Assessing the application against selection criteria (Interim Pathway for Caregivers)

Applicants should be assessed against the selection criteria below, based on the information and documents provided in the application. Applicants must meet all of the following criteria to be approved:

• Education
• Official language proficiency
• Qualifying work experience

Education

The applicant must provide evidence that they have either of the following:

• a completed Canadian high school diploma
• a completed foreign educational credential and an educational credential assessment (ECA) report issued by an organization designated by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)

The ECA report must

• indicate that the completed foreign educational credential is equivalent to a completed Canadian high school diploma
• have been issued on or after the date the ECA organization was designated by IRCC
• be less than 5 years old on the date of application receipt

The assessment outcome stated in the ECA report is conclusive evidence that an applicant’s completed foreign educational credentials are equivalent to at least a completed Canadian secondary educational credential.

Equivalency assessments include an assessment by the designated organization of the authenticity of the applicant’s completed foreign educational credentials. This assessment provided by the designated organization is not conclusive evidence of the authenticity of the foreign educational credentials.

If an officer has concerns about the authenticity of an applicant’s foreign educational credentials, they must communicate these concerns to the applicant, afford the applicant an opportunity to respond to those concerns and provide additional information or documentation.

Official language proficiency

See Language requirements.

Qualifying work experience

The applicant must demonstrate that, since November 30, 2014, they have obtained a total of at least 12 months of authorized, full-time work experience in the eligible occupations in Canada before their complete application is received.

Full-time work means at least 30 hours of paid work per week. To qualify, an applicant must have obtained work experience in any combination of the eligible occupations listed in the National Occupational Classification (NOC). Eligible work experience includes the following:

• Home child care providers (NOC 4411) – Applicants must have provided in-home care to children under the age of 18 in their own home or in the employer’s or child’s home.

  Note: Foster parents are not eligible to apply under this class. Only home child care providers are eligible under NOC 4411.

• Home support workers and related occupations (NOC 4412)

  Note: Among the sub-occupations under NOC 4412, housekeepers and related occupations are not eligible to apply under this public policy. Only home support workers and workers in related occupations are eligible under NOC 4412. This means that the onus is on the applicant to satisfy the officer that they predominantly provided personal care and support services according to the main duties in the NOC description, with any performance of routine housekeeping duties (such as laundry and dish-washing) being incidental to their primary role of providing in-home care.

For the periods of work experience claimed in the application, all applicants must demonstrate that they performed both of the following:

• the actions identified in the initial lead statement of the NOC description
• a substantial number of the main duties, including all the essential duties, listed in the NOC description
  • This means the applicant performed some or all of the main duties, including all the duties that distinguish a particular occupation from any other. For example, duties that begin with “may” in the NOC description are not usually considered essential duties.

Applicants do not have to be employed at the time they apply.

Work experience does not need to be continual to qualify, but the period of 12 months of required employment cannot include any of the following:

• extended absence from Canada (including any time worked for an employer outside Canada)
• periods of unemployment
• prolonged sickness
• parental leave

However, a reasonable period of vacation time can be counted toward meeting the work experience requirement. For example, a 2-week period of paid vacation leave within a given 52-week period in which the applicant is engaged in qualifying work, whether that period of vacation was taken in Canada or outside Canada.

Any periods of self-employment or periods of employment during which the applicant is engaged in full-time study is not included when calculating the period of qualifying work experience.

All applicants must have had temporary resident status on a Temporary Foreign Worker Program work permit during the period of work experience acquired in Canada. Only authorized work is counted toward the work experience requirement.