The Future of Express Entry

A recent internal IRCC memo revealed that there won't be any Express Entry invitations for the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSW), Federal Skilled Trades Program (FST) or Canadian Experience Class (CEC) for the first half of 2022, at least. One of the reasons is that IRCC wants to tackle their backlog of applications which doubled amid their strategy to focus on providing permanent residence to candidates in Canada (e.g. the TR to PR pathway). Data from December 2021 revealed a backlog of more than 1.8 million applications in the queue.

Currently, only provincial nominees are invited to apply under Express Entry. With FSW and FST on hold since the beginning of the pandemic and the last CEC draw in September 2021, there are now close to 200,000 candidates in the Express Entry pool. These numbers suggest that minimum scores for invitations could rise well above 500 points under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS), once invitations restart for the three regular streams.

Since the internal memo first become public, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced that “we do need to resume, in the near future, draws for federal skilled workers”. He also stated that he was looking to add more flexibility under the Express Entry system, such as responding to short-term needs of high demand sectors or inviting newcomers into smaller communities. While there is not set date, Minister Fraser hinted that regular Express Entry draws will resume in the near term. It is expected that the Express Entry system will return to normal in the coming years.

Express Entry is an electronic system that manages immigration applications for its three regular programs as well as a portion of the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP). The three regular Express Entry streams are the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSW), and the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FST). 

Skilled workers are chosen based on their skills and ability to contribute to Canada’s economy, in other words, human capital factors. These factors include age, education, work experience and language skills, and are quantified using the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). This points-based system is used to assess and score the candidates' profiles and rank them in the Express Entry pool. During every round of invitations, only the candidates with the highest scores are invited to apply for permanent residence in Canada. 

If Express Entry was your chosen pathway to come to Canada this year, contact us to see which other options may be available to you.

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