heavyweight! Canada’s Minister of Immigration has announced that Express Entry screening will resume on July 6!
On June 21, local time, Canadian Immigration Minister Sean Fraser (Sean Fraser) said in an interview with CIC News in Toronto that Canada’s goal is to resume Express Entry (Express Entry, referred to as EE) All items screened!
This interview mainly covers the following aspects:
Fast track reform
Improving the application experience of existing immigration programs
Naturalization fee issues
The legalization process of undocumented workers in Canada
Immigration levels in 2023-2025 Program
for foreign workers and international students Creating more immigration pathways
Sean Fraser promised in April this year to resume fast-track screening in July and restore the processing time to 6 months.
During the epidemic, Immigration and Refugee Canada (IRCC) suspended the issuance of Express Entry Invitations (ITA) to Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSTP) in December 2020, and suspended Experience Class Immigration in September 2021 ( CEC) screening.
Before the epidemic, Canadian Immigration usually conducted screenings every two weeks. It is more reasonable to suspend the FSWP and FSTP draws during the epidemic, because when Canada implements border travel restrictions, giving priority to experience-based immigrants is more conducive to helping Canada. Complete immigration goals.
However, as Canada’s processing inventory increases, in order to control the processing backlog and improve EE’s service standards, the Immigration Bureau decided to also suspend invitations to experience-based immigrants in September 2021. However, in order to promote the economic development of provinces and regions across the country, the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) in each province still maintains stable selection.
From 1967 to the beginning of the epidemic, Canada’s Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) has been the main source of economic immigrants in Canada. Research by WES, Canada’s designated academic qualification evaluation agency, shows that despite the ongoing epidemic, the immigration demand for FSWP applicants is still huge.
At the same time, resuming the screening of experience-based immigrants will help overseas students, workers, etc. maintain their legal status in Canada. While these people submit their applications for permanent residence, they will also have the opportunity to apply for a transitional work permit (BOWP).
How Express Entry works
Express Entry is an immigration system launched by Canada in 2015. It mainly includes some projects of FSWP, FSTP, CEC and PNP.
Eligible applicants upload their information on the Immigration Bureau’s website, and the Immigration Bureau will give them a CRS score based on the applicant’s various circumstances, such as age, education level, language level and work experience.
Related reading: Canada’s federal fast track is about to open for screening. Do you know what the comprehensive ranking system is?
When the lottery for all projects resumes, the Immigration Service will invite those with the highest CRS scores to apply for Canadian permanent residence , which was the norm before the epidemic.
However, due to the lack of screening for a long time, a large number of high-scoring applicants have accumulated in the EE pool. It is expected that the scores in the first few screenings after the opening will be relatively high.
Currently, IRCC is proposing major reforms to EE. After the reform, priority invitations will be based on applicants’ professional background and other personal data. In other words, IRCC may conduct separate invitations for applicants with work experience in industries with labor shortages. of low-scoring draws. They believe this can well support Canada's diverse economic needs.
Fraser explained the rationale for this approach at this conference, saying: "If we can predict the job skills that will be needed in the next 20 to 30 years, we can bring in people who are good at these skills, which will provide economic development make a significant contribution."
Fraser said in an interview that the Canadian Parliament and Senate are still reviewing the proposal, so he could not currently provide a timeline for when IRCC might start using this new approach. "I hope we will have these powers soon," he said.
