Web Developer with MIS degree
- Thread starter Anubis201
- Start date
No, a degree is not required. However, you can't really "Apply to a NOC". This is how it works (assuming you're outside Canada and trying to work/immigrate here):
1. You apply for a job based on your skills and experience
2. A Canadian employer decides to hire you
3. The employer applies to the Canadian government for an LMIA (Labour Market Impact Assessment - basically, asking the Canadian govt. for permission to hire a foreigner for that specific role).
4. NOC 2175 falls under the Global Talent Stream. This means that your employer can get an approved LMIA in about 10 days (assuming it's approved).
5. Once the LMIA is approved, you apply for a work permit on the basis of the approved LMIA and your job offer. This will take a few weeks, say about six weeks.
6. The work permit is approved, and you can then fly to Canada and begin working
7. After a year of working here, you will probably be eligible to apply for PR because you'll get a lot of points for Canadian work experience. The NOC will be relevant for this application. And no, you don't need to have a CS degree to be approved for your PR if you can show that you have the relevant work experience.
Thanks for the clarification. So its the matter of receiving a job offer? I heard that the employer should prove that they dont have a Canadian to hire for a role to be able to ask to hire a foreigner. I assume thats quite hard? And when you said "LMIA can take 10 days" does that mean its common to be approved or not quite often?
I also read a lot about employers that simply couldnt fly developers with no degree in CS to Canada because of the country legal requirements. Sorry if these are a lot of questions but I'm kind of lost.
I also read a lot about employers that simply couldnt fly developers with no degree in CS to Canada because of the country legal requirements. Sorry if these are a lot of questions but I'm kind of lost.
The "prove they don't have a Canadian to hire" is what the LMIA is for.
LMIAs can be routine, or can be hard to get. It depends on the job.
As an extreme example, let's say Google Canada is hiring someone to lead their AI/ML division in Canada. This person needs very specific skills, and Google can easily and truthfully say that they tried to hire a Canadian and failed, but the Professor of AI from Stanford is willing to take the job. That LMIA will 100% be approved.
On the other side of the spectrum, a three-person web dev shop in Canada wants to hire a junior developer with six months of experience, and basic HTML/CSS/JS skills. That LMIA will likely be refused since there are hundreds (thousands, even) of such developers in Canada so it's not reasonable to say they couldn't hire a Canadian.
These examples are exaggerated to illustrate the point, but you see where I'm going with this. If you have 4-6 years of work ex, are a mid/senior level developer, then getting the LMIA approved shouldn't be hard. However, getting a Canadian company to hire you is the hard part. There are no legal requirements that say that you have to have a CS degree to get a work permit. Obviously, the more qualified you are, the easier it is.
Have you looked at companies like vanhack.com, toptal.com etc? These kinds of companies specialize (vanhack especially) in helping tech talent get jobs in Canada. You might get more information on the process from one of their blog posts.
However, be careful about scams. No legit company will ever ask you for money to get you a job in Canada. Legitimate recruiting companies are paid by the employers, NOT the candidates.
Thanks for suggesting VanHack, I'll definitely explore it. Im a full stack dev (MERN stack) with year experience freelancing and 8 month full time. Im aware that my skills are not rare or anything. But I guess I'll wait a couple years to further my career before applying.
There's no harm in applying, you may get lucky. At the very least you will learn more about the process. Just don't get scammed out of any money.
Sure, thanks. I have another question. If you know Upwork, I have been freelancing on it for more than a year now. I worked with some companies part time and random clients. Upwork gives a certificate of earnings for paying tax in my country. Can I in any way prove I have that kind of work experience for express entry or it just doesn't count. I am also still a couple month away from graduation, that experience wont wont count anyways, right?
Paid freelance work can count, yes. And you don't need to have graduated either - that requirement is specific to the Canadian Experience Class, not the Federal Skilled Worker class.
To prove freelance work expereince, you would ideally need letters from your clients, details of the work done, and details of the payments made.
Hard to say without seeing the documents. In general, if you can prove you did the work (contract, perhaps?) and got paid for it (bank statements), you can claim points for it.