How Canada’s new NOC will affect Express Entry eligibility

16 occupations will become eligible for Express Entry and three will become ineligible in November 2022.

Details of how the updated National Occupation Classification (NOC) system will affect Express Entry eligibility have been released.

NOC 2021 will come into effect in November 2022. A total of 16 occupations will become eligible for Express Entry, and three will become ineligible, according to an internal briefing memo.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) currently uses NOC 2016 to determine the eligibility of occupations under its temporary and permanent residency programs. However, IRCC must switch to NOC 2021 starting in November as per Canadian law.

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The NOC is managed by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and Statistics Canada, which revise the system every 10 years. NOC 2021 will introduce new terminology and a revised classification structure that will affect IRCC programs.

As a result of these changes, the following 16 occupations will become eligible under Express Entry:

• Payroll administrators;
• Dental assistants and dental laboratory assistants;
• Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates;
• Pharmacy technical assistants and pharmacy assistants;
• Elementary and secondary school teacher assistants;
• Sheriffs and bailiffs;
• Correctional service officers;
• By-law enforcement and other regulatory officers;
• Estheticians, electrologists and related occupations;
• Residential and commercial installers and servicers;
• Pest controllers and fumigators;
• Other repairers and servicers;
• Transport truck drivers;
• Bus drivers, subway operators and other transit operators;
• Heavy equipment operators; and
• Aircraft assemblers and aircraft assembly inspectors.

There will also be three occupations that will become ineligible, including:

• other performers;
• program leaders and instructors in recreation, sport and fitness; and
• tailors, dressmakers, furriers and milliners.

These three occupations will remain eligible for programs with broader occupational eligibility criteria, such as some streams of the Provincial Nominee Program.

The major change to NOC 2021 is the current four-category “skill level” structure has been overhauled and replaced by a new six-category system. The new system outlines the level of Training, Education, Experience and Responsibilities (TEER) required to enter each occupation.

The previous NOC had four skill levels. NOC A represented jobs that tend to require university degrees, NOC B included jobs in the skilled trades or that require a college diploma, NOC C covered jobs that require intermediate skills or job-specific training, and NOC D was for labour jobs that require on-the-job training.

In September 2020, IRCC’s Executive Committee decided that the new TEER structure will be adopted as follows:

NOC 2021 will use a five-tier hierarchical system to classify occupations. Also, occupations will now have a five-digit codification system instead of the current four-digit system. The TEER system has six categories, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Statistics Canada explains there are two main reasons why the skill type model is being replaced by the TEER system. First, the TEER system aims to provide more clarity on the level of education and work experience required to work in an occupation. Second, the skill type model creates artificial categorizations between low- and high-skilled jobs. Implementing TEER is intended to give stakeholders a better sense of the skills required for each occupation.

This Statistics Canada tool allows you to see how your current NOC corresponds with NOC 2021.