The Canadian Immigration minister Sean Fraser announced that the government would allow Express Entry to FSWP (Federal Skilled Worker Program), CEC (Canadian Experience Class), and FSTP (Federal Skilled Trades Program). As a result, the Express Entry invitation will resume in early July this year. In addition, the minister made several other significant announcements, such as that Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will be offering an open work permit extension of up to 18 months to PGWP (Post-Graduation Work Permit Holders).
Key Highlights of the announcement
- Express entry invitation to resume in early July this year to FSWP, CEC, and FSTP.
- Openwork permit extension up to 18 months to PGWP.
- The government will herald the processing of a large number of new Express Entry applications.The current processing time taken ranges from seven months to 20 months. The new timeframe for processing would be six months which will help faster and quicker service to the applicants.
- Additionally, the applicants will no longer be required to remain in Canada during the processing period.
- Extended work permits for up to 18 months will be provided to those whose PGWPs are going to expire between January and December 2022.
- Applicants applying for an open work permit will be granted a permit until the end of 2024, during their period of waiting for their permanent residence.
- The immediate family members included in the applicant’s permanent residence application will be eligible to get their open work permit if they are not in Canada.
Express Entry during the Pandemic
Express Entry is a point-based application management system for different immigration programs. The eligible candidates get a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score for various factors such as their age, education, language skills, work experience, and more. Various Canadian immigration programs that Express Entry System manages are – the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), the Federal Skilled Workers Program (FSWP), and the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP).
Express EntryIRCC invites the candidates based on their scores and not their eligibility. Due to travel restrictions during the Pandemic, many candidates who received Invitations to Apply for Permanent Resident visas could not reach Canada. Therefore, IRCC invited a large number of CEC candidates already in Canada. This approach enabled Canada to accept 405000 permanent residents in 2020-2021, the highest newcomer total in Canadian history. IRCC also invited PNP candidates during the Pandemic to support provincial immigration goals.
Pandemic-related challenges and shifts in the Express Entry Policy have resulted in a backlog of immigration applications and, therefore, delays in smooth processing. This has drastically affected the invitation to FSWP candidates since December 2020 and CEC candidates since September 2021. This scenario was when Canada was dealing with a historic labour shortage. The new Labour Force Survey revealed unemployment for the immigrants at its lowest and employment growing faster than the Canadian population.
This year, Canada plans to admit a new record number of newcomers as per the 2022-2024 Immigration Levels Plan. Canada wants to welcome 431,645 newcomers in the year 2022.
The CEC candidates have been losing their work permit status due to a lack of Express Entry invitation to apply for a Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP) while waiting for IRCC to process their permanent residence application. BOWP bridges the gap between the expiring of the work permit, such as the PGWP, and the candidate finally receiving permanent residence.
IRCC made an exception to this policy between January and July 2021 by offering a one-time work permit of 18 months duration. The aim was to give PGWP holders more time to get the required work experience to be eligible for permanent residence. In addition, this helped such permit holders sail through the Pandemic, which negatively affected them (e.g. layoffs in the early pandemic days).
There is a temporary decline in the Express Entry target as Canada is keen to wind down its Temporary to Permanent Residence (TR2PR) Program to accommodate other priorities. Through this program, IRCC invited up to 90,000 international graduates and essential workers to apply for permanent residence between May and November 2021.
The Express Entry landings are intended to increase in the next two years as per the Immigration Levels Plan 2022. IRCC plans to invite more than 110,000 newcomers through Express Entry by 2024.
IRCC is processing more applications
There is a cut down in the backlog of the applications from September 2021 to March 2022. This is because many pending applications have been processed and will gain speed to clear off the complete backlog. As a result, the backlog was cut from 112,000 to 48,000 applications in March 2022.
IRCC has finalized 156,000 permanent residence decisions between January and March 2022. Additionally, IRCC has processed more than 100,000 work permit applications in the first quarter of 2022.
Under its Immigration Levels Plan, Canada is seeking to welcome more than 430,000 new immigrants each year, which is the highest in its history.
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