Civil engineer in Canada: your Express Entry path, step by step

Your way into the Express Entry pool

Every invitation needs a profile in the Express Entry pool. Civil engineers usually qualify through:

• Federal Skilled Worker. Experience must be in a TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 job; civil engineering is TEER 1.
• Canadian Experience Class. For skilled work experience already gained in Canada.

Where the STEM draws stand

The 2026 STEM list has 11 jobs, mostly engineers and engineering technologists, and civil engineers are on it. You need at least 12 months of full-time work (or the same part-time) in the occupation within the last 3 years; the months do not have to be in a row, and the work must match the NOC description. IRCC holds a category round only when it needs to, and the panel above shows when the last STEM round was. Until one is held, your score in the regular rounds is what counts.

Getting licensed: P.Eng.

A licence from one of the provincial or territorial engineering regulators is required to practise engineering and to call yourself an engineer. Engineers Canada is the national body that supports the regulators; it does not issue licences.

• Start with the regulator. Engineers Canada's EngineerHere service advises contacting the regulator in the province you choose first, to check whether your engineering education meets its academic requirement, before getting an educational credential assessment for immigration. Only the regulator can judge your education, and it may ask you to write technical exams.
• Five requirements. Regulators look at academics, supervised work experience, language, good character and the Professional Practice Examination.
• Ontario: the Professional Engineers Act requires a licence, and the current regulation asks for at least 24 months of engineering experience after your degree, a competency-based assessment and the Professional Practice Examination.
• Working before you are licensed: you can work in engineering if a licensed engineer supervises and takes responsibility for your work.

What civil engineers earn

The panel above shows Job Bank's median hourly wage for civil engineers across Canada, and Job Bank lists pay by province and region.