Truck drivers still eligible for Express Entry after list removal: IRCC

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Transport truck drivers remain eligible for Canada’s Express Entry immigration program for skilled workers, but may find it a bit tougher to secure permanent residence status under changes made by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

An IRCC administrative update has removed National Occupational Classification Code 73300 for transport truck drivers from the list of occupations eligible for a Certificate of Qualification (CoQ) — a criterion that helped boost scores in the permanent resident application process.

“It has been determined that transport truck drivers do not have a CoQ-equivalent certification that some other tradespeople have [e.g. carpenters, welders, etc.]. Therefore, IRCC has removed the occupation from this list,” an IRCC official told TruckNews.com.

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Obtaining a CoQ can increase an applicant’s Comprehensive Ranking System score by up to 50 points and significantly improve chances of receiving an invitation to apply for permanent residence under the Express Entry system, says Manan Gupta, immigration consultant at Skylake Immigration based in Brampton, Ont.

A CoQ proves that a person is qualified to work in a certain skilled trade, having passed a certification exam and met all the requirements to practice their trade in an applicable province or territory. If the province or territory where the individual plans to live and work doesn’t issue a CoQ in the applicable trade, applicants will need a valid job offer to be eligible for Express Entry, Gupta said.

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Leo Barros is the associate editor of Today’s Trucking. He has been a journalist for more than two decades, holds a CDL and has worked as a longhaul truck driver. Reach him at leo@newcom.ca


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  • I am very happy to see those changes as truck drivers do not have rhe same level of training or skills as a mechanic or nurse . I hope this will reduce the number of truck drivers coming to Canada
    A lot of work was done by different groups to make sure this was done. I would also like to thank all those people that gave information on the truck surplus in ont and Vancouver
    I and others will continue to push for a 8 month contract from April to to December like many other construction and agr workers have in Canada.

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  • Canada has never needed to import truck drivers. The imaginary driver shortage that the CTA has been incessantly whining about for decades is a myth. What there is is an excess of trucks.

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