An applicant with 10+ years of foreign TEER 0/1 experience asked whether one year of Canadian experience is effectively mandatory to be competitive in FSW draws. The thread worked through the CRS arithmetic rather than the eligibility rules:
- The score gap is the real issue. The poster's own numbers framed it: with a master's degree and CLB 7 English, their CRS sat below 400 without Canadian experience — but adding one year of Canadian experience pushed it above 490. Canadian experience isn't what makes you eligible for FSW; it's what was making profiles competitive at then-current cut-offs.
- There are other routes to a competitive score. A member pointed out that CLB 10 language scores combined with sibling points can also push a profile past 490 — so a candidate unwilling or unable to get Canadian experience should max out language results and claim every additional point available.
- The blunt version: as one member put it, if you want a higher score, you will need that year of Canadian experience — unless you can compensate elsewhere.
Takeaway for foreign-experience-heavy profiles: run your CRS with and without each lever (language retake to CLB 10, sibling points, spouse factors, Canadian experience) and see which combination realistically clears recent draw cut-offs. Foreign experience alone, even a decade of it, contributes comparatively little to CRS.