much no age restrictions. There is also a requirement to have at least 2 years of foreign experience, but it doesn't necessarily give any points under EE, because skill transferability factors require education, or good first language proficiency, or Canadian work experience, all of which are optional.
Just being in a certain age bracket also gives them points. So minimum is >624. Assuming age >17 <40. No education. Minimum comes out to be 686. Because people will have to have experience to qualify for EE; so I assumed one year Canadian experience.
 

fl_pie

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EEKnowledge said:
Just being in a certain age bracket also gives them points. So minimum is >624. Assuming age >17 <40. No education. Minimum comes out to be 686. Because people will have to have experience to qualify for EE; so I assumed one year Canadian experience.
Unless I'm mistaken, the experience doesn't have to be Canadian. Also, they may receive 0 points for age if they are 45+ years old. The point is to find the lowest possible score, not average or likely score.
 

meyakanor

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fl_pie said:
Unless I'm mistaken, the experience doesn't have to be Canadian. Also, they may receive 0 points for age if they are 45+ years old. The point is to find the lowest possible score, not average or likely score.
I actually got 649, but I forgot to take into account that, as you mentioned, foreign work experience would only work with at least CLB level 7 under transferability factor.

I suppose, without an LMIA job offer, somebody can still qualify under FSTP and score 49, and that would be the minimum possible number of points to be considered for Express Entry pool (without a job offer, a certification is required to qualify under FSTP).

But if one has a job offer, that takes away the requirements for certification, so the minimum becomes 24 + 600 for LMIA, or in total, 624.
 

irishIan

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Apr 10, 2013
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LMIA's are gold right now and there is a whole lot of people not getting them so i think once the early LMIA holders have been processed in the first couple of months then i can see the score dip for a while. But make no mistake, i see the LMIA's getting a little easier then and the scores will be back up.

The government wants people with an LMIA approved job to get PR....maybe they are worried about rising unemployment coming down the tracks
 

the_lion

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To be eligible for PR under Express Entry, you must initially qualify under FSWP oe CEC, even if you have an LMIA and or PNP.
Having said that, you need to either make 67 points in the old FSWP system or have 1 year Canadain Exp and min. Language requirements under CEC.

this makes it impossible for 624 to even be accepted in the pool.

The lowest practical score for a Tier 1 ( lmia/pnp) applicant would be somewhere around 750 approx.
 

meyakanor

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the_lion said:
To be eligible for PR under Express Entry, you must initially qualify under FSWP oe CEC, even if you have an LMIA and or PNP.
Having said that, you need to either make 67 points in the old FSWP system or have 1 year Canadain Exp and min. Language requirements under CEC.

this makes it impossible for 624 to even be accepted in the pool.

The lowest practical score for a Tier 1 ( lmia/pnp) applicant would be somewhere around 750 approx.
It is possible, if you qualify under FSTP. People here tend to forget that FSTP too is a legit stream to immigrate to Canada :)
 

fl_pie

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the_lion said:
To be eligible for PR under Express Entry, you must initially qualify under FSWP oe CEC, even if you have an LMIA and or PNP.
Having said that, you need to either make 67 points in the old FSWP system or have 1 year Canadain Exp and min. Language requirements under CEC.

this makes it impossible for 624 to even be accepted in the pool.

The lowest practical score for a Tier 1 ( lmia/pnp) applicant would be somewhere around 750 approx.
Or you must qualify under Skilled Trades program, which only requires 2 years of experience and CLB 5 English - please refer to my first post. So 624 score is possible, even if unlikely. Having said that, I mostly agree to the way you see the score distribution, I just think that it's not "None between 600-730" and "A few within 480-600", but rather "Hardly anyone between 540-730".