From Far and Wide Immigration Consultancy

Rounds of invitations resume for all Express Entry programs The month of July saw the first two all-program draws under Express Entry since the beginning of the pandemic. For 18 months, no candidates under the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) and Federal Skilled Trades (FST) programs were invited, and since September 2021, Express Entry rounds of invitations were exclusively held for provincial nominees. On July 6, a total of 1,500 Express Entry candidates with a minimum CRS score of 557 were invited to apply for permanent residence (PR). This was the highest score since 2015 when the Express Entry system was implemented. The second draw on July 20 saw a slight increase in invitations for a total of 1,750 invitations which dropped the required score to 542.  Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has since confirmed that both rounds of invitations included candidates under the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and Federal Skilled Worker (FSW)

Random testing resumed on July 19, 2022 for fully vaccinated travellers arriving in Canada by air to the four major Canadian airports, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto. After a brief suspension of the program, testing locations for all air travellers, including fully or partially vaccinated and unvaccinated people, are now located outside of airports in an attempt to reduce delays. Travellers must have been vaccinated with a primary series of an accepted COVID-19 vaccine to be considered fully vaccinated. Boosters are not required at this point in time. Travellers who do not qualify as fully vaccinated, unless exempt, must continue to quarantine for 14 days and test on Day 1 and Day 8. Testing remains an important part of the government's surveillance program to track the importation of COVID-19 virus into Canada and identify new variants of concern. How does it work? Air travellers who are selected for mandatory testing will receive an email notification within 15 minutes