Why English is not enough to immigrate to Canada

Is English not enough to move to Canada?

Some people don't. Let's figure out why.

There are different ways to move: study, a job offer, immigration programs… Like most immigrants, our family applied through the online Express Entry system. It covers three immigration programs and regularly selects candidates who meet the cutoff score. Before COVID, draws took place every two weeks.

To understand whether you need French, you need to understand the operating principle of Express Entry.

First of all, you need to get there.

That is, score at least 67 points. You need to calculate this yourself using a special table on the official website.

To do this, we add up the points for several criteria:

• age
• your and your spouse's education and experience
• one or two language level
• and one more thing - the presence of relatives and work experience in Canada, etc.

And already at this stage, French can give you an additional 4 points, even if it is your second, and you know it at least at B1. ⠀

Let's say you got into the system.

Created a profile and entered data. The system recalculated everything, but using a different table, and displayed your overall score. Its maximum is 1200, and the passing minimum is now 476. It either grows or decreases. And this is where the most unpleasant thing begins.

Your points are affected by:

• age – after 30, the system deducts 5 points annually
• level of education
• language level for each skill
• work experience
• spouse's education
• his language level, etc.

Situations are different, the meaning is the same - it is impossible to return points for age, going to a master's degree or higher is also not an option for everyone, English can also be passed to the maximum, and there is no place to improve. But we still don’t make it to the checkpoint.

In this case, French comes to the rescue. It compensates for any of your “losses” and gives you a real chance. Because you receive not only points for the level for each skill, but also for the very fact that you speak French if you know it at a confident B2. And this is for a moment plus another 15/30 points depending on what kind of English you speak.

And don’t forget, if French is your first, then for C1 you get 15 points more than for the same level in English.

This is how Canada helps Francophones. And that's great. Would you dare to learn a language from scratch for the sake of your dream?

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